Jackie Taylor was the first person I interviewed for this limited public art series focused on remarkable people, past and present in Uptown. Not incidentally, she was the first person Alderman James Cappleman thought of when I asked him who in Uptowner should I portray—and the story about how she got the role in her first film, “Cooley High,” that I watched the night before the interview—told me why:

T: “I heard they were auditioning for a film and as an actress—-especially at that time—-there were very few opportunities in film especially for an African American actress. So I called my agent, and told her that I wanted to audition, could she get me a slot? And she said, they were only auditioning teenagers. You don’t fit that age range and I said, I can be teenager. And she said no. So I found out who was the casting agent on the set and said, “Hi, I’m so and so. You need to see Jackie Taylor, she’s a wonderful actress. She grew up in Cabrini so she would be perfect for this. And they put my name down and I went in with my pigtails (laugh) and my bangs and the little curls on the side…and I got the part.”

After hearing this story, was it a surprise that Jackie decided to move back from her fledgling acting career in New York to Chicago to start a theater to “eradicate racism?” Jackie has moxie. She has grit. And she is not shy about stepping up and tackling the biggest challenges—whether personal or global. This is how she explains it:

T:  (4:52) “Not all theater eradicates racism. The arts…when used correctly, are natural teachers…theater for me has always been…as an educator (theater) it helps build bridges, destroy lies, helps people understand how much more similar we are than we are different, and helps them understand why we should celebrate those commonalities and respect those differences. Humans are communicators, we get to listen and talk to each other. (6:09) And one of the bases for destroying racism is understanding that the foundation of it is based on inaccuracies, lies, greed,power, inhumane judgment. Once we start digging at that foundation and destroying those roots (it will help) us to understand that racism or any kind of oppression, affects us all in a very negative, unjust and destructive way…human beings  can’t survive if we do not start working towards how to work together, how to live on this earth together.”

CEO and founder of the BLACK ENSEMBLE THEATER, actress, playwright and visionary, Taylor has known ever since she was a child that what’s worth doing is worth sacrificing for and never giving up. Her mother was a huge influence. She never knew the meaning of the word “no.”

T:  (22:21) Life itself—-you’re going to have your ups and downs, your highs and lows. Unfortunately, there are people who don’t want that to happen because it hasn’t happened for them for whatever reasons and you have to be able to survive…you have to be able to get through it—-you’re going to get knocked down. (23:16) You may get knocked out. But you’ve got to regain your strength, you’ve got to regain your confidence and you gotta start doing it again.

Just as portraits should speak to the people who view them, for this project I feel it is important that my five “unsung heroes” should speak for themselves. And just as our impression of someone can take not even a minute and last forever, in a few strokes of a brush or pencil, or spending just  a few minutes with each of my heroes, one gets a strong sense of who they are. On the surface.  But as one peels away layer after layer—who we are just gets clearer and clearer. It doesn’t take a second to realize Jackie is a dynamo who leads with optimism and vision. As she told me herself: 

(15:52) (I am) Passionate, patient, loving, giving, insecure at times, pragmatic and at the same time, the opposite of pragmatic. (I’m) the total optimist—-there is no ceiling, that’s what I would say.”

The BLACK ENSEMBLE THEATER is the only theater in the U.S created to “eradicate racism.”