Chicagoans who live on the same street but on opposite ends of town — one in a wealthy North Side enclave, one in a disinvested South Side block — will get a chance to meet their so-called “map twin” this Sunday at Ramova Loft in Bridgeport. The event, called Both Sides of the Street: An Immersive Folded Map Experience, runs from 2 to 5 p.m. at 3520 S. Halsted St. and is co-hosted by visual artist Tonika Lewis Johnson and Chicago rapper Femdot.
Johnson, an Englewood native, started the Folded Map Project back in 2016, pairing photos of residents who live at corresponding addresses on the North and South sides to illustrate how differently the city treats streets that share the same name and number. As Block Club Chicago reports, she said she wanted a relaxed, in-person way for people to learn about segregation histories and connect with one another. Johnson calls the residents who take part in these paired conversations “map twins.”
Sunday's gathering builds directly on that project. It will include an interactive mapping activity where attendees place sticky-note responses on a large map of Chicago answering what their community needs most, along with conversations about the Folded Map Project itself and a discussion co-hosted by Johnson and Femdot about what the mapping activity reveals.
A MacArthur Fellow's Growing Body of Work
Johnson's Sunday appearance comes less than a year after she landed one of the country's most prestigious creative honors. In October 2025, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, receiving an $800,000, no-strings-attached award paid out over five years to support her ongoing work on racial segregation and urban disinvestment, according to the MacArthur Foundation. The foundation selected 22 people nationwide for the 2025 fellowship class, per the foundation.
That national recognition sits alongside years of hands-on projects in Englewood. In 2021, Johnson was named an Artist As Instigator for Inequity for Sale, an exhibition launched in February 2022 with physical landmarks more than five feet tall to highlight predatory Land Sale Contracts from the 1950s and 1960s — instruments that a Duke University study calculated extracted between $3.2 billion and $4.0 billion in wealth from Black Chicago homebuyers, according to a release distributed via PR Newswire. She has since expanded that research into UnBlocked Englewood, a creative placemaking partnership with the Chicago Bungalow Association that reclaims vacant lots and restores homes affected by those historical contract-sale practices, per WTTW News.
Johnson studied journalism and photojournalism at Columbia College Chicago and was affiliated with the college in 2003, according to the college, before turning that media training toward the community-focused social justice art that would define her career.
From a Classroom Presentation to a Published Book
Much of Sunday's programming draws on Johnson's 2025 book, Don't Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It, co-authored with University of Illinois Chicago professor Maria Krysan. The event will feature readings from the book, which examines how neighborhood stereotypes and informal warnings against visiting certain areas can harm both residents and the city as a whole, per Block Club Chicago.
The book grew out of a 2019 presentation Johnson gave at Northwestern University, where incoming students overwhelmingly raised their hands when asked if they had been warned against visiting Chicago's South Side, according to the Center for New York City Affairs. Johnson has said that not heeding those kinds of warnings can help disrupt segregation and historic racism, and that Sunday's event will offer a safe space for people to share their own stories.
Attendees will also get a screening of Folded Map, Johnson's 2020 animated documentary about the making of the original project, which is available on YouTube. A free curriculum built around the Folded Map Project is offered to educators at no cost.
Music, Food and a Bookstore Pop-Up Round Out the Bill
Femdot, the rapper co-hosting Sunday's event, brings his own Chicago cultural credentials to the mix. He taught DePaul University's first class on the history of Chicago hip-hop in fall 2025 and founded DelaCreme Scholars, per Block Club Chicago's reporting. The afternoon will also include a DJ set from Chicago DJ Chuck Hemi, food and drinks, a pop-up bookstore hosted by Da Book Joint, and Block Club Chicago merchandise for sale, with Block Club staff planning to attend.
Da Book Joint is a Black woman-owned bookstore based in Chicago's Jackson Park Highlands neighborhood that regularly hosts community literary discussions and open mics, according to Choose Chicago.
Why the Setting and the Stakes Matter
The event's location carries its own weight in Chicago's segregation story. Ramova Theatre, now home to Ramova Loft, underwent a $38 million historic restoration financed in part by $9.1 million in city Tax Increment Financing and backed by celebrity co-investors including Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson and Quincy Jones. City records show that the renovated Ramova Theater was named a City Landmark on Sep 18, 2024, after the properties were joined through a $38 million, City-supported renovation by Our Revival Chicago.
Johnson's work addresses racial and economic segregation. Between 1990 and 2010, the Chicago metro area consistently ranked among the 10 most segregated regions for Black and white residents out of the 100 largest U.S. metros, according to the Metropolitan Planning Council.
According to a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago working paper, researchers have examined the impacts of the HOLC's redlining maps and federal housing programs.
That history of division runs deep on Chicago's South and West sides. Johnson has said Sunday's event expands the Folded Map Project through that kind of participatory engagement, designed to be both entertaining and informative for the Chicagoans who show up to meet their map twins.
