Reclaiming Space Through Art

She’s witnessed the transformations of the riverfront firsthand—the industry, the disinvestment, and the environmental harm that reshaped the waterways she’s walked beside her entire life.

At the center of that story is the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the 28-mile waterway that reversed the flow of the Chicago River and forever altered the surrounding communities. The South Branch of the river and Bubbly Creek became engines of industry, but also sites of severe pollution that frontline neighborhoods have carried for generations.

Through a collaboration supported by Chicago Frontlines Fund (CFF), Delilah and P.E.R.R.O. (Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization) are helping reimagine what the riverfront can become.

As a recently awarded artist-in-residence, Delilah is leading Río Ollin (River for All), a community-based public art initiative rooted in environmental justice, memory, and belonging. Ollin is a Nahuatl concept tied to movement, transformation, and life force, and reflects the spirit of the project: reclaiming space through collective care and cultural expression.

The artist residency represents a new phase for E(art)H Chicago in which CFF resources artists and frontline organizations to work together to promote social change and public engagement through a symbiotic exchange. The residency provides funding, professional development and coaching to artists who are both organizers and cultural producers. Artists play a crucial role in movements to capture what’s happening and to change what people feel is possible. The residency is both an invitation to engage the community and an act of reclamation through art and placemaking.

The centerpiece will be a permanent shade structure at Canalport Riverwalk Park inspired by stained glass, Talavera tiles, and the natural rhythms of the river itself.

With P.E.R.R.O. serving as the host organization, CFF funding made possible a year-long artist residency that embeds art directly into community environmental work. Since launching in October 2025, the project has raised awareness around local issues including the Damen Silos and Fisk Station demolitions, ongoing industrial pollution, emerging riverfront development, and the future of public access to green space. Alongside new installations, the initiative is documenting P.E.R.R.O.’s organizing history through storytelling, mini billboards, and a community booklet honoring past campaigns and neighborhood leadership.

Community voice has shaped Río Ollin from the very beginning. Since the project’s first phase in 2023, Delilah and the team have held listening sessions with neighbors and park district partners to understand what residents wanted from the riverfront—and what they were fighting to protect. Public workshops, festivals, and collaborative artmaking transformed a once-overlooked stretch of river into a gathering place alive with movement, creativity, and connection.

“There’s now a magnifying glass on the riverfront and protecting it because the community feels ownership over it,” Delilah says.

For Delilah, CFF’s support has meant more than funding. It created room for creative freedom, intergenerational collaboration, and sustainability as both an artist and a mother. In a world that often demands burnout from women leading community work, being met with trust changed what felt possible. “When you build these partnerships, it’s mutual,” she says. “Art brings more people into these spaces and reconnects us to nature. It’s the cure and it’s healing.”