Founded in 1997, The Silver Room creates spaces where art, culture, commerce, and community intersect. For nearly three decades, it has been a catalyst for creative entrepreneurship, cultural engagement, and community building across Chicago. A hallmark of its work is the Silver Room Block Party, one of Chicago’s most beloved cultural gatherings. For the past 19 years, the Block Party has created a joyful space where thousands of people come together to celebrate music, art, entrepreneurship, and community, demonstrating the power of culture to connect people across generations and backgrounds.

Natalie Y. Moore is a Chicago-based journalist and senior lecturer at Northwestern University.

Tracie D. Hall was named Executive Director of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance in January 2026. Prior to assuming this role, she was appointed Distinguished Practitioner in Residence and Professor of Practice at the University of Washington Information School in Seattle, where she continues to teach. Hall’s career reflects distinguished leadership across libraries, arts administration, and cultural policy. Her previous roles include Executive Director of the American Library Association; Deputy Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; Director of the Joyce Foundation’s Culture Program; and Assistant Dean of Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

Nichole Hill is an acclaimed showrunner and audio producer who has dedicated her career to the art of the narrative. As the creative force behind the award-winning podcast Our Ancestors Were Messy, she navigates the complexities of history with a storyteller’s touch. Her expertise has guided prominent productions, including the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Apathy is Not an Option and Vox’s And Mom with Skylar Diggins and Cassidy Hubbarth. Throughout her career in audio, she’s produced in-depth audio narrative projects like Tonya Mosley’s She Has a Name and Tracee Ellis Ross’ I Am America. Her storytelling has appeared on This American Life, Code Switch, and Snap Judgment.

Faheem Majeed is a Chicago-based artist, educator, and co-founder of the Floating Museum whose work transforms overlooked materials into platforms for community engagement and reflection. An Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and former Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center, his practice reclaims discarded materials like OSB board to question cultural value and historical narratives. Majeed's work has been exhibited at major institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Centre Pompidou, and in 2025, he was named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Jacqueline Stewart is Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, and host of “Silent Sunday Nights” on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). A 2021 MacArthur fellow, from 2022-24 Stewart served as Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She is the author of Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity and co-editor of L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema and William Greaves: Filmmaking as Mission. Stewart is chair of the National Film Preservation Board and founder of the South Side Home Movie Project, a community-centered archive at the University of Chicago.

Nancy Villafranca-Guzman is an educator and leader with over 20 years of experience in arts, culture, and education, driven by a commitment to storytelling, equity, and community empowerment. Currently the Executive Director of Borderless Magazine, she previously served as Vice President of Impact at PODER, Deputy Commissioner at the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and Vice President for Education and Engagement at the Chicago History Museum. A first-generation Chicagoan, she also co-founded Raices: Chicago Story Coalition to document and connect Latine archives. She holds a Master’s degree in Instructional Leadership and another in Museum and Exhibition Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago

Raquel Flores-Clemons serves as Head of the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Chicago Public Library. An experienced archivist and librarian, she has held leadership roles at Chicago State University and as an independent consultant. She also co-founded The Blackivists, an archival collective dedicated to preserving Black cultural heritage. A strong advocate for equity and community access, Raquel connects researchers and residents to primary sources, often utilizing Hip Hop in her archival praxis. She holds an MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor's degree from the same institution, having also studied at Howard University.

Norman Teague is a Chicago-based designer, artist, and educator whose practice sits at the intersection of furniture-making, social practice, and cultural storytelling. Raised on Chicago's South Side, he studied architecture at Harold Washington College before earning a BFA in Product Design from Columbia College Chicago and an MFA in Designed Objects from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He now teaches industrial design at the University of Illinois Chicago and leads Norman Teague Design Studios, a Chicago design/build studio focused on furniture, custom millwork, and space design. His furniture, exemplified by the "Africana" collection of chairs, tends toward stout, hand-carved forms that feel rooted and vernacular while still reading as thoroughly modern. He draws heavily on African and African American aesthetic traditions, jazz and musical improvisation, and craft-based fabrication, frequently working with locally sourced or recycled materials and local fabricators as a way of reinvesting in his community.

Edra Soto is a Puerto Rican-born artist, educator, and co-director of the outdoor project space The Franklin. Notable awards include the United States Artist Fellowship 2026 USA Fellow, the Joyce Award, the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Grant, and the US LatinX Art Forum Fellowship. Her work is held in collections at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her sculpture Entrelazadas is currently on view in the Presidential Suite of the Obama Presidential Center.

Sam Thousand is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/writer, producer/composer, a Walder Platform Artist, and a 3Arts Recipient with 15+ years of experience in live performance art, curation, and self management. Since picking up the trumpet at age 7, his artistry has allowed him the opportunity to perform in all corners of North America as well as overseas. Sam Thousand has become a fixture in Chicago’s music scene through years of performance residencies, curated events and artist showcases. In addition to performing and curating, Sam Thousand is co-founder of multiple Chicago-based organizations, and is a business owner, recent tech founder, and social entrepreneur. Sam Thousand continues to use his platform to engage and uplift those around him, while sharing the knowledge and experiences he's had throughout his 10 year career as a full-time musician in Chicago.