"Unsung Heroes of Uptown" inspired by Studs Terkel by Hana Bleue Chaussette (Photo: Ken Carl for WFMT)
Hana Bleue Chaussette appears on the corner of Clarendon and Buena.
Within moments, she proves that connection is a skill. At once, you feel at ease around her, in part because she shows herself to be genuinely interested in what you have to say. Indeed, she proclaims, “I believe everyone always has a remarkable story to tell.”
This gift makes the artist, writer, and actor a worthy successor to her hero, Studs Terkel.
“Studs is responsible for my work,” she tells WFMT.
Chaussette’s latest project is called Unsung Heroes of Uptown: Art of People ON the Streets IN the Streets. The exhibit pays tribute to Studs, his ethos, and the people of Chicago. Across multimedia installations at 30 bus shelters around the city, she profiles five vital figures in the vibrant Uptown neighborhood. The constellation of Studs Terkel bus stop displays celebrates ingenuity, perseverance, and neighborliness.
Hana Bleue Chaussette generously led WFMT on a walking tour of the installations in Uptown, explaining her inspiration, process, and vision for this project.
Studs and Uptown
In his 96-year life, including his nearly 50 years on WFMT’s airwaves, Studs operated under a simple yet powerful principle: everyone has a story worth telling. From artists to diplomats, laborers to politicians, and scholars to next-door neighbors, he interviewed all.
Much of his life was spent living in Uptown, a neighborhood that has long benefitted from the same diversity that Studs spent his professional life chronicling.
Both philosophically and literally, the neighborhood was his starting point for journeys to every corner of the city. As Chaussette emphasizes more than once, Studs never owned a car — he was an avid bus rider. As it turns out, so is she.
Meet Hana Bleue Chaussette
Also like Studs, Hana Bleue Chaussette is the child of immigrants, which she said helped spark her interest in understanding people’s stories. She is not from Chicago, but she chose it for her home. “My formative years were here.” Following studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she spent some more time in the city.
“Then I went to Japan and China. I used the media — television and radio — to try to create bridges. I interviewed everyone.” In China, for instance, she had a call-in radio program called “English Tea House.” “We would do things like exchange songs. People would call in and sing their favorite Chinese opera, and I would sing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’”
Upon returning to Chicago in the early 2000s, she began to apply this kind of bridge-building work to her visual arts practice. Then, in about 2017, “I started interviewing people and doing these paintings, starting with a security guard at the Art Institute named Cookie.”
Chaussette, too, does not drive — among other perks, transit lets her engage with others and with her surroundings. With this set of installations, she asks us to engage with the city and its residents in the same way.
“We tend to get locked into our own worlds and our own screens, and we don’t really spend much time talking to one another. I have not met anyone boring… you dig a little bit, and you’ll find something you never expected. Something that might inspire you.”
The Unsung Heroes exhibition is the product of years of work and close collaboration with former 46th Ward Alderman James Cappelman, JCDecaux (which operates the familiar Chicago bus shelters), and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
“I see them as public forums, or stages,” she says of the bus stations.
Each edition focuses on a single subject, featuring a portrait painted by Chaussette, excerpts of her conversations with the subject (formatted to resemble an Instagram post), and a QR code linking to more information and a brief audio statement. As we hear her reflect in an audio clip, “our voices reveal so much information.”
A Walking Tour
Appropriately, Hana Bleue Chaussette chooses to start our Studs Terkel bus stop tour with... Studs Terkel.
The first thing you notice is that the portrait doesn’t feature his face. Though Chaussette has painted Studs’s signature getup (a red gingham button down and navy blue blazer), it’s the tape recorder lying on the table that encapsulates Studs Terkel. The device is the focal point of the portrait.
"Unsung Heroes of Uptown" inspired by Studs Terkel by Hana Bleue Chaussette (Photo: Ken Carl for WFMT)
Chaussette says that this was the image popped into her mind fully-formed. “Everyone said to me, ‘This is a portrait, you’ve got to do a face…”’
Perhaps it tells us that Studs’s defining feature was not in his grandfatherly face or even his rich and good-humored rasp, but in how he engaged, in his readiness to listen.
From there, Chaussette leads us to other portraits, of more conventional likenesses.
Just across the street is one of Terry Abrahamson, a musician and songwriter with a cheerfully defiant streak. A “fountain of creativity,” Abrahamson collaborated with Muddy Waters on a Grammy-winning record and also created plays and musicals. Chaussette came across him by accident. On a walk around the neighborhood, she noticed a man sitting on the porch of a beautiful home. “I walked past him, he was writing on his computer, and I stopped in the street and walked back and introduced myself. That led to two hours of conversation."
Around the corner, on Marine Drive, are three other subjects.
We stop next to learn the story of a Chinese-American entrepreneur Yman Huang Vien. In the 1970s, she fled her native Vietnam and arrived in Chicago, working her way up from a store employee to leading a bank and helped establish the Chinese Mutual Aid Association with her father. Chaussette's depiction conveys strength and kindness in equal measure. When Huang Vien saw the portrait, the artist conveys, “she says she wept.”
A few blocks up is another pillar of the community, K. The artist renders the beloved librarian — who chose to be anonymous — with honesty, sadness, and resoluteness. From interactions at a nearby CPL location, and sensed she had a story to tell. After two-and-a-half years, K opened up, making way for a highly personal conversation that took place at the Jimmy John’s depicted in the portrait. “She had lost her son to gang violence. He wasn’t a gang member, but his best friend from childhood had a gang initiation… and was ordered to shoot him. I wonder, how could someone survive this tragedy? This woman is almost like a light, she’s so full of positivity. She has a presence.”
Lastly, we trek south a few blocks to meet Jackie Taylor, an actress who founded the Black Ensemble Theater and Cultural Center. Seated in the audience of the auditorium that she built, Taylor’s face shows pride in what she’s accomplished. With her motto "Keep Moving Forward" painted over her head, it's clear performer-turned-impresario is not someone who will take no for an answer. Chaussette relays that Taylor once impersonated her own agent to land herself a role in the Chicago-set 1975 movie Cooley High. Years later, she dedicated herself to creating her theater company striving to eradicate racism.
Depicting individuals of diverse backgrounds and vocations but intersecting principles, each painting captures a drive, an intelligence, and a humanity.
Doing Your Part
In a way, these installations are a call to action. They invite you to do more, to engage more openly with the people and spaces you find yourself coming across.
But you can also take part directly. Chaussette invites you to share your story with her and be interviewed alongside one of the Studs Terkel bus stops. And though the project started with a focus on Uptown, she confides that she wants to take it all over the world.
"Unsung Heroes of Uptown" inspired by Studs Terkel by Hana Bleue Chaussette (Photo: Ken Carl for WFMT)
So next time you're in Uptown, take a good look around and see if you can spot Hana Bleue Chaussette as she endeavors to build a more caring, curious, and connected community.
Watching this artist in action, one can almost catch a glimpse of Studs and the stories he spent his lifetime recording.
After all, Chaussette declares, “It’s my way of keeping Studs Terkel’s spirit alive.”
Unsung Heroes of Uptown: Art of People ON the Streets IN the Streets remains visible at bus stations around Chicago through August 6, 2024. For more information on the project — including a few suggested walking routes to experience all the exhibit items — visit hanableuechaussette.com. To delve into thousands of archival Studs Terkel conversations available for on-demand listening, visit the Studs Terkel Radio Archive at studsterkel.wfmt.com.
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
