Five years ago, Black Men Flower Project began with a simple gesture: give a Black man flowers while he is still here to receive them.

For our 5-year anniversary, we're bringing that gesture back to Chicago, where BMFP began, and placing it within the community spaces that remind us why this work matters.

On Chicago's Far South Side, we'll join Roseland People's Market, a community-rooted effort connected to Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation's F.O.O.D. WEB campaign. The FOOD WEB works to strengthen food access, sustainability, local ownership, and community power throughout the 9th Ward, including the movement toward Chicago's first community-owned grocery store.

At the market, John Caleb Pendleton of Planks & Pistils will distribute sunflowers to Black men and boys.

Because Black men and boys deserve to experience flowers as something given to them, not something they only encounter at funerals, weddings, or after lying sick in a hospital bed from enduring a lifetime of labor.

Later, artist and curator Hailey Rodden will present Midnight Blooms, a celebration of nine young contemporary Black Chicago artists whose work explores the night as refuge for the uncommon thinker and a place where creativity can bloom outside the demands of the dominant culture.

Each artist will receive a custom bouquet inspired by their work, translating color, texture, shape, and feeling into flowers.

This is what Black Men Flower Project has always believed:

Care is creative.
Care is cultural.
Care is political.
Care is something we can practice together.

We are raising $5,000 specifically for our Chicago 5-year anniversary programming.

Your contribution will help us purchase flowers, support the people producing this work, provide materials and transportation, document the project, and create more opportunities to put resources directly into the hands of Black men and boys.

Help us invest in community-rooted work.
Help Black Men Flower Project reach our $5,000 Chicago goal.

Five Years of Black Men Flowering in Chicago!

Team Members