I'm gonna go to all 77 communities because I get one of these lives and I'm trying to make it happen — and forget the expectations. God's got a battery in my back and I'm gonna do it.

Jahmal

was photographed by Clayton Hauck at See You Soon during a Keep it 100 session on February 11, 2025

Interviewed on location and edited by Clayton Hauck

How are you doing today, Jahmal?

I'm doing better than some, worse than others. I can't complain though, it’s all good.

What brings you in here today?

To get some headshots, to get some new photos. I got a fresh cut, and so within 24 hours of a fresh cut, I gotta get video [and] a headshot just to be fresh. (Laughs)

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Who are you? What do you do?

I'm the founder and CEO of My Block, My Hood, My City. I like to think of myself as an activist or as a volunteer. I started volunteering at Cook County Jail back in 2010, and it pretty much changed my life. My goal in life is to inspire hope in people, to expose them to more cultures, more professions, more cuisines. I'm a father. I love music. I love traveling. And that's who I am.

That's inspiring. Your organization is very well known in the city. What drove you to volunteer that very first time at Cook County?

All of my friends went to jail — my brothers, my cousins went to jail for life, and so, you know, I wrote a motivational book and I was selling them in front of Foot Locker downtown, and somebody bought the book that was a volunteer coordinator at the jail. They said, “Will you come to the jail and speak?” I was like, “Y’all gonna buy some books?” And they bought some books, I went to the jail, and that's when I realized the kids in jail had never been downtown; they had never been on a plane; they never wave for a taxi; they never got a headshot; they never had a Canon or a Nikon — their whole worldview was shaped by a few blocks. And so, I was like, hey, I'm gonna start a program where I take you guys downtown and expose you to different jobs and hopefully that’ll keep you out of jail. That was the beginning of how I started this.

You mentioned travel. Is there your favorite place you've ever been or a dream destination you've never been?

Yeah, my favorite place that I've been so far is Hawaii. I’ve been to Maui; I've been to Hilo; and of course the Main Island.

The place I wanna go is — I just took an ancestry test and it says I'm from Nigeria, so I wanna go to Nigeria and figure out, you know, what block my family is from in Nigeria.

Awesome.

I'm someone who loves Chicago, lived here all my life. I feel like the city is complicated to outsiders. What's something that you would tell someone maybe who's never been to Chicago or just doesn't understand the city?

I would say that it's a big city in a small phone book, so, you know, we don't do the franchises, it’s all about mom & pop shops … You can travel the world without leaving in Chicago. We all think that we're so segregated, but if you go to Pilsen, everybody's eating tortilla, beef, and rice. You go to Greekown and they’re eating pita, beef, and rice. You go to Devon Avenue, they're eating non-beef and rice. But the point I'm trying to make is that everybody's eating the same shit, and we all think we’re so different.

I work out on 71st & Jeffery in the morning in South Shore, and my gym is so diverse that I might be doing some sit ups in the corner and somebody be drinking a Heineken right next to me, you know what I mean? It might be a lawyer right here on a treadmill running next to a stripper. It's like everybody is in the same area, and we all have a short moment of life that we're trying to share together and we all love Chicago.

Awesome. I love that.

Is there anything you haven't been able to accomplish yet in life that you’ve want to?

Yeah, my goal is to be a mayor. That's always been my goal, so I would say six years from now, that's probably when I'm gonna start shooting my shot, but I feel like I'm trying to live in all 77 community areas [of Chicago] first, so I can understand the needs of the people and also connect them to things that are needed before I even run for office.

Tell me a little bit more about that!

Yeah, so there’s 77 community areas in Chicago and I'm gonna live in each one of them for a month. My goal is to inspire hope, create change, and give a voice to the people, so they can get their needs met in society. Every month I've paid to live in an Airbnb for 30 days. It is 28 days this month and I'm living in South Shore. I don't know where I'm going next month, so maybe y'all can let me know where y'all want me to go, but I'm looking forward to living in communities that are under-resourced, and I wanna know what it's like to live in a community with resources, because, I know in South Shore, all I hear is helicopters flying around, blue lights flashing, shot spotter technologies on poles. When it was an ice storm the other day, the streets were slicked — and then you move to places like Beverly and it seems like they got hella resources where the salt was already down before it snowed, you know, so I wanna know what it's like to actually have resources versus what it's not like. And I also want to mobilize people in these under-resourced communities, so they can get the needs like the people in the resourced communions.

Anything you wanna leave us with, a story? joke?

I guess I would say that, the story that's on my mind right now is a story of two salesman. Since I sold books downtown for a living when I was broke, I'll tell you this. The story two salesmen: One salesman looks outside, he sees it’s raining real bad. He says, “Man, it's raining real bad today! With weather like this, my boss can't expect me to go make sales.” So he stays home.

There's another salesman who looks outside, he sees the same storm, he says, “Man, it's raining real bad outside right now! With weather like that, what a great day to go outside and make sales! Everybody's gonna be home, especially the salespeople.”

I think that's how life can work out for you, because some people look outside and they say, man, Chicago is crazy right now! The police is messed up; the cops is messed up; I'm not about to go to all 77 communities. I can't afford it. But then, some people like me look at and say, man, Chicago's messed up, I don't got no money, but I'm still gonna go to all 77 communities because I get one of these lives and I'm trying to make it happen — and forget the expectations. God's got a battery in my back and I'm gonna do it. That's how I live my life.

I love that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for having me.