Meet Chester Commodore: Drawing and Illustration 101

Chester Commodore, the legendary African American cartoonist whose work appeared in the Chicago Defender for nearly 50 years, gets a fresh spotlight in this drawing workshop at Brighton Park. Led by artist Anthony Fowler Jr., the session opens with a look at Commodore’s archive—including his landmark 1954 editorial cartoon on Brown v. Board of Education—then moves into a hands-on workshop teaching drawing and comic-book illustration, aimed at helping participants tell their own stories. The program runs Thursday, October 22, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Part of the Chicago Public Library’s Renaissance Project, it’s a thoughtful entry point into both art history and making your own mark on the page.