Black Excellence: Shermann “Dilla” Thomas

May 27, 2026

https://www.chicagomahogany.com/our-historian

Chicago historian Dilla, as he is affectionately known, is an Emmy Award-winning modern historian, cultural worker, and brand ambassador. Dilla has become a Chicago influencer, activist and social media sensation.  What began by going viral on TikTok has led into perspective shifting, publicly accessible history lessons for all. Dilla’s history videos on everything Chicago have been viewed over 40 million times, and he has amassed a following of 300K followers across all social media platforms. Dilla has been featured on all manner of Chicago media and has also appeared nationally on both The Today Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show. Dilla is a proud lifelong resident of Chicago’s South Side.

He lives by the saying that everything dope about America comes from Chicago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shermann_Thomas

Shermann “Dilla” Thomas is an American TikToker and self-taught historian who first became known for leading historic walking tours of Chicago.[1][2][3]

He first became interested in history from his father, a former Chicago police officer who refused to use expressways as a protest against the impact their construction had on Black communities.[4]

Black Excellence: Anthony Chambers

May 27, 2026

https://www.family-institute.org/therapists-locations/staff/anthony-chambers

Anthony Chambers, Ph.D., ABPP, is the chief academic officer and a Board Certified Couple and Family Psychologist on staff at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Dr. Chambers is also the director of Northwestern University’s Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, in addition to his clinical professorship in the Department of Psychology. He is the former director of both the Couple Therapy Program and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at The Family Institute, and is one of the few psychologists nationwide to be board certified in treating couples (ABPP). Dr. Chambers is also the former president of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Couple and Family Psychology, which is the premiere national organization for couple and family psychologists.

Black Excellence: Lindsay Vahl Dean

May 27, 2026

https://magazine.northwestern.edu/alumni/naa-new-leader-executive-director-lindsay-vahl-dean

For Lindsay Vahl Dean, the opportunity to shape how Northwestern interacts with its global alumni community was too good to pass up. 

“I am thrilled by the chance to create spaces where alumni can deepen their experiences with the University and one another,” says Vahl Dean, who became assistant vice president of alumni engagement and executive director of the Northwestern Alumni Association (NAA) in July after a national search.

Black Excellence: The Wooten Brothers

May 27, 2026

https://www.thewootenbrothers.com/brothers

For over five decades the Wooten Brothers have been recognized as some of the most innovative musicians in existence and are collectively known as one of the most talented and dynamic band of brothers the world has ever known. A self-contained unit, the band consist of (from oldest to youngest) Regi on guitar/vocals; Roy on drums/vocals; Joseph on keyboards/vocals; and Victor on bass/vocals. The Wooten Brothers continue to honor their middle brother, Rudy, whose untimely passing in 2010 left the band without their one-man horn section. Since he was a child, Rudy played two saxophones at once, duplicating lines from popular horn bands such as Earth Wind and Fire, Chicago, Tower of Power, Blood Sweat and Tears, and others.

Black Excellence: Jackie Venson

May 27, 2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Venson

Jackie Venson (born 1990) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Austin, Texas. She graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2011. Venson has released five studio albums, Joy (2019), Love Transcends (2021), Evolution of Joy (2023), Ghost in the Machine (2023) and The Love Anthology (2025). In addition to her studio albums, Venson has released six live albums, Live at Strange Brew (2016) Live in Texas (2020), Jackie Venson Live at Austin City Limits, Joy Alive (2021), Love Transcends: Live in Austin (2022) and Ghost Live (2024). Venson also has an electronic musical DJ alter ego that goes by the name jackie the robot and which releases projects regularly.

Black Excellence: Mallori Johnson

May 19, 2026

Mallori Johnson on Relearning Her Own Face in ‘Is God Is’ and Learning Bravery From Her Co-Stars

There are roles that challenge you. And then there are roles that completely rebuild you.

For Mallori Johnson, Is God Is was both.

As Anaia — the quieter, more contemplative of the twin sisters at the center of Aleshea Harris’s genre-defying revenge thriller — Johnson didn’t just have to access some of the most emotionally complex material of her career. She had to do it underneath prosthetics that covered her face, relearning every expression, every subtle movement, every moment of vulnerability through a physical transformation she had never experienced before.

But the prosthetics were only part of the journey.

Black Excellence: Aleshea Harris

May 19, 2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleshea_Harris

Aleshea Harris is an American playwright, performer, and screenwriter. Her play Is God Is won the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award in 2016. In 2023, her play On Sugarland was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[1]

Her work has been commissioned for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Her plays have toured in France and in Belgium and have been presented at Playfest at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, California Institute of the Arts, VOXfest at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and the Comédie de Saint-Étienne-National Drama Center in France.