Micheal Phillips, center, is surrounded by friendly, family and fellow recent exonerees moments after he was exonerated of a 1990 sexual assault charge, for which he served 12 years, on Friday, July 25, 2014 at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Criminal District Court 3 in Dallas, Texas, after DNA testing proved he was innocent. After his name was cleared, Phillips, who suffers from sickle cell anemia, said all thanks goes to God.

Lykanthea members Asha Rowland, left, and Lakshmi Ramgopal , right, perform “Dawn Birds,” during sunrise at Garfield Park Conservatory on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.

For the last 32 years, The Chicago Multicultural Dance Center has called the basement of 47 W Polk Street home. Founder and Artistic Director, Homer Bryant, has taught hundreds of young dancers and celebrities alike, the art of dance and choreography.

Bryant encourages a family atmosphere at the studios, and multiple generations fill the waiting rooms, reported for WBEZ Chicago, August 2022.

Berlin, 28, of Brooklyn, participates in the “Walkoff” portion of the Miss Loose Ends Pageant, held during “Loose Ends Weekend,” a pool party on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at The Dunes Resort. Located in Douglas, Michigan, The Dunes originally opened in 1981, has 80 rooms and is known as the largest LGBTQIA+ hotel in the Midwest.

After Melissa Lorraine was sexually assaulted by an unidentified man posing as an Uber driver in 2016, she withdrew into herself; a classic symptom of trauma and ptsd. After a year she decided to violent inmates at Cook County Jail. She realized that she should be trying to heal the psyches of the responsible parties, on the theory that healthy men might be less likely to do what was done to her. “Truth be told, it didn’t go very well the first time or the second time. Because we were in a space where the men never felt safe ” Lorraine adapted though. One commented: “I felt calm, and to be that in jail in itself is amazing.” This fall, Lorraine will bring her project to Stateville, the maximum-security prison outside Joliet.”

A Prairie White-Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophea) at Nachusa Grasslands in Franklin Grove, Ill., on Monday, June 24, 2024. A blue marker visible, to alert volunteers and employees to the location of a particularly strong hand pollination contender.

The restored grasslands were previously a commercial soybean field until the early 90s and as far as any experts can tell, the rate orchid had never grown at this particular location despite being native to the state.

Cathy Pollack, 67, of Elk Grove Village, crosses the field in search of a Prairie White-Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophea) at Nachusa Grasslands in Franklin Grove, Ill., on Monday, June 24, 2024.

Members of a Junior HIghschool Volleyball Team stand in light and shadow during a game taking place on the Southside of Chicago.

Kelli Bigalo, 55, of Baltimore mimes playing keyboards while dancing to Chicago’s own Lidell Townsell at the Chosen Few Picnic. Bigalo and her fiancé, William Jones, have been coming to the festival since 2008.

Andrew Zoch, 11, of Boy Scout Troop 170 from Keller, Texas climbs out of the cockpit of 1958 Beech 95 fixed-wing, multi-engine plane at Alliance Aviation in Fort Worth while earning his Aviation Merit Badge on Saturday, October 4, 2014.

The Soplín family, who recently lost a mother in labor, meets with Loes de Wilde, far right, who runs the non-profit Leche de Luz, an organization which aims to distribute formula and aid to the needy in the town of Iquitos, Peru on January 13, 2013.

Thaddeus Tukes, right, a classically trained vibraphonist, practices at Phonology rehearsal studios in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago on Saturday, April 6, 2024, in preparation for his April 20th showcase entitled Vybe Kat at The Promontory in Hyde Park.

The ensemble, put together by Tukes, also features his younger sister, Candace, center, Steve C. Manns Jr., left, Jackson Shepard and Wes Julien, not pictured.

Manuel Basquelz pauses for a portrait before cleaning more than an acre of land for the Yagua Indian town of Comandancia, Peru, located off a tributary of the Amazon River, to utilize as farm land for their school. With a population of about 200, the village collectively expects at least one member from each household to partake in community events because they benefit all.

Maya Wagner, 9, smiles up at her father, Bryon, of Colleyville, Texas, while dancing at "A Night in Hollywood Daddy Daughter Dance 2015" hosted by Grapevine Parks and Recreation at the Compass Center on Pool Road, on Friday, February 6 from 7-9pm. The event will continue on Saturday from 4-6pm and again from 7-9pm.

Nick Cash and girlfriend, Alyssa DiStefano watch on as the eclipse reaches totality at Prairie Creek Reservoir in Selma, Indiana on Monday, April 8, 2024.

Sunset on the Nam Khan River outside Luang Prabang, Laos.

Ciara Williams, 32, middle, blows bubbles in the crowd during a performance by Lidell Thompson, one of 14 on the bill for the Chosen Few Picnic in Jackson Park. Williams traveled to Chicago from Pittsburgh with her friend Tay Thompson, 31, right, for the long-running event. Williams attended the fest last year, but 2023 was Thompson’s first time.

Workers on Endeavor Energy Resources LP's Big Dog Drilling Rig 22 in the Permian basin outside of Midland, Texas, U.S., on Friday, Dec. 12, 2014.

Of all the booming U.S. oil regions set soaring by a drilling renaissance in shale rock, the Permian and Bakken basins are among the most vulnerable to falling oil prices. With enough crude by some counts to exceed the reserves of Saudi Arabia, theyíre also the most critical to the future of the U.S. shale boom.

A worker waits to connect a drill bit on Endeavor Energy Resources LP's Big Dog Drilling Rig 22 in the Permian basin outside of Midland, Texas, U.S., on Friday, Dec. 12, 2014. Of all the booming U.S. oil regions set soaring by a drilling renaissance in shale rock, the Permian and Bakken basins are among the most vulnerable to falling oil prices. With enough crude by some counts to exceed the reserves of Saudi Arabia, theyíre also the most critical to the future of the U.S. shale boom.

Organizers Daniel Martinez and Memo Duarte created Pachanga, “ to mimic the feeling and environment” of the music festivals Duarte’s parents attended back in Guanajuato, Mexico. Once a month, the dance party takes over The East Room in Logan Square for a diverse lineup of cumbia and Lantinx talent.

Paul Madgeson, center, oversees his son, right, and son’s girlfriend, left, as they bottle feed recently born lambs on their family farm, Good Earth Organic Farm, in Celeste, TX. When babies are rejected by their mother or lose their mother during birth, Madgeson and family must bottle feed them multiple times per day until they’re old enough to graze.

Beau Coleman, 6, center, as seen through instructor JohnmMoellenkamps limbs, stretches as class begins at All That Jazz dance studio in Prospect Heights, Ill, Thursday, August 1, 2024.

Coleman is enrolled in a breaking basics program for children six and up titled The Breaking Program, founded in 2018 by Ryley Mikos to share his passion for dance.

Lee Ann Marie, center, dance production designer and one of the original fräuleins in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, goes over choreography with Ryan Stajmiger, 24, of Chicago, who plays Ferris Bueller, during practice for the parade crashing scene at ABC Floats in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.

Lori Lightfoot, the first black, gay female to hold the position in Chicago, addresses the crowd after her competitor, Toni Preckwinkle concedes, Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019, at The Hilton Grand Chicago Ballroom on Michigan Ave.

(Brittany Sowacke for Block Club Chicago)

Participants in Little Villages Annual 26th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade wait for the festivities to begin, September 9, 2018.

Charlotte West, red dress, 5, of Grapevine, sings "Let it Go," from the Disney movie, "Frozen," at "A Night in Hollywood Daddy Daughter Dance 2015" hosted by Grapevine Parks and Recreation at the Compass Center on Pool Road, on Friday, February 6 from 7-9pm.

Eugenia Cheng, 48, right, and partner Peter Wesoloski, 36, left, duet a passage from “Siete Canciones Copulares Españolas” by Manuel de Falla at their South Loop home in Chicago, on Tuesday, August 27th, 2024.

Cheng, a British born mathematics educator, is currently the Scientist-in-Residence at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as a classically trained pianist. Wesoloski is a former sous-chef turned baritone singer. Together now for nine years, they often host impromptu home performances.

I am childless, but not by choice, writes Eugenia Cheng, and women like me are ignored in the debate over overworked mothers and liberated career women.

Cheng, a British born mathematics educator, is currently the Scientist-in-Residence at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as a classically trained pianist.

‘It’s a Human Dignity Issue’: Data Reveals Racial, Economic Disparities in Access to Quality Nursing Home Care Across Chicago.

Belhaven Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, 11401 S. Oakley Ave., has amassed 18,700 in state fines and more than $879,000 in federal fines over the past four years. An analysis by WTTW News and the Hyde Park Herald/South Side Weekly found that the disparity between access to quality nursing home care for Black and White Chicagoans is stark: Three of the city’s five-star homes, as rated by Medicare, house majority White residents and are concentrated on the city’s North Side.

As early as 2am, fans lined up outside the sold out Fall Out Boy show at The Metro in the Wrigleyville neighborhood, despite the freezing temperate, wind, and snowfall.

Michelle, center left, and her daughter, Abbey, center right won tickets from local radio station Q101 only hours before the show began. Michelle’s sure she’s seen FOB more than 100 times.

Joshua Tepfar, a Chicago attorney has exonerated 288 people, more than anyone else. In August 2022, he spearheaded what is believed to be the first mass exoneration of people convicted of murder, all of their cases hinging on confessions and witness statements that had been obtained by a now-retired police detective, Reynaldo Guevara, who used physical force and manipulation. In a single marathon day of court, Tepfer’s work helped wipe unjust convictions from the records of seven people who’d served a collective 174 years behind bars

In the early dawn hours at Good Earth Organic Farm in Celeste, TX., a mother hair sheep licks her newborn lamb clean. Every spring, hundreds of lambs are reared on the small Madgeson family owned farm.

Margaret ‘Rita’ Stadrou, 85, of Oak Park, attended the Chosen Few Picnic in Jackson Park with four generations of her family including a great granddaughter. ‘I thank God for it,’ she says. ‘I love house music, people enjoy themselves, and family comes together. I don’t think that’s changing.’

A visiting American student, draws chalk designs on her assigned elephant at The National Elephant Institute in Lampang, Thailand. Since 1993, the royal patronage sponsors all care for these retired elephants and their mahouts or caretakers, many of whom have been together since the animals birth. This was deemed necessary after the banning of their use in the logging industry in ‘89, essentially putting hundreds of men out of work.

Women chat while prepping dinner in Mae Sariang, Thailand, near the northern border with Myanmar.

They aren't fast. Or reliable. And for Dallas' Pinebox Pedal Club, that's part of the charm.

A man relaxes during the chaos of The Air and Water Show on North Ave Beach, August 17, 2013.

The Rains High School cheerleaders in Emory, TX.