500 and Growing Podcast

Gwen La Roka is without a doubt a rising star of stand-up. She hit the comedy scene with an explosive energy that quickly won the hearts of her audiences and led to performances at world famous comedy clubs such as The Laugh Factory, Zanies, and The Improv.

Her honest comedic approach, meshed with her physical humor, has crowds from all ages & backgrounds laughing at life, together. Gwen has worked with some of today’s funniest...

Epik1's journey began in Chicago's Ukraine Village, where the vibrant hip-hop culture sparked their passion amidst the neighborhood's challenges. Immersed in graffiti and DJing from a young age, they found solace and expression through art and music. Freestyling became their voice, propelling them into Chicago's rap scene, where battles and performances solidified their identity. Collaborating with influential artis...

Born on Chicago’s West Side, Prexy Nesbitt has spent more than five decades as an educator, activist, and speaker on Africa, foreign policy, and racism. Over the course of his career, Prexy has made more than one hundred trips to Africa, including trips taken in secret to apartheid-torn South Africa. Prexy’s career has also included extensive consulting and training on class, race, multiculturalism and diversity. An experienced tea...

The 500 and Growing Podcast had an incredible first season filled with inspirational stories. Each guest shared insights on their craft, challenges, and how they stay inspired in order to keep creating and thriving.

In the Season 1 Finale, we invited all the previous guests to come together in a round table and have a dialogue about their creative process and how they relate to one another's stories. The guests that participate...

Luis Tubens a.k.a. “Logan Lu” is a Chicago born Puerto Rican poet who has performed poetry across the United States. He has toured Mexico City in 2016 and 2018 and featured in Puerto Rico at “Poets Passage” (2019). He represented Chicago in the 2014 and 2018 National Poetry Slam. He is the author of Stone Eagle (2017) published by Bobbin Lace Press, Chicago. Luis is the resident poet for ESSO Funk (2016 Best New Band and Best Inter...

Amisha Patel has almost 30 years of experience organizing for economic, racial, and gender justice. For 15 years, she served as Executive Director of Grassroots Collaborative in Illinois, which innovated community and labor strategic coalition campaigns that built the foundation for many movement victories, including progressive revenue solutions, subsidy reform, raising the minimum wage, and more.

Amisha first began organizing at ...

Rafael Navarro Jr. is the proud founder of Beats and Bars. He is a Mexican-American first generation college graduate, as well as a Hip-Hop artist from Chicago, IL. With background experience in both behavioral therapy with children in a group setting, as well as one-on-one with teens at Chicago Public Schools, in combination with his years of experience as an artist, he has created a program he strongly believe in.

He was born a...

Jessica Johana Juarez Garcia is an experienced professional with a passion for helping youth, schools, and communities through her work as a counselor, artist, and community leader. She has been working in direct service roles since 2001 and is committed to using transformative and healing practices to support individuals and groups.

In 2004, Jessica founded The Venus Collective, a Chicago-based womyn's collective that continue...

Born in 1997 in Chicago Illinois. His parents decided to move to Cuernavaca Morelos in Mexico when He was five years old, where a year later, his mother registered him in Tae Kwon Do classes. After three years he won his first competition and it made him realize that martial arts were what he wanted to dedicate himself to. When he was 14 years old he decided to give martial arts another chance and started Kick Boxing with professor...

Born in Montreal, Canada but grew up between the suburbs and Chicago.  Jessie Santiago is a media content creator promoting the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) on his Youtube Channel FMA Pulse.  He achieved his Guro title in 2 different FMA systems, Defensor Method of Filipino Martial Arts and Taboada Balintawak.  Jessie continues to be an avid practitioner as well, traveling and learning different systems.  His goa...

Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, surrounded by urban art and public murals, Rahmaan Statik became inspired to be involved with the subculture of Street Art.

A consequent arrest for “vandalism” put him on a mission to legitimize the production of aerosol murals. This became the main focus of my work: public murals that fuse the graffiti aesthetic with a classical training received from the American Academy of Art.

As co-foun...

Founder of ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat and  Sound Events Chicago, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and producer Armando Pérez began his journey of live music performance in his hometown of Chicago IL. Blending his cultural roots with personal life experiences from growing up in the Windy City, his fusion of genres and energy can be interpreted by all ages and backgrounds. With a long history of national and international touring, he conti...