Chicago murals: Traveling artists reach for books, not bans, in Humboldt Park

At a Humboldt Park building he owns, Hubie Greenwald chose to illustrate an issue that fires him up: banned books, specifically bans recently pushed through by some conservative Republicans.

“Our job is to educate our kids, and hopefully they’ll make a better world,” says Greenwald, president of Chicago-based Greenwald Co. real estate firm. “Why would you deny any human the ability to read something, even if you don’t agree with it?”

The Chicago-based American Library Association reported last year that 72% of demands to censor books are now coming from organized groups. While Illinois made it more difficult to book bans in 2024, surrounding Midwest states have tried to make it easier.

So Greenwald hired the New York artists known as Menace and Resa in early 2025 to paint a tall, narrow mural of children reaching for books above and surrounding the doorway to his building at 2950 W. Chicago Ave., home of Humboldt Park Montessori. Book titles include Margaret Atwood’s "The Handmaid’s Tale," "Forever" by Judy Blume and "1984" by George Orwell on the American Library Association’s lists of frequently banned books.

While Greenwald suggested the concept, “we were very much behind this one,” Menace says. “Knowledge should never be banned.”

Menace and Resa have added art to Chicago walls before. Resa is from Chicago, and the two travel the country in their RV with a goal of painting murals in all 50 states. So far they’ve hit 20. They visited Chicago in 2022 with their four-person group, Mural Mafia, adding murals of singer and Chicago native Jennifer Hudson along with Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., among others. One of those was on the back of Greenwald's Humboldt Park building.

Four years later they’ve lost half of their original crew, the duo says.

“The original concept of Mural Mafia is, we wanted a band of traveling artists who went around and painted cool stuff. But not many people could commit to something like that,” Menace says.

For now it’s just the two of them.

The pair’s latest Chicago project happened around Thanksgiving 2025 and was commissioned by Keona Owens for the walls of Touch Gift Foundation in Chatham, where she is founder and executive director.

The foundation is a food pantry, digital media lab, coworking space, a place to borrow clothes for job interviews and much more to help neighbors break the cycle of poverty.

“We want to be a safe haven for the community,” Owens says.

“They’re doing the lord’s work,” Resa says.

In Touch Gift Foundation's hallways, tangerine oranges, deep sky blues and brilliant shades of red and pink burst from the walls in a collection of 15 murals illustrating the non-profit’s mission with slogans like “Lov’n the Streetz,” “The Future in Focus,” “Love in Action” and “Let Hope Take Flight.”

Menace and Resa created a gray squirrel mascot, wearing a navy cap, gold spectacles, a gold chain and black and white Nikes and reading a red book with a heart on its cover. The squirrel, symbolizing the group's literacy classes, appears to be reading in front of a the Chicago skyline.

Some kids in the neighborhood have never been Downtown, Owens says. Painting the city behind the squirrel is one more way that she hopes to show those who use the organization’s services what their true potentials might be. The squirrel represents readiness and preparation, skills she hopes to instill in those who visit.

“Exposure unlocks opportunity,” she says, “things you didn’t know you needed to activate next steps.”