Artist D. Lammie-Hanson poses for a portrait at her exhibition of metalpoint drawings from the Indigo Seven Series titled “Gilded Agility,” showcasing the human musculature of Black dancers at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago on July 17, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Nansemond Indian Nation’s tribal historian and co-chair of The Nation’s Tribal Council Nikki Bass poses for a portrait at her nearshore oyster reef on the Nansemond River, 15 miles northeast of downtown Suffolk, Virginia, at her home on Monday, August 14, 2023. Bass wears women’s traditional Eastern Woodland regalia and two corn necklaces in honor of “the [Nation’s] history of feeding each other but also feeding settlers we encountered.” Centuries ago, Coastal Algonquian people, the native language of the Nansemond Indian Nation, would have harvested from nearshore oyster reefs like the one at Bass’s home. (Tess Crowley / The Virginian-Pilot

Moe Hayward poses with accessories during a Neon Bear Glow Party at MJ’s Tavern in Norfolk, Va. on Saturday, June 17, 2023. The Virginia Bear Contest auctioned off a crocheted bear at the Glow Party, with all proceeds donated to the LGBT Life Center. (Tess Crowley / The Virginian-Pilot)

“The Right to Flourish” for SHEI Magazine’s Feb. 2022 Ripe Issue. Tess Crowley/SHEI Magazine.

Mosheh Carter, 2, from Gary, Indiana, watches the 9th Annual Rodeo at Brown Family Ranch, a Black-owned ranch that has been operating for more than 50 years in Gary, Indiana, on Sept. 28, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Albert Couri, owner of Western Meats, outside his shop in Peoria on Nov. 20, 2024. He came to Peoria from Aitou, Lebanon, in 1980 to be with family and to get away from the Lebanese civil war. “We don’t want to die. We want to live in peace,” he said. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Mirna Yamileth Valladares Flores holds son Ruber Aviel Ortez Valladares, 4, for a portrait at her home in Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Valladares speaks English “less than very well,” which has created difficulties getting services around the Hampton Roads area. (Tess Crowley / The Virginian-Pilot)

Chicago-based drag queen Nico, 35, poses in an outfit they consider “a version of a boa constrictor” at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park on Aug. 2, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Lana Espinoza-Ake poses, on Oct. 24, 2024, with a photo she took of her unhoused friend Joey De Giraud D'Agay who died last December outside of the city-run warming center and emergency shelter connection center, Garfield Community Service Center, in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Cheyenne Stephenson, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, poses wearing a heart necklace and lipstick temporary tattoo while waiting in line to enter the United Center for Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N' Sweet Tour in Chicago on Oct. 13, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Taylor Swift cover band Midnight Rain lead vocalist Janice Chandler poses for a portrait at Swiftie Summer Night: A Tribute to Taylor Swift at the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, July 14, 2023. Tess Crowley / The Virginian-Pilot.

27-year-old rising star De’Wayne poses for a portrait at Lollapalooza in Grant Park Chicago, Illinois on July 29, 2022. “I knew I would be at Lolla playing on the main stage. Even though I’m emotional about it, I knew it would happen. I hope that doesn’t sound egotistical. I always knew.” (Tess Crowley/The Michigan Daily)

Caralee Jackson uses a bubble machine at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park on Aug. 4, 2024. “I go to festivals every year and when they first started making bubble machines I started bringing them to festivals and people love them.” (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Eufemia Almanza holds grandson Hugo Gallardo, born 2 pounds, 5.7 ounces at birth on Sept. 7 in Mount Sinai Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Chicago on Oct. 4, 2024. Hugo wears a feeding tube through his nose. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Owner Mary Fontano, 63, poses with her journal at Fontano’s Subs in Chicago on July 25, 2024. Fontano is retired but still comes into the shop during the summer and sits by the register, journaling and enjoying the company of the customers. Her father did the same when he retired from his role at the shop. “My dad always liked to have a Fontano in the store,” she said. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Art Martin, vice president of the Pura Familia Car Club, poses in his garage next to his 1947 Cadillac Convertible, which he will ride in next year’s Chicago Lowrider Festival at Navy Pier, at his home in Shorewood on Oct. 8, 2024. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Patrick Fuller, left, and wife Priscilla Fuller pose at their home in Lincoln, Illinois on Oct. 2, 2024. Patrick Fuller worked for 32 years at a glass container factory on Logan Street that turned out jars for Ragu spaghetti sauce and other products before it shut down in 2019.  While he’s now 65 and was able to retire, some of his co-workers had to move away. “I could tell the last few years it was going downhill,” Fuller said, sitting in his home with Priscilla, his wife of 37 years. “You’ve got all these people and you’re only loading 10 trucks a day?” “Every time something closes, it seems like the town is dying,”  his wife said. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Brianna Avila, from Chicago, poses while waiting in line to enter the United Center for Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N' Sweet Tour in Chicago on Oct. 13, 2024. Avila surprised her niece with tickets to the concert for her birthday. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune) 

IVF advocate and former IVF patient Stephanie Vojas Taylor watches as sons Oliver Taylor, 3, right, and Max Taylor, 4, left, play with marbles on the back deck at their home in Chicago on Oct. 10, 2024. Max was conceived through IVF. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)