For Lajuana
Honoring a beloved Chicago artist after her unexpected passing
*Disclaimer* I am not a journalist nor do I work for a professional news outlet. Lajuana deserves proper recognition by the city of Chicago and (as of March 13, 2025) hasn’t yet gotten it. Due to the time sensitivity of sharing this news, I write this piece as an informal ‘obituary,’ with secondary sources and my personal voice, as Lajuana’s art and presence were synonymous to me and my community in Wicker Park. With more time and research, there is the possibility of expanding this piece in the future.
On February 26, 2025, artist Lajuana Lampkins passed away at the age of 67. She was a fixture in Chicago’s local art scene, particularly around Wicker Park, Bucktown, and Logan Square, where she could be found selling her vibrant illustrations on the street to passersby, often with her son, Sir Gerald (aka Ghettoart). I never got to know Lajuana personally, but I was lucky to encounter her and Sir Gerald a few times as I grew up in the city and lived in Wicker Park.
Running into the duo was never promised, but always, always memorable; I remember first meeting Sir Gerald when I was a teenager after a friend of mine bought a drawing from him for $5 and a cigarette. Sir Gerald is spirited, silly, and friendly, and so was Lajuana. Energetic like her illustrations, she was always smiling, decked out in gold jewelry and colorful makeup, wearing funky patterns and prints as she flipped through her drawings to potential buyers on the sidewalk on Milwaukee Ave or at Dimo’s Pizza, every youths favorite late-night hangout.
I bought one of Lajuana’s pieces in 2018, a drawing titled “Busted! Peein’ in da alley,” which spoke to me for being just the kind of activity someone with a desperate bladder could relate to— or really any Chicagoan who can’t find a public bathroom. Over time I’ve found myself reciting this phrase in my head at random, as if a mantra. A simple exclamation, like Lajuana’s other popular captions: “A hoe never gets cold,” or “On da block,” or “Hoe bath beats no bath.”
While a spirited artist, Lajuana had not lived an easy life. In 1982, when she was 24, Lajuana faced homelessness while supporting three young children and was wrongly sentenced to 60 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. In a virtually known 2018 documentary short, My Mother Is An Artist, director Julia Mondschean follows Lajuana as she recounts the painful experiences she endured at such a young age, from the desperation she faced trying to provide for her children to the violence brought upon her under these dire circumstances. While walking around the neighborhood (at the time Lajuana was living in Woodlawn), she voices her dream of opening an art studio called Art in the Hood.
After serving 30 years of her sentence, Lajauna was released on parole in 2012, but not before she learns about losing her other son Prince to police violence. Rewind to 2014, four years prior, where another short documentary, Ghetto Art, produced by Turtle Back Films, takes us through the emotional reunion between Lajuana and her son Sir Gerald after her release from prison and experiences adjusting in the four years since.
It surprises me that in the two weeks since Lajuana’s passing, I haven’t found any local news reporting it (besides the GoFundMe launched by her family). Over the years Lajuana has had some press: local profiles about her art, experiences with the criminal justice system, and advocacy for Black incarcerated woman. Not to mention two indie documentaries as well as a debut gallery show/fundraiser in 2021 organized by my friend Jaz Arnold. The exhibition marked the first (and perhaps, only) time Lajuana’s work has ever been put on display to the public. Despite her impact, Lajuana has still remained somewhat unrecognized by the city.
Lajuana’s son Sir Gerald is making sure that his mother will be honored. A formal memorial will take place in Chicago on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, from 1pm-2pm at the House of Branch Funeral Home, with a celebration of life at Dimo’s Pizza in Wicker Park on March 24 (time not yet announced). You can get updates on Sir Gerald’s Instagram. In the weeks since keeping up with Sir Gerald’s updates about his mother, Lajuana has stayed on my mind.
Lajuana wasn’t just a fixture of Chicago’s art scene, but a representative of nightlife and all the things I find so fascinating about it, from getting dressed and going out, to socializing and meeting new people. Lajuana was never afraid to approach anyone, and her work reflected the humor, nonsense, and pain that grows out of American culture—everywhere from politics to music to the flaws of the justice system, to sex work and those underrepresented in the art world. She touched every person she encountered, including me. Lajuana was the very spirit of Chicago. It’s my hope she’ll be remembered that way.
Sources & more about Lajuana:
— Lajuana’s memorial GoFundMe
— In 2022, Lajuana edited and published a collection of her late son’s poetry, The Collected Works of Prince Akbar aka Jus Rhymz, written by Prince Akbar, which you can purchase here.
— After Decades of Struggle, Lajuana Lampkins Gets Her Own Exhibition in Wicker Park by Quinn Meyers (October 7, 2021)
— Ghetto Art documentary (2014) Watch here
— My Mother Is An Artist documentary (2018) Watch here
— Lajuana’s Instagram, documenting her work and all the people she encountered
Lajuana is on my mind all the time too. She was my dear friend of the last 2+ years who often spoke of your friend, Jaz Arnold — she spoke about Jaz with immense love, respect and gratitude — and that art show — she was awed that such a young woman was so capable and generous with her time, talent and work to put that show together for her — and she was so proud of the money she earned from her art sales from that show. She thought one day they might have another show — possibly in NYC.
Thank you for writing this acknowledgment of Lajuana’s life from the perspective of someone who experienced her gorgeous brilliance in her beloved late night community of Wicker Park.