Coming Soon In The Fine Print
An Interview with Jahmal Cole - Chicago's Most Dedicated, Outspoken and Transparent Leader by Kimberly J. Soenen | January 21, 2022
Dear Readers,
Next week, after a little delay, I’ll publish an interview with Jahmal Cole in the FINE PRINT on Substack.
Early in November, two men were shot dead and Cole was shot at during lunch-hour violence on 53rd Street in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a 31-year-old man died after being stabbed in his right leg in the 5300 block of Cottage Grove Avenue and a 24-year-old man was shot and killed during a robbery in the 900 block of East 54th Place. Cole was shot at in a third crime, which took place around noon in the 1500 block of East 53rd Street. The fatal shooting, fatal stabbing and lunch-hour gunfire are the daily reality on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
Over the last five years, violence has exponentially increased in Chicago for a number of social, cultural, political and economic reasons as well as long-entrenched segregationist policies and statutes.
I’ve been following Cole since he first stood on the sidewalk in front of his house as a very young man many years ago and gave an impromptu speech about the root causes of cyclical trauma and structural violence. In that speech, he also addressed the impact of poverty on the human mind, body and spirit. That unscripted speech—improvised, and spoken directly from the heart—was the seed of his civic engagement organization called My Block, My Hood, My City. Under Cole’s leadership, the non-profit organization known to us locally as M3, has become a movement.
Now a mature husband and father of two daughters, Cole's been shot at twice in recent months—and the first incident left him wounded. Cole was pierced by a bullet in his arm on September 29 at 69th Street and South Shore Drive—a shooting he previously hadn’t disclosed because he was working through the trauma of it and wanted to keep it private.
Cole and I have been in communication since 2017 about an array of political, grass roots and local Chicago issues related to healthcare and Public Health.
He is now running for Illinois’ 1st Congressional District seat.
“All I know if there’s an epidemic of mass shootings in this country, and it’s time for people to stand up and do something about it,” Cole has said.
Listen to Cole’s speech famously titled “It’s Not Regular” here.
If you are not yet a subscriber, I invite you to subscribe to THE FINE PRINT to read the interview next week.
Jahmal will be announcing his run formally for Illinois’ 1st Congressional District seat on Martin Luther King Day. I look forward to introducing him to the international readership and invite you to follow this leader on his promising trajectory to the United States Senate one day.
Thank you.
To health,
Kimberly J. Soenen