CBTP Spotlight: Eva Maria Lewis

Eva Maria Lewis is an eighteen year old activist and artist from the south side of Chicago, Illinois. During her freshman year of highschool, she became involved in Young Chicago Authors ‘Louder Than A Bomb’, the world’s largest poetry competition and festival. After studying abroad in France the summer before her junior year, using interviews and footage shot in France, she created a short film on privilege called “Redefining Opportunity”. Soon after, she created The I Project, which combines art and activism to advocate for intersectionality. In the summer of 2016, she and three other Black girls founded Youth for Black Lives after leading thousands through the streets of downtown Chicago to protest police brutality. Her senior year of highschool, through The I Project, she started the Education Emancipation campaign to raise money for her local elementary school, Bouchet Elementary. She held a concert to help reach their goal of $25,000, which will provide each student at the school with an in-school laptop. She's spoken and performed at many places, including the United Nations in New York City twice, for the Commission on the Status of Women and the International Day of the Girl.  In March of 2017, she received the Pioneer Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women. In April of 2017, she received the Princeton Prize for Race Relations. Most recently, in June of 2017, she received the Rising Star award from the DuSable Museum, at their Night of 100 Stars. In March of 2018 she was named a 2018 ‘The Root’ Young Futurist. Eva has works published for Teen Vogue about social justice and equality for all peoples, specifically people of color. She is a first year student at the University of Pennsylvania on a full ride with the Questbridge College Match Scholarship.