“Promontory Point is a little lakefront gathering place that I grew up going to as a teenager. Growing up in Chicago and not having a lot of money, the lake, the parks, and the outdoors become your refuge. They have firepits that you can rent and be on the beach and all these beautiful statues. It’s a gorgeous gathering place on the South Side that’s held so much space for me when I’ve been going through things in my life, when I’ve wanted to have a moment to get out of the hustle of the city.”

“A friend of mine owns this, and it’s so radical. It’s one of the only places on the South Side where you can go and get these beautiful, holistic, alternative services. And it’s owned by a Black woman, with all-Black practitioners: acupuncture, yoga, Reiki. She has classes on rest there too. It’s a beacon and a mecca for Black healing—it’s a place to go daydream, there are so many flowers, it’s gorgeous. Every time you have acupuncture, you get sleepy, and so acupuncture’s time for your nap.”

“I put this on the list because of the archive they have there. It’s a community art center, and they have a Black library with books from floor to ceiling. They also host the archives of Ebony and Jet magazines, and the archives of Frankie Knuckles, who was one of the inventors of house music, and you can go in there and play records. It’s built by this artist named Theaster Gates—there’s no fee, you can just sit and look around at all the architecture and just be so inspired.”

“I am a sugarhead, and I love eating sweets. This woman makes these magical caramel cakes—you can smell the sugar from the street. I’ve been in there many a time and just sat down and smelled the sweetness of the caramel being cooked fresh and just had a cupcake. I think daydreaming is a practice that is about the body, about connecting, slowing down, and taking your time. And whenever I eat her cupcakes or caramel cake, it’s just a slow go. It’s so sweet, you have to sit and take your time.”

“Harold Washington was the first Black mayor of Chicago, and this is my favorite library in the world. It’s massive and has gorgeous architecture. I name libraries as one of the last places to really get rest in this culture. It’s so quiet, and they have all these cute little rooms that you can go in and beautiful Black art all over: pictures and paintings and sculptures. Libraries are one of the best places to have silence, the best places to daydream, to look through books, to take a nap.”

“This is an old-school cultural center. I used to go on field trips here when I was a baby, like in elementary school. It’s in a 65-acre park that has a golf course and a beach, and it’s this beautiful building where you can take art classes and stuff. You can take a tennis class or go to a lecture that’s happening. My parents would always take me to things like this. It’s a place that allows you to wander and explore and just kind of be free.”

“This is the African American museum for the city. It has some of the best collections and brings really beautiful work in. I love museums. This one is huge and beautiful. It has these marble floors, and all you can hear is your feet clinking on the floor, and you walk around and look at things. Being in Chicago—in such a busy, busy place—I sought refuge in quiet places, and this is a beautiful, quiet place to really go deep into history, to stare and daydream. It’s active rest, in a way.”

“Jackson Park is on the South Side of Chicago. It’s a place for when you’re like, ‘I need to go for a walk to clear my head.’ A lot of my daydreaming practices begin outside. I always tell people: it begins with me staring at something, having this intense focus on something in nature—the sky, a tree, water, birds, grass, leaves blowing in the wind. There are a lot of events there in the summer, like festivals and music things, and then for most of the year, it’s just a quiet neighborhood park.”

“Grant Park is the park that people have forgotten about now that Millennium Park has been built and it’s all shiny and new. Grant Park is the old-school park that I grew up going to with this huge fountain in the middle of it. There’s a rose garden there that’s beautiful. In the spring and summer, you can walk around and forget that you’re in a major bustling city. Grant Park is such a special place—it’s free nature and you can sit there and look at Lake Michigan or wander around roses.”

“My father was a preacher, so I was raised in the Black church my whole life and I went on to study theology. Black religion and faith is really important to my family in Chicago. Even though Quinn Chapel is not my church, I picked it because it’s such a beautiful, historic chapel, the first Black church in the city of Chicago, and also it was a station on the Underground Railroad. It’s a great place to go sit in silence, daydream, and look up at the gorgeous ceiling.”