Pastor Phil Jackson has served on the front lines of urban youth ministry interrupting violence in the life of youth and young adults one relationship at a time through the arts and faith since 1987.
Pastor Phil has served in North Lawndale since 1993, when he came from Kansas City where he served as youth Pastor under Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. He served as Youth Pastor and Associate Pastor of Lawndale Community Christian Church until 2016.

In 2003 Pastor Phil planted a church called The House Covenant Church or more known as “The House - a Christ-centered, hip-hop worship service”. The House has been featured on BET, Fox News Chicago, MSNBC Nightly News, PBS, WGN, Jet (2006), Ebony (2010), Campus Life (2005), The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago Defender.

Pastor Phil is the Founder and CEO of The Firehouse Community Arts Center (FCAC) a converted 100-year-old Chicago Firehouse. We work to interrupt the cycle of violence in the life of youth and young adults in North Lawndale through the power of the arts and faith. We engage youth in violence prevention through poetry, dance, culinary arts, audio engineering, film, tech and visual arts. The Firehouse Community Art Center seeks to “Spark New Flames One Life at a Time”!

He is co-author of the book The Hip-Hop Church (Intervarsity Press, 2006) which is in its twelfth publishing (sold over 15,000). His writing is published in theological journals, magazines and he has also contributed chapters and articles in several books relating to youth and young adults and infusing the arts into life transformation.

Pastor Phil currently teaches as a part time professor for NorthPark Seminary, classes taught at Stateville Correctional Center for Ministry Identity and Practice courses.

In 2023 Pastor Phil was awarded “The New Leaders of Chicago Award” from the Field and MacArthur Foundation.

Pastor Phil was the lead host of a weekly Sirius XM Radio Show in April of 2022 called: The Church on the block; Real talk about the streets, Hip-Hop and the church.

He won a Midwest Emmy as Co-Producer of the film, “Chicago at the Crossroads” for best Documentary 2019-2020, (nominated for seven, and won five, including the Best Documentary).

Phil has his Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity International University (Deerfield) in communication, and received his Master of Divinity degree from Northern Theological Seminary with a with an emphasis in Christian community development as a John Perkins scholar.

Joe’s artwork creates an experience where bright colors and simplified imagery engage the viewer’s ideas and fantasies. These informal and empowering creations are designed to bring a spark of joy to the viewer’s life. He creates things for the fun of it.

Some of the fun things he creates are black and white fantasy illustrations that evoke the style of the old school renaissance, being heavily influenced by the art of the Dungeons and Dragons red box basic set as well as the art in the first Monster Manual. Since January of 2022 he has been doing black and white spot illustration work for Goodman Games. His work has appeared in many current releases including; The May 2022 Gazette, DCC Holiday #11 Came the Monster of Midwinter, Empire of the East #1 The Hunt for the Howling God, DCC Classics Horror #8 Night of the Bog Beast, and MCC #14 Mayhem on the Magtrain. He has also done illustration work for Forbidden Games Inc. and Paradigm Concepts, Inc. and has had his artwork featured in several Adventure League modules including the 2018 Ennie Award winning module “End of the Line.”

Joe has also had the amazing opportunity to paint some of the large murals around Oak Park, Illinois. He has painted four mini murals as part of the mini mural program, including the Val’s Halla (Val Camiletti memorial) mural near the corner of South Boulevard and Oak Park Ave. He’s painted two larger murals as well, the children’s playzone mural inside the community recreation center and most recently the front of Wonder Works titled “Dream Bigger, Work Wonders.”

Joe believes that if we give people a reason to smile, we might just get to smile too and if more of us are able to smile early and smile often, we can create a world in which we lift each other up and do amazing things.

D-Nick The Microphone Misfit artist, writer & educator & counselor from Chicago by way of Flint MI. from The Microphone Misfitz The Microphone Misfitz are an international Hip-Hop & Comic book creators group that has released 6 comic books combined with albums. Two solo albums and 2 EPs. Based in Chicago, The Microphone Misfitz is more than a band or crew, creating music. They use the pillars of Hip-Hop (turntablism/DJing; MCing; breakin &; graffiti/street art; knowledge & overstanding) and their shared dynamics to enlighten and sustain their audiences and themselves. Kin Solo, DFEX, and Jet Nam (Jet9) are the choreography & movement artists; Ray of Light is the high-octane hype-man & MC; Mel L. is the Graff artist, vocalist, & road DJ; DJ Mar & Mike Knobel (aemka) are the production team; and D-Nick The Microphone Misfit is the lead MC, lyricist & artistic director of the group. The Microphone Misfitz have toured worldwide from grassroots gatherings to South By Southwest; from Algeria to China and elsewhere; D-Nick & his group have been Sharing stages with luminaries such as Crucial Conflict, Dead Prez, KRS-ONE, Jeru tha Damaja, Saul Williams, Mega Ran and more. In 2018 The Microphone Misfitz became the first Hip-Hop group allowed to Tour China since the country BANNED HIP-HOP. ⁠www.themicrophonemisfitz.com⁠