Vol. 3 Issue 23
Alison Flowers on Points of Departure
Invisible Institute Audio Team at the launch party for You Didn't See Nothin. From left to right: Sarah Geis, Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Yohance Lacour, Alison Flowers, Jamie Kalven.
June 29, 2023
Point of Departure
A Note from Alison Flowers, Head of Investigations and Productions
When I first set foot in the Invisible Institute’s headquarters in 2014, all there was to see was a long shiny conference table with mismatched chairs, sparse plants, two desktop computers, and plenty of sunlight.
It didn’t look like what it would become – a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism operation with scores of far-flung collaborators across the globe.
And today, it still doesn’t.
The Invisible Institute, after all, is not a place – although we are deeply rooted in a sense of place.
To describe the Invisible Institute as a nonprofit organization still doesn’t quite capture the character of what we are: A creative, narrative journalism studio committed to investigating human rights abuses in Chicago communities and extending the reach of the First Amendment.
I joined the Invisible Institute in 2015, when you could count our staff on one hand. We were a little lost at first, but we all had found our way there, and to each other, because of Jamie Kalven and his life’s work. And Jamie had more aspirations than we could possibly harness.
But somehow we did.
To see all that the Invisible Institute has become, and to participate in the process, has been among the most enriching experiences of my life.
As I prepare to leave my role, I’m reminded of an oft-uttered phrase at our outfit - “point of departure.” That is, finding the right place from which to launch an inquiry or deploy a strategy.
Over the past eight years, there have been many points of departure. Together with my Invisible Institute comrades, I have been on an investigative reporting odyssey that has included a varied array of projects.
Among them:
–bringing our flagship Citizens Police Data Project to public attention in the midst of the political upheaval following the release of the video of Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting Laquan McDonald.
–exposing how Illinois’ felony murder law obscures police misconduct in a Sidney-winning Chicago Reader story, contributing to a critical amendment of one of the most damaging felony murder statutes in the country.
–investigating the murder of Courtney Copeland with his mother Shapearl Wells and creating the Pulitzer finalist, Scripps-winning Somebody podcast, which prompted an investigation and policy recommendations by Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General.
–co-producing SHOWTIME’s “Sixteen Shots,” which won the Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, received Television Academy Honors for documentary special, and earned a Peabody nomination.
–uncovering new evidence in the wrongful murder convictions of Robert Johnson and Tony Robinson; Johnson awaits an evidentiary hearing, while Robinson has secured pro bono counsel for his police torture and actual innocence cases.
–forensically analyzing the fatal police shooting of Cortez Bufford in St. Louis (“The Fatal Tunnel” in The Intercept and “Blood Moon” in The Riverfront Times), catalyzing efforts for a new civilian-led investigation agency of the police department and a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of St. Louis. The Bufford family is now part of a responder program that assists families at the scene of a police-involved shooting by conducting a people’s investigation.
–examining the International Tactical Training Association (ITTA) – a small law enforcement training company founded by a Chicago police officer with a long history of misconduct allegations (99.5% more than the rest of the department). The Chicago Reader cover story, “Heroes, terrorists, and the police” brings to light how ITTA lacks congressional oversight, yet has trained more than 600 officers in El Salvador. In 2017, a local ITTA trainer defied orders by letting a fellow officer escape after he had fatally shot a woman in their ranks, according to the Salvadoran Attorney General’s office. The slain officer served as an internal investigator of misconduct allegations.
–serving as executive editor of the Chicago Police Torture Archive, the first human rights archive documenting the violence and terror inflicted on more than 100 mostly Black men by Commander Jon Burge and his “Midnight Crew” from the 1970s-1990s.
-overseeing the Invisible Institute’s contribution to “Mauled: When Police Dogs Are Weapons,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with The Marshall Project, The Indianapolis Star and Al.com. Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Andrew Fan, and Ellen Glover brought their critical reporting to this series.
-executive producing (with some on-the-fly reporting) the You Didn’t See Nothin podcast, made by the best audio storytelling team in the industry (Yohance Lacour, Bill Healy, Sarah Geis, Erisa Apantaku, and Dana Brozost-Kelleher). The critically acclaimed series challenges the official narrative of a 1997 racial hate crime, the beating of Lenard Clark.
These are only some of our adventures together, made possible by talented colleagues who joined the Invisible Institute in their twenties – Maira, Trina, Andrew (and yes, even you, Chaclyn, the first employee!) – and now they are respected experts in their fields and pillars of our organization.
A new point of departure has arrived for me. I will be devoting myself to a reporting project that requires my full-time attention and to developing a nascent production company.
But in the longstanding Invisible Institute tradition, I’m not really leaving the place.
Because the Invisible Institute was never a place at all.
With gratitude,
Alison
Potluck at the Point
We want to invite you to join us on Friday, July 7th at our Potluck at the Point event. This will be a casual gathering intended to create and deepen community relationships and partnerships. Learn more and register here. Please feel free to share the invitation with friends and family as well as organizations you would like us to connect with. The Point is dear to our heart so we look forward to sharing the view.
Register Here→
Jamie Kalven: Mayor Brandon Johnson must make explicit commitments to transparency
Jamie Kalven writes in the Chicago Tribune Opinions Column on the need for transparency from the City of Chicago and three of the priority items Mayor Johnson can engage to maintain a commitment to transparency.
Yohance Lacour Discusses You Didn't See Nothin with Chicago Tribune
“It was a story that symbolized and represented so much about Chicago and America and race and power to me, that it’s always been close to me and has been a personal flashpoint for me,” Lacour said.
Chicago Tribune spoke with Yohance about the Clark case and You Didn’t See Nothin, which is part memoir, part investigation.
