Chicago is honoring Dr. Donda West in the South Shore neighborhood, placing her name on a stretch of 78th Street as the city revisits a legacy that reached far beyond her famous son. According to CBS Chicago, a dedication ceremony for Dr. Donda West Way was held Tuesday, September 22, at the corner of 78th Street and South Shore Drive, where a brown honorary street sign was unveiled bearing her name.
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The recognition puts a new spotlight on a career that was already deeply connected to Chicago education and Black literary culture. West spent more than two decades as a professor at Chicago State University, served as chair of its English department, and helped establish the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing. Today, Chicago State University describes the Brooks Center as a literary and cultural institution devoted to strengthening the humanities and promoting the study of Black writers among students, scholars, and the public.
At the Donda West Way ceremony, 7th Ward Ald. Greg Mitchell framed that academic work as central to how Chicago should remember her. In remarks, Mitchell said, “Dr. Donda West was not only a scholar — she was a builder of people, a cultivator of talent, and a champion for Black creativity and intellectual excellence,” adding, “For nearly three decades at Chicago State University, Dr. West shaped minds and opened doors.”
Mitchell also said West “created a home where young writers, speakers, and artists could discover their voice in their power.” Dr. Garrard McClendon, a Chicago State professor who nominated West for the honorary street designation, also emphasized the institutional impact she left behind. McClendon said, “As chair of the Department of English at Chicago State, she played a pivotal role in shaping the academic landscape of the institution. At Chi State, Donda’s contributions were transformative.”
McClendon continued, “Her tireless efforts in establishing the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing stand as a testament and legacy to her unwavering dedication to celebrating African American voices and nourishing emerging literary talent.”
The center itself was founded in 1990 and remains focused on the study and celebration of acclaimed Black writers, particularly the work and legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
West’s connection to Chicago stretched well beyond the university campus. According to a 2007 report from the Los Angeles Times, she joined Chicago State University in 1980 after beginning her teaching career in Atlanta and later left academia in 2004 to work full time with her son. During Ye’s early rise, he was raised by his mother in Chicago’s South Shore community, where his interests in writing, music, and art developed years before he became an internationally known recording artist.
Her work also kept her tied to the city’s community of Black writers and thinkers. In October 2007, only weeks before her death, WBEZ Chicago recorded West speaking at the 17th annual Gwendolyn Brooks Writers’ Conference at Chicago State University. The gathering centered on writers who used their work as a form of activism and featured West alongside major literary voices including Sonia Sanchez and Martín Espada. During her appearance, West discussed raising a child of the hip hop generation, why she wrote about motherhood, and what her son’s music represented to her and to a broader generation.
Education remained part of West’s work even after she stepped away from the classroom. She served as chairwoman of the Kanye West Foundation, an education-focused nonprofit that worked to address school dropout rates and literacy. The report said West and her son developed the foundation’s first program, Loop Dreams, around giving public school students opportunities to engage with music. Her role connected the same interests that defined her university career- education, language, creativity, and mentorship- to the growing cultural reach of hip-hop.
West was also an author. She penned “Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar” with Karen Hunter. The memoir explored her experience raising Ye as a single mother, the values she tried to instill in him, and her later involvement in his career.
The latest tribute brought several people connected to Chicago culture and public life together in South Shore. Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon, Chicago Board of Education member and rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith, and rapper GLC spoke during the ceremony, while Ye attended as the city honored his mother. West died in 2007 at 58, nearly 19 years before Dr. Donda West Way was formally unveiled.
With Donda West Way now standing in South Shore, Chicago has placed her name in the neighborhood where her family built roots while publicly recognizing a scholar whose work centered on education, Black literature, creativity, and the development of other people.
