Urban Gateways Announces Leslé Honoré as new CEO

News • Press Releases, Urban Gateways News

CHICAGO, IL (October 26, 2022) – The Urban Gateways Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Leslé Honoré as the organization’s next Chief Executive Officer as of October 24th, 2022.

Leslé Honoré, CEO of Urban Gateways

Leslé brings a wealth of strategic experience and community leadership practices, as well as a creative practice as a social justice artist and poet.

In her poetry and personal life, Leslé helps youth find their voices through the arts. She helps marginalized communities stand in the gaps that social, economic, and racial inequalities create. Her community leadership is woven into her artistic work. As Elevated Chicago’s Co-Chair, Leslé infused her expertise in poetry and art into youth engagement and her leadership style into governance and programming for the organization.

She attended Xavier University in Louisiana, where she studied English Literature and Spanish, before moving to Chicago in 1999. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, WBEZ (NPR), WVON/The Kendall Moore Show, and ABC7 Chicago and other major Chicago TV news stations. She’s been a featured speaker at numerous events including various Obama Foundation convenings and events, the City of Chicago’s 19th Amendment Commemoration; Latino Progresando’s 2020 MEXtalks, and the University of Illinois Chicago’s “Speaking Anarcha’s Name.”

“Urban Gateway’s legacy is one that is firmly planted in the roots of what makes our beautiful city of Chicago dynamic and vibrant. What would Chicago be without the arts? I am honored to join a team that knows that the thread that connects us to each other’s humanity is a thread of creativity, a team that works purposefully every day to create opportunities for the youth of Chicago to be able to harness their own power and find their voices when they create,” said Leslé.


For more information contact John Adams, Chief Financial Officer at 312.445.2742 , or jadams@urbangateways.org

Urban Gateways engages young people in arts experiences to inspire creativity and impact social change. We work to overcome social and economic barriers for youth to access Chicago’s artistic and cultural vitality. Our vision is a creative and artistically responsive society. Our programs are delivered by experienced professional artists and staff who guide program participants through music, dance, theater, digital media, literary, and visual arts experiences – engaging young people, their teachers, families, and communities with the power of creativity and the arts. We reach over 95,000 young people across about 250 locations annually. Programs are 100% free to participants.