Arts & Entertainment
The Partnership Behind Southside Blooms and a CNN Hero of the Year Award
Quilen Blackwell, whose nonprofit Southside Blooms transforms vacant lots on Chicago’s South Side into flower farms that employ at-risk young people, is the 2025 CNN Hero of the Year.
Online voters selected him from this year’s Top 5 CNN Heroes, everyday people who are recognized for taking action to solve problems in their communities.
Reacting to the news, he gave credit to his wife, Hannah, and his Christian faith, as well as the young people who work at his social enterprise, whom he described as “stars.” Through the nonprofit, they grow, arrange and sell flowers.
He said the award was an affirmation of the work Southside Blooms has done to uplift communities, empower youth and bring a new economic engine to Chicago.
“It really affirms the entrepreneurial community that we have here,” Quilen Blackwell said. “Currently, about 80% of the flowers that you see in the United States are coming from overseas, so we want all that wealth that is currently going to other countries to remain right here in our city and right here in the United States.”
Hannah and Quilen Blackwell (second and third from left) founded Southside Blooms. (Provided)
Quilen Blackwell, 40, never envisioned a career in farming or the floral business. He grew up comfortably middle-class in Madison, Wisconsin, and joined the Peace Corps after college, serving in rural Thailand.
When he moved to Chicago for ministry school, he tutored students at a high school in Englewood. It was his first significant exposure to the South Side neighborhood, opening his eyes to the challenges that his students faced.
“I started to just realize, I could be any one of these kids,” he said. “They’re people who want a chance at something better.”
Quilen Blackwell decided he wanted to help bring them more opportunities, and around that time, he also met Hannah Bonham, who shared his passion for this work. In 2015, they married, bought a home in Englewood and launched their nonprofit, focused on finding environmentally sustainable ways to create jobs and alleviate poverty.
They both said their relationship and shared passion for restoring communities are what allowed Southside Blooms to flourish.
“There definitely would not be a Southside Blooms without Hannah,” Quilen Blackwell said. “She actually built Southside Blooms. I can’t do any floristry. I can’t make any arrangements. … She was the one who trained the youth to become great florists.”
Southside Blooms transforms vacant lots on Chicago’s South Side into flower farms that employ at-risk young people. (Provided)
Hannah Blackwell said she moved to Chicago’s West Side in the early 2010s and tried to get involved in community work, but struggled to get her ideas off the ground.
A mutual friend arranged for her to meet Quilen Blackwell, who was in the same line of work.
“We will debate until the day we die if it was a meeting or a blind date,” Hannah Blackwell said. “He came into it as a blind date. I came into it as just a meeting to talk about our work. … I jumped into the work with his nonprofit right away, just because I saw the potential.”
The award comes with a $100,000 prize, which the couple intends to use for expansion into national markets and building new farms, including one in North Lawndale this spring.
“One of the things that people don’t know is that we ship flowers all over the country,” Quilen Blackwell said. “We have free shipping. So we’re hoping that can really help us to grow that customer base a lot faster.”
CNN contributed to this report.
