Chicago. A city of rhythm, resilience, and undeniable influence in shaping Black culture. Yet, despite its significant contributions, it is often overshadowed by the artistic legacies of New York and Los Angeles. Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago by Ayana Contreras is a powerful rebuttal to this neglect—an evocative and insightful celebration of the city’s creative and cultural legacy.

Contreras masterfully crafts a narrative that reads like a love letter to Black Chicago, weaving together personal reflections, archival materials, and historical insights. The book highlights the impact of Chicago’s artists, musicians, radio personalities, and cultural curators—figures who have influenced Black and African American culture in ways often underappreciated on a national scale. Her Afro-Optimist lens adds an uplifting tone, focusing on the enduring power of Black creativity and community despite systemic challenges.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its ability to position Chicago as an artistic and intellectual powerhouse. Contreras underscores the role of the city in shaping soul music, jazz, and literature, making a compelling case for why it should be recognised alongside its coastal counterparts. However, despite its in-depth cultural exploration, one glaring omission stands out—House Music. Chicago’s foundational role in birthing this genre is arguably one of its most significant contributions to global music, yet it barely receives a mention. Given its international impact and deep-rooted ties to Black Chicago, this oversight feels like a missed opportunity, leading to my decision to rate this book four stars instead of five.

That said, Energy Never Dies is still an essential read for those interested in Black cultural history, music lovers, and anyone keen to explore the artistic heartbeat of the Windy City. Contreras’ passion for her hometown is infectious, and her deep knowledge makes for an enlightening read. If you’ve ever questioned Chicago’s place in Black cultural history, this book provides a resounding answer—it has always been central, and its energy never dies.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a lovely, personal exploration of Chicago and music. What I enjoyed was the expression of Black lives and how the author intertwined her own memories of her grandmother throughout. However, the writing was very repetitive and disorganised, with the author revisiting topics that had already been addressed in previous sections.

A love letter to Black Chicago and the culture that underpins it. A brilliant exploration of Race relations in the USA.

Ayana Contreras's deeply personal book is a must-read for lifelong Chicagoans and lovers of vintage soul music. It is told through reminiscences of Black Chicago's economic and musical heyday, primarily the 1960s-70s, with an ever-present urging toward the current generation to pick up the mantle of Black radical imagination and creativity. The author's collection of cultural artifacts--rare issues of soul magazines, photographs of sacred yet crumbling buildings, prints of the first advertisements marketing Black hair-care products created by Black-founded companies--are included to moving effect. And throughout the book the mantra of Afro-optimism, which encourages today's youth to further the culture amidst the limitations of the present, continues to inspire a sense of success and aspiration.

But I can't help but the feel that the book was too loose in its structure and focus, often revisiting subjects that had been taken up in earlier chapters, and even repeating stories that had already been told. Many chapters feature deep dives into the history of Chicago record labels and musicians; rather than being informative, however, reading this history felt like being lost within the liner notes of a long out-of-press album.

What also felt at odds with the book's core premise of Afro-optimism was how often a success story ended with dissolution, loss, or erasure. This is of course neither the author's nor the story subjects' fault--if anything, it points to the urgency with which the unique culture of Black Chicago must be preserved, if not saved from deletion. But it pained me to read, over and over, how each example of the pinnacle of Black Chicago culture was eventually dissolved, mismanaged, or--more often than not--erased by white powers.

I feel that I now know more about an overlooked, underserved part of my city and my city's history after reading this book. I just wish that, within the context of an Afro-optimist narrative, the looming specter of failure and erasure were not so present, were not so powerfully and quietly there. But this is the friction against which Afro-optimism must push against, and this book is a testament to the power of what winning this fight can mean.