Now I have comprehensive facts. Here's the article:

---

**'Murder Black Women': Racist Threat Scrawled on Black-Led Chicago Theatre During All-Black-Women Production**

Someone wrote "murder Black women" in pink marker on the front window of Definition Theatre at 1160 E. 55th St. in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood on March 13 — in broad daylight, right by the front door — while the Black-led company was in the final weekend of "Black Cypress Bayou," a murder mystery written and directed entirely by Black women. Chicago police have classified the incident as a hate crime. No suspect has been identified.

Definition Theatre has operated for 14 years as a space dedicated to uplifting artists of color. It is based in a storefront owned by the University of Chicago while the company works toward a permanent home in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side. Artistic director Tyrone Phillips said the graffiti was discovered before a performance and removed within hours, but the damage was already done. "It was painful, disheartening," Phillips told the Hyde Park Herald. "It stands in direct opposition to the values we hold as an organization."

The timing was not lost on anyone. The threat appeared during the closing weekend of a production built entirely by Black women — written by Black women, directed by Black women, performed by Black women. That is not coincidence. That is targeting. Whoever did this knew what was happening inside that building and chose that moment to send a message meant to terrorize.

The theater has no security cameras. Phillips said investigators have contacted neighboring businesses to pull surveillance footage, and the incident has prompted conversations with the University of Chicago about installing cameras at the space. The university responded by increasing police patrols near the theater during showtimes, deploying Safety Ambassadors along the 55th Street corridor, and issuing a statement calling the graffiti "antithetical to the University of Chicago's values." CPD Area One detectives are leading the investigation.

This is not an isolated incident in Hyde Park. Last summer, the same neighborhood was hit with a wave of antisemitic graffiti — "kill all Jews" scrawled on mailboxes, signs, and viaduct pillars — also under investigation as a hate crime. A commenter in the Hyde Park Herald reported seeing the same "murder Black women" phrase written in other locations around the neighborhood, suggesting a serial vandal is operating in the area. The pattern is clear: someone in Hyde Park is actively terrorizing communities of color and religious minorities, and they have not been caught.

For Black women specifically, this threat lands in a context that makes it heavier than paint on glass. Black women face the highest rates of homicide among women in America. They are disproportionately targeted by violence, disproportionately unprotected by the systems that claim to serve them, and disproportionately told to be "resilient" instead of being kept safe. A public call to murder Black women is not abstract. It is a statement made in a country where that violence is already happening every day.

Phillips attended every remaining performance personally to make sure artists, staff, and audiences felt safe. The closing weekend of "Black Cypress Bayou" went ahead without disruption. Support poured in from neighboring theaters, community organizations, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. Phillips said the company has been "flooded with calls, texts, and emails expressing solidarity." Despite all of that, the fact remains: a 14-year-old Black institution doing exactly what Black communities need — telling Black stories, employing Black artists, building Black cultural infrastructure — was met with a death threat for doing so. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Chicago police.