Chicago, Illinois · Urbs in Horto
Eliyannah Amirah Yisrael
"Wander where the wonderings grow."
Film · Retail · Creative Placemaking · Chicago
A lush forest exists in the middle of a city. I am the city girl going within.
Everything I make begins there, in a space of wondering, of seeking, of asking. I am a Chicago girl, born and living in a city built on a motto most people haven't heard: Urbs in Horto, City in a Garden, and I have always loved that. The tension between the brick and the bark, the amber streetlight and the green of nature…all of that tension is mine and it is the foundation of everything you will find in my world.
The Forest of God's Answers is my parent brand, it's an ecosystem where all my creative work lives under one canopy. Film. Retail. Community. Because everything I build grows from the same root and I needed a way to stop thinking of my internal world in fragments. I named it for the meaning of my first name, Eliyannah, because I wanted a place where the dreams and prayers could grow into something larger than any single project or product.
I am a city girl sitting and wandering in the forest of my creativity. When I think about the different parts of myself that pull strongest all living in the same place, a forest I can walk around and spend time in different areas, watering ideas simultaneously, I feel whole. I can feel the power of honoring my whole self and all the creative threads in my heart. I'm inviting you to journey with me, to wander through the forest and find where you connect to me.
This is the reading room. Everything written from the forest lives here: the taproot newsletter, cultural essays, spotlights on the work. The archive grows slowly and deliberately. Nothing is rushed into print.
A Foremother's Brand is the retail copse of the forest, a family of brands, each named after one of my foremothers. Vintage, luxury, and legacy-forward: handbags, accessories, stationery, event goods, and more. The commerce comes later. The names come first.
Commerce follows culture. The brands are building, slowly and deliberately, with craft at the center. When they are ready to receive you, you will know.
The Forest of God's Answers holds three divisions, each one a different expression of the same creative root. They are not separate companies. They are the same forest breathing through different openings.
Original Film · Theater · Television · YouTube
The first business, and the one that started everything. Named for two words in a single text message: the sunshine you bring into every room, and the moxie that makes people stop and pay attention. Original film and motion picture production rooted in Chicago. High art Black cinema, live theater, and television. Currently in development: The Caterpillar and the Butterfly, my debut feature film. Spring 2027 shoot.
Legacy Goods · Luxury · Heritage Retail
A family of retail brands, each named after one of my foremothers. Vintage, luxury, and legacy-forward: handbags, accessories, stationery, and event goods. Every product carries a name that was carried before me. The lineage is the design principle.
Community · Cultural Festivals · Education · Creative Infrastructure
The fire circle. The gathering. Community organizations, cultural festivals, maker guilds, and creative education. The work of building thriving creative communities, in Chicago first and in every city that needs a clearing in the forest. Something institutional is taking root here: a long-term creative infrastructure project, owned by its makers and rooted in community. It will announce itself when it's ready. 2028.
The Bower is a cultural reading room deep in the forest, a place to hold the books, films, and ideas that are alive in this work right now. What I am taking in, what is shaping the films and the writing, what deserves to be named. It fills as the forest grows.
This room fills as the forest grows. Check back as seasons change and the work accumulates.
The reading that is shaping the essays, the films, and the decisions being made right now.
What the forest sounds like right now. Updated with each letter.
The full Bower opens with the archive at theforestofgodsanswers.com
"Wander where the wonderings grow."
Once a month, I write a letter about the work, the city, the things I'm building and the things I'm learning. It comes from the forest, and it finds you wherever you are. If you want to stay close to this work, this is the way.
Join the ForestersA letter. Monthly. Unsubscribe whenever you need to.