CHICAGO (CBS) – This weekend, Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side will host one of the city’s most popular and riveting events: the African Festival of the Arts.

It was sidelined for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic and, as CBS 2’s Jim Williams told us, the event returns this year under the banner “Back to Culture, Back to Tradition.”

Dana Easter’s creations are the result of painstaking and precise work.

“I dye it. I paint it. I print it. I silk screen it,” Easter said. “So, it is art, but it’s just to wear.”

It’s called wearable art and it’s on the backs of people around the world.

“I’ve had people say ‘I was in London and I saw your t-shirt or I saw your outfit. I knew it was Dana,'” she said.

Williams: “This week though, you’re in one spot.

Easter: “I’m in one spot, the African Festival of the Arts.”

The African Festival of the Arts, which return this weekend after a two-year hiatus, will feature every conceivable expression of Black culture: paintings, sculptures, fashion, food and music.

“This festival is very important to me,” said Dayo Laoye, an artist and Nigerian native.

The art festival reflects the rich spirit and traditions that artists like Laoye found in Chicago when he moved to the city 32 years ago.

“The African culture for the last 400 years is still embedded in some part of America and some people, especially here on the South and West Side in Chicago,” he said. “So finding Africa here made me stay longer.”

The African…