Robert Kennedy: A Storyteller Across Borders and Back Again
Robert Kennedy didn’t expect to be nominated for so many awards. Then again, Robert Kennedy doesn’t do anything halfway.
With a background in international relations and a lifelong love of storytelling inherited from a journalist mother and a sailor father, Kennedy brings a globally aware, deeply personal perspective to everything he touches. And at Loyola, he touched a lot.
In Pilsen, the walls speak. Robert Kennedy’s lens follows the stories painted across the neighborhood — where art, immigration, and community memory meet.
Windy City Watch. UpClose Immigration. Murals of Pilsen. Dear Love. Hidden Skyline. Each one different in tone, topic, and technique. Each one Kennedy.
"I guess I just like doing what I do. And I guess I'm good at it," he said.
Raised between Wrigleyville, Boystown, suburban Chicago, and his family roots in Biloxi, Mississippi, Kennedy developed a natural instinct for navigating different worlds—and giving voice to those within them. That empathy shows in his storytelling.
What started as an assignment became an invitation. Through Murals of Pilsen, Robert Kennedy captured how art, immigration, and identity intersect in one of Chicago’s most vibrant neighborhoods guided by the artists like Oscar Romero and residents who live the story every day.
We provide a valuable service to our community by being good storytellers. Robert Kennedy, Loyola University Chicago Student
Murals line the streets of Pilsen like open archives telling the story of histories, protests, pride, and possibility painted in public view.
Take Murals of Pilsen. What began as a reporting assignment turned into something bigger when Kennedy and his team met muralist Oscar Romero by chance.
"He gave us like an hour and a half of his time. He took us around the neighborhood and showed us all the murals he's painted over his 20-plus years as a muralist,” Kennedy said.
Dear Love was deeply personal: a poetic video essay born from a classroom prompt from Professor John Goheen.
For Robert Kennedy, documenting these walls wasn’t just reporting. It was listening, learning, and honoring the voices that shape a neighborhood from the inside out.
"John Goheen came into class one day with a bunch of note cards and said, write down a positive experience... Next thing I knew, I was pouring my heart into a camera lens," Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s work is marked by curiosity and care—and a belief in storytelling as public service.
"We provide a valuable service to our community by being good storytellers," he said. "That’s something I hope to leave behind: a legacy of that service.” "
Windy City Watch. UpClose Immigration. Murals of Pilsen. Dear Love. Hidden Skyline. Each one different in tone, topic, and technique. Each one Kennedy.
"I guess I just like doing what I do. And I guess I'm good at it," he said.
Raised between Wrigleyville, Boystown, suburban Chicago, and his family roots in Biloxi, Mississippi, Kennedy developed a natural instinct for navigating different worlds—and giving voice to those within them. That empathy shows in his storytelling.
Take Murals of Pilsen. What began as a reporting assignment turned into something bigger when Kennedy and his team met muralist Oscar Romero by chance.
"He gave us like an hour and a half of his time. He took us around the neighborhood and showed us all the murals he's painted over his 20-plus years as a muralist,” Kennedy said.
Dear Love was deeply personal: a poetic video essay born from a classroom prompt from Professor John Goheen.
"John Goheen came into class one day with a bunch of note cards and said, write down a positive experience... Next thing I knew, I was pouring my heart into a camera lens," Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s work is marked by curiosity and care—and a belief in storytelling as public service.
"We provide a valuable service to our community by being good storytellers," he said. "That’s something I hope to leave behind: a legacy of that service.” "