Fran was first photographed as part of the Portraits of Pride / Stay at Home series of portraits in the summer of 2020. At that point, they were working remotely and had plans to move to NYC in 2020, but ended up staying in West Hill. Eventually Fran picked up a second job working at a restaurant.
“I moved back to Akron a year and a half before the pandemic started,” Fran said. “I had a lot of mental health related challenges during the pandemic. I was trying to reconnect and plug into the community after being gone for about five years. The quarantine, in a way, helped me to personally reconnect with my family. But it was also really challenging because I didn’t have much of a social life here, so a lot of my time was spent studying and working. That was pretty tough.”
As Fran continued to reconnect, they attended and participated in a multitude of community demonstrations, City Council meetings, the Akron Civil Rights Commission and the board of the West Hill Neighborhood Organization. It did not take long for Fran to become fully immersed in the local community and deepen their passion for making positive change in Akron. In 2023, Fran led a grassroots campaign for Council At-Large. They had 330+ small dollar donors, 6,000 votes, and placed fifth in a field of nine.
In January of 2025, Fran launched their “Love Thy Neighborhood” grassroots campaign for City Council Member of Ward 1 and had immediate outpouring support from the community. They won the May Democratic primary by 51%; won 11 of 12 precincts and had more votes than both opponents combined.
Fran reflected on their life over the past five years. “Personally, I went from trying to reconnect with this city after being away for five years to now being prospectively one of the leaders of the city in a district where I’ve lived, gone to school and church for most of my life. It’s been quite a ride, but a very intimate and beautiful awakening.
I think the pandemic taught me a lot about what it means to maintain relationships with people and that we all need a lot of patience and care. Being in the position that I’m in, running for a city government position and organizing around a lot of city and neighborhood issues over the last five years, I think it has drawn my attention more and more toward everyday issues like affordability, and our ability to provide for and connect with our neighbors.”
March 2021
West Hill