Unique Chicago Museum Showcases The History of Public Housing Through Its Residents – ryan

Chicago (AP)-Set Inside A Once-Dilapidated 1938 Building on Chicago’s Near West Side, A One-A-C-Kind Museum Hopes to Change the Public Housing in America.

A Form Federal Housing Project That Underwent A $ 17.5 Million Transformation, The National Public Housing Museum Opens Friday and Showcases Recreated apartments from three different eras. IT’S the Brainchild of Public Housing Residents Who Wanted to Tell a More Complete Story About Their Lives, from the Joys of Living in Tight-COMMUNITIES to the Effects of Racist Housing Police.

“The Biggest Artifact in Our Collection is the Building ITSELF,” Said Lisa Yun Lee, the Museum’s Executive Director.

Remnants of A Paint-Chipped Wall, with Cracks and Graffiti, Greets Visitors at the Entrance. Original Mailboxes with apartment Numbers Scrawled in Marker Are Displayed Near Items Belonging to Supreme Justice Soniamayor, WHO GREW UP IN NEW YORK PUBLIC HOUSING. An Outdoor Garden is lineed with Decadees-Old Animal Statues, Once the CenterPiece of a Chicago Public Housing Courtyard.

Museum Organizers Hope to Revive Such a Gathering Place and Say the Location in Chicago’s Little Italy NeighBorhood is important. The Museum Complex Includes 15 New Public Housing apartments Where Residents Will Live. Next Door is a City Library Branch That Also Has Affordable Housing Units. A Mixed-Incom Development is Under Construction Nearby.

“It ‘s a museum that says,’ there are those THINGS THAT EVEROBODY DEERVES, ‘” SAID SUNNY FISCER, A CONSULTANT FOR FOUNDATIONS, WHO GREW UP IN PUBLIC HOUSING AND IS THE MUSUM BOARD’S Chair.

Museum adhesion is free though guided the Cost Money.

The Museum’s Opening Faced Delays, Due to Fundraising Challenges and Different Mayor Administrations with Changing Agendas. The Building was gioven to the Museum by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The $ 17.5 Million Price Tag is a mix of private donations, including from Foundations, and State and Federal Money.

Residents Started Planning the Museum About 18 Years AS the Nation’s Third-Largest City was in the midst of Demolishing Housing High-Rises. The Environmental and Controversial Improvement Plan, Which Displaced Thousands of Families, Included Tearing Down Cabrini-Green, An Infamous Housing Project Portrayed in The “Candyman” Horror Movies.

Residents Didn’t Want their Stories to Wiped Out with the Towers. Among the original planners was Activist Francis Washington.

The 69-Yaar-Old Has Lived in Chicago Public Housing Almost Her Entire Life. It ‘s shadër family and workhed as a Property Manager and in Food Service. She serves on the Museum’s Board and Hopes to Help Counteract Stereotypes About Public Housing Residents.

“Show I say what we had accompished, what we have done, what we have have been through,” she said. “Well we’re in public housing, we’re human beings. We have want the things in life that they want.”

One of the Museum’s Goals is to show the racial makeup of the public housing in chicago and the Other places Changed, far -on due to racist housing authority. For Instance, Black Residents Were concentrated in high-crises in segregated communities with few opportunities to move.

The Restored Apartments Inside The Forms Jane Addams Homes Building Feature Original Artifacts donated by the family of Forms Residents, Including Clonding and Disha. The 1930s Apartment Belonged to a Jewish Family while One from the 1950s was an Italian family’s home. The Third, From The 1970s, was the Childhood Home of the Rev. Marshall Hatch, A Well-Known Black Pastor and Chicago Activist.

Museum Organizers Say they Also were inspired by New York City Tenement Museum, WHICH HIGHLIGHTS Preserved Tenment on the Lower East Side. But chicago organizers Say they a step sturger with a high-tech spin, including recorded oral stories that play as Visitors Walk by, Handdheld Screens and A Video by a Shadow-Puppet Theater Company That Illustrates Black Families Faced in Finding Housing, Like, Like, Like, Like redlining.

At the Same Time, the Museum Showcases Lesser-Known Bright Spots in Public Housing History, like Resident-Organized Safety Patols and Cooperatives to Sell Groces. Public Housing Residents Called “Ambassadors” Also Work on Museum Staff.

“We have had the narrative of public housing,” Said Lee. “When you Said the Words ‘Cabrini-Green’ That Brought Up A Visceral Feeling in People. And Usually That Was One That Was a Stereotype of What It To Be Poor and Black in America. Creating EXHIBITS THAT NARRATIVE THAT A REALLY IMPORTANT PARTS.”

Spreads the best example is the “rec room,” a musicic studio where Visitors can scan albums from numerous numero to learn about musicians who live in public housing. That includes elvis and salt-npa, whose group member dj spinderella lived in public housing and is a museum curator.

A Large Black and White Photo on the Wall Shows Beaming Residents Dancing at a Cabrini-Green House party.

It ‘sone of the Favorite Parts of the Museum for Gentry Quinones, A Museum Staff Member Who Lives in Chicago Public Housing.

“There was Also Joy and Community,” She Said.