Creative Grounds (images credit: JAHHM/Brandon Fields)
In 2013, after the largest school closures in history, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) issued a five-year moratorium on school closures. The moratorium ended in December 2017, and the City of Chicago threatens to close, sell or repurpose more schools. Join activists, researchers, journalists, and advocates as they track, forecast and examine the significance and impact of school closures, and explore what actions we can take. Speakers include: Kalyn Belsha, a reporter for The Chicago Reporter (moderator); Beatriz Ponce de Leon, Executive Director, Generation All; Katherine Gladson, Staff Attorney, LAF ((formerly the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago); and Paola Aguirre and Sara Pooley from Creative Grounds, a collective tracking school closures.
This event is part of Hull-House’s current exhibition Claiming Space: Creative Grounds and Freedom Summer School, an exhibition that explores the transformation of public school space amidst school closures on the West Side. This program continues Making the West Side: Community Conversations on Neighborhood Change, a Hull-House project that investigates the history of neighborhood change and contemporary issues on Chicago’s West Side.
