Narrator: Marilyn
Oral Historian: Cosmo
Interview Conducted: Nov. 10, 2022
Marilyn lived in the Henry Horner Homes in Chicago, IL.

WHO I AM

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Letting Individuality Thrive

Narrator: Bity Boone
Oral Historian: Nedra Deadwyler
Interview conducted on Mar. 28, 2023.

Help People Get Homes

Narrator: Rita Concecao
Oral Historians: Sedrick Miles & Evelin Rodrieguez
Interview Conducted Oct. 30, 2022 in Portuguese, narrator's native language.

Rita reflects on one of her early homes, located in an area that underwent extensive demolition and re-construction (see track photo). 

Transcript in the spoken language (Portuguese) and translated to English:

PORT: Essa foto são os escombros do Bahia Street. O que é que aconteceu? Nós compramos uma casa no (bairro) 2 de julho, uma casa antiga. E a casa não tinha condições, era uma casa residencial, não tinha condições da gente trabalhar até por questões de segurança, porque era uma casa velha. E aí resolvemos derrubá-la, manter a fachada que até hoje se mantém e derrubar internamente. Foi um trabalho muito difícil  e fácil ao mesmo tempo. Por quê? Primeiro as pessoas não tinham dinheiro para fazer a construção, mas a gente fez um mutirão. Meu irmão como mestre de obra, eu chamei ele e ele se propôs a ajudar a fazer, a coordenar (as obras). E aí teve o processo da demolição. O mais interessante quando compramos esta casa, no processo da demolição tinha uma cobra aí dentro. Tinha uma cobra, não sei o que fizeram. Cada vez que derrubava  essas coisas aqui  a gente só faltava enlouquecer, com medo da fiscalização. Mas graças a Deus, por força dos orixás ninguém nunca  denunciou. Quando a gente derrubava, a gente jogava água  para a poeira não subir  e não chamar atenção. Para tirar este entulho, deu em torno de  de cem a dozentas caçambas de material para jogar fora. Então a gente ver todo o ínicio da formação do Bahia Street, limpar todo este terreno para começar da base , fazer as sapatas para fazer a construção.

ENGL: This photo is of the rubble of Bahia Street. What happened here was we bought a house in July 2nd (neighborhood), an old house. The house was rundown, it was a residential house, and we could not work on it for security reasons because it was an old house. We then decided to tear it down, keep the facade that still remained and tear down the interior. It was a very difficult and easy job at the same time. Why? Well, first we didn’t have money to do the construction, but we had a collective. My brother as a foreman, I called him and he proposed to help and to coordinate (the works). And then there was the demolition process. The most interesting thing when we bought this house, in the demolition process… there was a snake inside. There was a snake, I don’t know what they did with it. Throughout the construction process, we almost went crazy, afraid of inspection. But thank God, by virtue of the (Orixas) no one ever denounced us. During the demolition process, we threw water over the dust so it would not rise and draw attention. To remove the rubble, around one hundred to two hundred buckets of material were thrown away. We experienced the formation of Bahia Street, clearing all this space, starting from the base up, constructing.

BIO: Rita Concecao is a community activist, candomble practitioner, direct descendant of the Sisterhood of Boa Morte, anthropologist, photographer, doctoral student at the Federal University of Bahia and founder of the first NGO for black girls in Salvador, Bahia Street. In 2008, Rita received from UNESCO, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the title of Dr. Honoris Causa, for her humanitarian work carried out through her NGO.

Bahia Streets—Born Out Of Rubble

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Former Residents of Chicago Housing Projects Oyani Wynne and Anaya Frazier come together to attempt to describe the collective grief of losing their childhood homes in this Audio Collage.

Track photo is a photo collage created by oyani wynne.

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Narrator: Larry Turner
Recorded July 8, 2022, Chicago (River North NPHM office)
Interviewers: Liú Chen & Troy Gaston

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The National Public Housing Museum is the only cultural institution devoted to telling the story of public housing in the United States. Its mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper — a place to call home.

National Public Housing Museum

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