National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) Podcasts National Public Housing Museum

Join us as we delve into stories spanning from 1943 to 1993. Experience the thrill of late-night basketball games, memories from an Olympic-level boxer, and more about the power of sports.Storytellers for this episode include Lee Roy Murphy, Olympic boxer of the Robert Taylor Homes; James Purgatorio of the Jane Addams Homes; Gil Walker, the former director of programs of the Chicago Housing Authority; Tanisha Wright, former WNBA player of Mon View Heights; Tommy Woods of the Lathrop Homes; and Byron Dickens of the Jane Addams Homes.



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"Bringing the Outdoors In: Community and Recreation in Public Housing", originally aired on April 30, 2020, shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Needless to say, this period required the world to drastically reimagine how we interact while also keeping our neighbors and broader communities safe. Thinking back to those first few weeks of the pandemic, one of the most immediate and disarming changes was not being able to commune with our friends, family, classmates, and colleagues.  We shared this episode with that mentality in mind, hoping to bring listeners closer to what was familiar to them. Now, over three years later, we are still living with the ever-rippling effects of the pandemic. But through those ripples we’ve also shown how adaptable we can be, finding creative ways to convene, play, and find joy with our communities.



Narrators include Betty Howard, Tommy Woods, Phil Ayala, Janetta Pegues, and Sunny Fischer, and stories were recorded by Hannah Barg, Shakira Johnson, Alexis Judeh, and Francesco De Salvatore.

When considering what “love” is, many varieties come to mind. Romantic love and platonic love dominate our TV shows, movies, and music, but these are only two pieces of the picture. What about love of a place, love of a people, or love of a purpose and principles? This episode, “The Act of Loving,” shares stories of all sorts of love in public housing, expanding our definition of what love means.

The oral history narrators for this episode include, JL Gross, who has lived in Chicago's Lathrop Homes from 1987 to the present day, Reverend Marshall Hatch, who lived in Chicago's Jane Addams Homes from 1960 to 1974, Milton Reed who lived in Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes from 1961 to 2002, Former Representative Bobby Rush who lived in Chicago's Hillard Homes from 1963 until the mid 1960s, Daphany Rose Sanchez, who has lived in New York City's Cooper Park Houses from 1984 to the present day, Larry Turner, who lived in Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes, Stateway Gardens, and Cabrini-Green in 1977 and then 1980 to 2000 and Atlanta Dream Head Coach, Tanisha Wright, who lived in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania's Mon View Heights from 1983 to 1998.

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In this episode, “There's So Much Magic in a Place,” we uplift a range of experiences of public housing residents from across the country, featuring narrators from New York City,  Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Chicago. These narrators share stories of how their relationships to home and place have shaped, and have been shaped by, their identities as individuals and communities.

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Sources: https://trace.tennessee.edu/rgsj/vol10/iss1/3
https://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/east-lake-meadows-stereotyping/east-lake-meadows-a-public-housing-story-video/
https://books.google.com/books?id=QI17AwAAQBAJ&q=%22long+hot+summer%22+1967&pg=PA1#v=snippet&q=%22long%20hot%20summer%22%201967&f=false

This episode, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," celebrates a resident from the ABLA (a group of public housing projects consisting of the Jane Addams Homes, Robert Brooks Homes, Loomis Courts, and Grace Abbott Homes) community, the late Mr. Wilbur Farley. If that name sounds familiar, perhaps it is because he has appeared many times in different ABLA oral histories we have gathered.  Known as “Mr. Fix-It” for his ingenuity and helping neighbors with small repairs, Mr. Farley was such a hugely influential and important member of the community that “Mr. Farley Day Back to School Celebration and Party” (as it was originally called) was created in 1984 by the ABLA community. The oral history narrators featured in this episode are Al Buford, who lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1955 until 1990, Marquita Gandy, who lived in ABLA from 1973 to 2009, Godfrey Bey, who lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1956 to 1983, and Byron Dickens, our next narrator lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1966 to 2001.

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CORRECTION: The narration of this episode states that Marquita Gandy lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1973 to 2009. The episode notes have been edited to reflect the correction, that Marquita Gandy lived in the greater ABLA Homes complexes from 1973 to 2009. All but one of the buildings of the Jane Addams Homes were demolished between 2002-2008; the last remaining building is being preserved for the National Public Housing Museum's permanent site thanks to efforts by ABLA resident activists. (Source: Society of Architectural Historians, https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IL-01-031-0037)



Cited Source: https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/old-man-of-the-projects/ 

In this episode of Out of the Archives, we're revisiting Episode 12, "Full of Life," and have added more historical context behind the stories narrators share!

This episode feature stories about finding yourself through the arts and recreation, reclaiming and growing after trauma, and more.  A special thanks to the storytellers from this episode, including Marquita Gandy of ABLA Homes, Nekia Herron of the Robert Taylor Homes, Olga Molina of the Lathrop Homes from 1969 to 1995, Sokeo Ros lives in affordable Housing in Providence, RI, and Henry Warfield, who lived in Altgeld Gardens and the Cabrini-Green Homes. We'd also like to thank the members of the Museum's Oral History Corps and other oral historians who helped to gather these stories, including Francesco De Salvatore and Shakira Johnson.  The stories span from 1969 to the present day.

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