I am very pleased to announce that Audrey Petty’s new book High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing has just appeared. Thanks to Audrey, I have a copy right
here next to me on my desk! This book is a powerful work of oral history and
historical recovery—it collects the voices of residents from no-longer-existing
housing projects in Chicago. Audrey, who is an Associate Professor of Creative
Writing in our department, served as editor, compiler, and introducer for these
first-person narratives. The book is published in the Voice of Witness series,
an imprint of McSweeney’s Books dedicated to “illuminating human rights crises
through oral history.”
I was fortunate to hear Audrey read from and discuss High Rise Stories during a very affecting
event about memoirs and memory at the IPRH last February that also included our
own LeAnne Howe. Some of you may have also seen Audrey present the book during
a joint event sponsored by the English Department and the Chicago Humanities Festival. I can attest that High Rise
Stories is a moving and important book that exemplifies the best impulses
of faculty in the humanities to make their work available to and for a larger
public.
Here’s a little more about the book and the people who tell
their stories in it, taken from the publisher’s website:
“About the
book:
In the gripping
first-person accounts of High Rise Stories, former residents of
Chicago’s iconic public housing projects describe life in the now-demolished
high rises. These stories of community, displacement, and poverty in the wake
of gentrification give voice to those who have long been ignored, but whose
hopes and struggles exist firmly at the heart of our national identity.
Among the
narrators:
DONNELL, who
was initiated into gang life at the age of twelve. A former resident of
Rockwell Gardens, Donnell recounts growing up in an environment where daily
life involved selling drugs, fighting rival gangs, and navigating encounters
with a corrupt and often violent police force, as well as his efforts to turn
his life around after incarceration.
SABRINA, whose
sister was shot in the head in their Cabrini-Green apartment when she was
caught in the middle of a turf-related shooting. Because ambulances refused to
come to Cabrini-Green, and the elevators were out of order, Sabrina’s father
and her then-pregnant mother had to carry her sister down thirteen flights of
stairs to rush her to the hospital.
DOLORES, who,
at the age of 82, was hastily displaced from her home in Cabrini-Green after 53
years and forced to leave many of her belongings behind. Dolores depicts her
community’s evolution over five decades, including her leadership in resident
government, and her husband’s mentoring of youth through a Drum and Bugle
Corps.
CHANDRA, whose
son’s felony conviction bars him from entering the grounds of Chandra’s home in
Orchard Park. Chicago Housing Authority rules demand that Chandra report him to
the police if she sees him on the property, or face eviction herself.”