When the Market Isn’t an Option
Roosevelt University Zine Project
As a part of the Museum’s Oral History Corp and Archive, which aims to ensure that residents’ stories are accessible and become a source of power, knowledge, and strength in the struggles for housing justice, NPHM staff collaborated with faculty at the Policy Research Collaborative (PRC) at Roosevelt University to develop a class called “Creative Public Policy Interventions”. The class taught undergraduate and graduate students about collaborative research and creative scholarship methodologies, engaging with the Museum as a critical resource and bridge between arts & culture, and creative public policy-making.
A cohort of interns recruited from this class are working with the Museum’s community partners, including the 2021 Artist as Instigator Tonika Lewis Johnson and her Inequity for Sale project to develop policy interventions around housing security, housing discrimination, and the racial wealth gap, some of the most pressing issues of our time. You can engage with their research through their zine series, When the Market Isn’t an Option, as well as clips from the interviews that were featured in the zine below!
Click the covers to flip through each zine, or click the buttons below to open in Google Drive!
This audio clip features Englewood residents Lolita Hughes and NPHM Artist as Instigator Tonika Lewis Johnson, as well as historian and author, Beryl Satter.
Click here to read the transcript.
This audio clip includes Liz Torres who lived in New York City’s Amsterdam Homes and Ned Lufrano who lived in Chicago’s ABLA Homes.
Click here to read the transcript.
This audio clip includes Daphany Rose Sachez, who lives in New York City’s Cooper Park Houses and Nakia Herron who lived in the Robert Taylor Homes.
Click here to read the transcript.
Click here to read the transcript.
Meet the Interns
Juanairis Castaneda (she / they) is a life time resident of Logan Square. An alumni to Monroe Middle school (‘14) and Lane Tech College Prep (‘18). Currently a first-generation Undergraduate student at Roosevelt University double majoring in History and International Studies. Juanairis has worked with After School Matters and Logan Square Neighborhood Association’s partnered Youth Leadership Institute (Summer ‘17 & ‘18) to propose affordable housing and bring city funding to neighborhood schools. Her current personal study focus is the impacts of gentrification. She is the oldest of three and daughter of immigrants. Their life goal is to open a cafe lounge / library sometime in the future.
Jack Werner (he / him) is attending his final year at Roosevelt University in Chicago. A Political Science major, one of his areas of focus has been studying and analyzing housing policies and practices both historic and contemporary. Aside from this project, Jack serves on the board for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Kane county, which advocates for support for, education of, and erasing the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Sophia Gallo (she / they) is a senior at Roosevelt University studying sociology and women and gender studies. In addition to their work with housing, Gallo is passionate about environmental justice and works towards creating a more sustainable university. In her free time, Gallo also enjoys drawing, painting, sewing, and exploring other art mediums.
Alexyss Wofford (she / her) and is a senior at Roosevelt University. She majoring in English with a minor in Sociology. She enjoys listening to podcasts in her free time.
Victoria M. Limón (she / her) is a third-year clinical psychology doctoral student at Roosevelt University and a Graduate Assistant at the RU Office of Student Research. Her clinical interests include working with the correctional population from a compassion-focused therapeutic approach and improving mental health care in the correctional system. Her advocacy interests include prison reform, reducing mass incarceration, and improving public housing policies that impact formerly incarcerated individuals.
The Policy Research Collaborative (PRC) is an interdisciplinary, applied research and evaluation center, housed in the Office of Student Research at Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago. The PRC works with community partners to address social inequities and strengthen communities through transformative policy research and advocacy.