COMMUNITY

A Monument that Works for All

When Daniel Burnham, Cass Gilbert, Daniel Chester French, and their fellow commissioners chose Henry Bacon’s Greek temple design for the Lincoln Memorial in 1913, the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects, led by an associate a Frank Lloyd Wright, threw a fit.

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Up Against the Wall

In her new book, Wall Disease, Jessica Wapner considers how living up against a border creates stress, fear, mistrust and a host of serious health conditions, including trauma and early childhood development issues, and even a subtle reshaping of the brain—in particular, the area that contains our compass for survival.

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At Home in America

This issue of Reinventing Home raises the critical question, Who feels at home in America? How can we make a more perfect union that is not driven by factionalism and political infighting?

There is no getting around it—our democracy is broken, and to begin the process of repair, we must move beyond the information wars designed to stoke our raw emotions and deepen our sense of enmity–and cease choosing spectacle over substance.

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The Piano is His Living Room

One of the most wonderful releases for New Yorkers emerging from shelter-in-place has been the joy of entering pianist Collin Huggins’s “living room” in Washington Square Park. Each morning, the slender Huggins wrestles his 900-pound piano from its storeroom at the Judson Memorial Church at the north end of the park, places it on a dolly and moves it onto center stage.

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The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Hailed at Sundance, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a loving exploration of black male identity, wounded masculinity, and the healing power of friendship, family, and art. The film allows us to hang out with two sensitive and gentle men, Jimmie and Montgomery, two artists in their thirties, life-long friends, searching for a sense of meaning and belonging.

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Away We Go

If you’re trying to find an affordable house and a community of like-minded folks to help you raise your kids, every second-tier city in North America is up for grabs. In Away We Go, Burt and Verona are looking for a town that feels homey and familiar, friends who are kind and supportive, and a house that fits them like a glove.

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These Wilds Beyond Our Fences

They say that when you’re about to die your life flashes before you, you see those you love…I need no private cinematic bursts of my life and my loved ones. I can see them already and they are about to be murdered by the gun of a Zairian child soldier who stands at the doorway watching us.

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Homelessness, the Other Epidemic

The ranks of the homeless are swelling thanks to the economic fallout of the coronavirus. In The New Yorker, Nathan Heller reports that more Americans are struggling to afford a place to live. Homelessness now affect nearly one in five hundred — unthinkable just a few years ago.

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Rebuilding a Chicago Neighborhood

History professor turned small-scale affordable housing developer Jovita Baber believes everyone deserves to live in a beautiful environment. Her company, Historic Homes is reviving some of Chicago’s great buildings in neglected neighborhoods.

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