QUILOMBO Chicago

Too many of the communities placed in public housing are left out of the conversation around design, location and resources. Quilombo Chicago, a collective with roots in community avocating and organizing, who is combating this. Quilombo a liberated space that aims to restore and center the collective physical needs of Black young adults, Black women, and Black GNC folx on Chicago’s South Side.

In 2021, a group of BYP100 members came together to create an organization that we now call Chicago Quilombo. This summer, Quilombo has designed three Community Listening Sessions: July 26, August 30 and September 27 to understand how residents define housing stability, beyond shelter, and how residents currently access food and financial resources in South Shore.

Quilombo and FFG have partnered to leverage community reach, engagement and ultimately impact. Through photo preservation and conservation South Shore residents will given the opportunity to preserve their families roots cultures and practices juxtaposing the warmth of family with the often time bitter conditions of public housing. Photography and archive preservation can not only document housing insecurity, but they can humanize, historicize and transform how we respond to it.