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Polaroid Poems: Poetry Writing Workshop

Banner graphic with the text Community Conversations, A Place in the World over a blue background
  • National Public Housing Museum, 919 S. Ada Street, Chicago, IL 60607

  • Free

How many words is a family picture really worth? More than a thousand? Are some photos actually best captured in haiku form?

Crack open your family photo album and bring a photo with you to the National Public Housing Museum for a poetry writing workshop led by creative writing instructor, poet, healer, and former Hilliard Homes resident, Toni Asante Lightfoot.

During this workshop, we’ll rediscover and reclaim snapshots of our past and use poetry to preserve our family memories and communal stories.

In addition to your polaroid (or any photo), please feel free to bring your favorite notebook and writing utensil. 

FREE. Light bites and refreshments included. Space is limited. Please register in advance.


Community Conversations

This workshop is the final event in a series of Community Conversations sponsored by Illinois Humanities, focusing on the theme of “A Place in the World,” which reminds us that the places where we live and work shape and are shaped by ideas, people, resources, histories, and events around the world—often in unexpected and curious ways.


Logo for Illinois Arts Council

The National Public Housing Museum acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.


Upcoming events

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A conversation with author Brian Goldstone, whose deeply reported new book plunges readers into the lives of families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city.

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The Black Tax with Andrew Kahrl and Tonika Lewis Johnson

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Tour: Housing for All

Organized by MAS Context and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, this tour of the National Public Housing Museum is presented in conjunction with the CAB Studio exhibition Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab.