Weekly Blurb and Retirement Home

Perhaps someone has already done this, but I started to draft a little blurb to send to the guy at the Chicago Weekly who wanted to cover our project. Is this what we're going for? If you have any thoughts, feedback, or additions, please post them to the blog (or e-mail me) ASAP!

Also, Becca, Rachel, Mary and I will go going to the retirement home at 64th/Woodlawn tomorrow to hear some oral histories from the "old timers". If anyone wants to join us, we'll probably be heading over there at around 3:30. We haven't decided where we're meeting yet, but feel free to give me a call at (646)-373-1471 if you'd like to come along.

- Emma

THE BLURB:
The class is working together as a group to develop a project that will publicly address concerns we have regarding development in the Woodlawn community. As we envision it, the result will be a site-specific event that will draw members of both the University and Woodlawn communities to an empty lot located on the southeast corner of 63rd street and Ingleside avenue.) At this space, we will create the floor plan for a residential apartment building and place a variety of domestic furniture to symbolically highlight what may have once been on the site. Food will also be a central component of the event, as we hope it will help draw more people to the site. At the site as well as at several peripheral locations, we will distribute pamphlets explaining our project as well as the history of the area. The aesthetic of our promotional material will play off of MAC Management's graphic and corporate identity. We hope that this tactic will ensure greater visibility for our project as well as call attention to present-day changes in the housing market that threaten to and actually do displace people from their communities. Nevertheless, our goal is not to simply make a visual statement but rather to draw people together in a way that promotes and encourages discussion, conversation, and perhaps even argument over the issues at hand.