High-Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (Voice of Witness)

High Rise Stories sheds light on the human cost of one of Americas most ill-conceived and catastrophic civic programs: the Chicago housing projects. As the buildings themselves are slowly being dismantled, leaving thousands of residents in flux, this issue is as critical—and underreported—as ever.

In these gripping first-person accounts, former residents of Chicagos public housing describe the consequences of relocation, poverty, and gentrification. Their stories of community and displacement give voice to those who have long been ignored, but whose hopes and struggles exist firmly at the heart of our national identity.

In the gripping first-person accounts of High-Rise Stories, former residents of Chicagos iconic public housing projects describe life in the now-demolished high-rises. These stories of community, displacement, and poverty in the wake of gentrification give voice to those who have long been ignored, but whose hopes and struggles exist firmly at the heart of our national identity.

Audrey Petty is an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A Ford Foundation grantee, her work has been featured in Colorlines, StoryQuarterly, and Saveur.

Among the narrators:

DOLORES, who, at the age of eighty-two, was hastily displaced from her home in Cabrini-Green after fifty-three years and forced to leave many of her belongings behind. Dolores depicts her communitys evolution over five decades, including her leadership in resident government, and her husbands mentoring of youth through a Drum and Bugle Corps.

DONNELL, who was initiated into gang life at the age of twelve.

A former resident of Rockwell Gardens, Donnell recounts growing up in an environment where daily life involved selling drugs, fighting rival gangs, and navigating encounters with a corrupt and often violent police force, as well as his efforts to turn his life around after incarceration.

SABRINA, whose sister was shot in the head in their Cabrini-Green apartment when she was caught in the middle of a turf-related shooting. Because ambulances refused to come to Cabrini-Green and the elevators were out of order, Sabrinas father and her then-pregnant mother had to carry her sister down thirteen flights of stairs to rush her to the hospita