Who Owns Our Block? An Exploration of Local Property Ownership in Chicago by fern ramoutar

Session Details
Date: 04/30
Time: 6:30-8:30pm CT / 7:30-9:30pm ET
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83766146223
Meeting ID: 837 6614 6223

Virtual online session
Sessions are open to the public
Closed captions available
Sessions are not posted online

Join us for TANDA: Who Owns Our Block? An Exploration of Local Property Ownership in Chicago by fern ramoutar

The focus of Who Owns Our Block? is to create a zine that equips residents and organizers to understand rental housing dynamics in our neighborhoods and also fosters new opportunities to build solidarity in support of affordable and livable housing for all. The zine will contain critical information about local landlords, rental prices, and housing conditions. In collaboration with local artists and printing presses, a distinct zine will be made for each block in the city of Chicago.

The project uses a series of computer programming and GIS mapping tools to automatically compile and analyze publicly available data and archives. The zine will translate this information via maps and data visualizations, housing-related memes, and art made by folks living in each neighborhood. In this way, the zine will serve both as an informational tool as well as a piece of art for local residents to enjoy.

The commodification of rental housing has systematically limited the ability of poor and working class people to access safe, stable living conditions. Some questions I am interested in exploring: (1) What are the causes and consequences of this commodification for people’s everyday lives? (2) What are compelling visual strategies for communicating these ideas? (3) What connections exist between art and propaganda in the 21st century? (4) How should our artistic practices uplift and support community-based organizing efforts?

fern ramoutar is an artist and a graduate student at the University of Chicago, where she is pursuing a PhD in Economics. She is a Black, queer woman from the Caribbean diaspora, born and raised in Toronto, and currently living in Chicago. Her research investigates the causes and consequences of segregation and racial inequality. Outside of school, fern is invested in supporting local efforts to think and build beyond the existing structures of racial capitalism. She also uses film, poetry, and prose to explore the various ways that local communities collectively practice freedom. Although these practices are often invisible in the “data” that she studies as an economist, she believes they are essential to understanding the true nature of any neighborhood, city, or region, across space and time.

About the Tanda Program
Interweaving the formats of seminars, book clubs, research groups, and tandas, Tanda is a cohort program that aids individuals with their research and practice through self-directed and collective learning. It is a program providing time and space to gather, share, think and exchange conversations, resources, and knowledge on participants’ chosen topics. Tanda is a program by Chuquimarca.

About Chuquimarca
Chuquimarca is an art library participating in the making and exchanging of art knowledge and language by gathering art books and organizing cohort-led programs. It acquires art books. It supports research through the Tanda program. It supports art writers through the Muña Art Writing Residency. Chuquimarca is based in Chicago.

Visit Chuquimarca.com/tanda for more information

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