This is the first in a series of four public conversations programmed by the Invisible Institute that will take place inside The Beast, John Preus’ installation at the Hyde Park Art Center.

In these conversations, we will explore grief as a social phenomenon. What are the consequences when communities that have suffered loss are not given space to grieve or when their grief is not acknowledged? What are the consequences for individuals and communities of failure to grieve? How might we better understand grief as a creative process in which the difficult knowledge inflicted by loss is integrated into one’s sense of the world? How might public policy better take account of bereavement as a process through which human beings move, at their own pace, from engulfing sorrow to renewed agency?

The first of these conversations will focus on the demolition of public housing communities throughout the city. Our point of departure will be Audrey Petty’s collection of oral histories High Rise Stories: Voices From Chicago Public Housing.