Film Screening & Panel “Beyond Closure”: Community Struggles to Reclaim Chicago Schools
Legacies of Racism
March 14, 2025
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM (CT)
Location
UIC Daley Library, Room 1-470
Address
850 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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About the event: Join UIC’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy and the Department of Urban Planning and Policy for a screening and panel discussion with the filmmakers of Beyond Closure. In 2013, the City of Chicago forced the rapid closure of 50 public schools – the largest mass school closure in U.S. history. Beyond Closure (2024) is a documentary by On The Real Film and Borderless Studio that retraces the history of the closures, highlighting the intertwined issues of inequity, racism, and injustice. Taking a deeper look at three schools (in the Chicago communities of Austin, Bronzeville, and Englewood), the film showcases community struggles to forge a new pathway of self-determination. Through the voices of community members leading the repurposing of Emmet, Woods, and Overton schools, this film reflects on the community impact of school closures, and the setbacks and wins of activists struggling to reclaim schools as public spaces.
After the film, a panel discussion will bring together the filmmaking team (Erin Babbin and Michael Sullivan from On the Real Film, and Paola Aguirre Serrano from Borderless Studio) with UIC's own Elizabeth Todd-Breland (History).
Registration is required. Please use the link below to register for the event.
About the series: Events in the Legacies of Racism Series deepen our understanding of the challenges and possibilities of policy efforts to address longstanding racial inequality. Legacies of Racism events build on the themes from our State of Racial Justice in Chicago reports and explore the recent and historic origins of racial and ethnic inequities and ask questions about what it means to try to repair systematic harm done to people and communities.
Date posted
Feb 24, 2025
Date updated
Feb 24, 2025