National Public Housing Museum

08/25/2026

Ghetto House, also known as Project House, was started by a few DJs living on the Low End of Chicago. One of them is known as DJ SLUGO.

DJ Slugo grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes in the 1970s and 80s, with DJs all around. In episode 28 of the National Public Housing Museum’s oral history podcast “Out of the Archives,” hear DJ Slugo share the story of how he and his peers took the existing music landscape in Chicago, and remixed a new sound to meet their generation’s experiences.

Listen:

This Out of the Archives podcast episode features narrator DJ Slugo, who talks about growing up in the Robert Taylor Homes and the origins of Project House music.

08/21/2026

LAST CHANCE—“Nathaniel Mary Quinn: A Love Letter to My Mother” closes this weekend! Alongside the artist’s works on canvas and paper, the exhibition includes a Robert Taylor Homes living room designed from memory to conjure his childhood apartment circa 1984.

Learn more: https://nphm.org/exhibition/nathaniel-mary-quinn-a-love-letter-to-my-mother/

08/18/2026

New on the podcast: “The Artsy Kid in the Hood” featuring Nekita Thomas, episode 27 of “Out of the Archives.”

One of Nekita Thomas’s first creative role models was her mother, who remixed everyday materials like milk crates into bedframes, and so much more. Listen as Nekita shares memories of living in Chicago’s Dearborn Homes, and hear how witnessing the designs of the everyday in public housing—from the innovative to the restrictive—led to her becoming an Associate Professor of Design at University of Illinois.

“Out of the Archives” is the National Public Housing Museum’s flagship oral history podcast. Subscribe today and catch weekly episodes from season 5, “Black Creative Innovation in Chicago Public Housing.”

This Out of the Archives podcast episode features narrator Nekita Thomas, who talks about Chicago’s Dearborn Homes and the designs of the everyday in public housing.

08/17/2026

The artist behind the Stones’ 25th album cover also has a debut Chicago exhibit, “A Love Letter to My Mother,” which runs through Aug. 23 at the National Public Housing Museum.

08/14/2026

Nathaniel Mary Quinn reckons with “memory, family, and a childhood shaped by Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes” in the National Public Housing Museum’s first exhibition dedicated to a single artist.

Critic Lori Waxman reviews “A Love Letter to My Mother” in Hyperallergic:

His fractured portraits at the National Public Housing Museum reckon with memory, family, and a childhood shaped by Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes.

08/13/2026

It’s Chicago's Little Italy Festa - Taylor St. weekend! Enjoy the music, food, drink, and community during the street festival on Taylor Street next to the National Public Housing Museum, and drop in to explore family stories from Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Here’s what’s happening at the museum during Festa:

Historic Apartment Tours
August 13–16
Step into our historic heart and experience the voices and public housing stories of families who lived at the Jane Addams Homes, one of Chicago’s first sites of public housing, which opened along Taylor Street in 1938. Timed tour tickets are just $10 all weekend (use the discount code FESTA).

Festa Friday
Friday, August 14
Extended hours: museum open until 8 pm
Explore the museum on your own, or join in a 6:30 pm Historic Apartment Tour.

Remembering Taylor Street
Saturday, August 15
12–2 pm
Share memories from the neighborhood during a drop-in oral history listening, and mapping session.

Our Streets & Our Stories: Taylor Street, Little Italy, and Beyond
All weekend
Pick up a self-guided tour and discover stories from Italian American families throughout the museum—such as the “jubilant” Fumo family, who were among the very first tenants selected to move into the Jane Addams Homes public housing project in 1938, according to the Chicago Tribune.

About Festa
Taking place every August, this long-running festival celebrates the legacy of Taylor Street as a hub for Italian immigrants to Chicago. Festa is sponsored by Little Italy Chicago Neighborhood Association and produced by Ron Onesti—who was born on Taylor Street—of Onesti Entertainment.

08/12/2026

Congratulations to Board member Francine Washington, one of the “Other Washingtons” featured in a new monument by Amanda Williams that was recently unveiled on Chicago’s South Side!

The public artwork is part of the Chicago Monuments Project, and remakes a statue honoring the nation's first president through an expanded installation of flags and banners that spotlight “the biographies of other Washingtons who deserve recognition for impacting Chicagoans or the nation as a whole.” The installation features a tribute to Francine by Jamie Kalven, highlighting her leadership and advocacy for public housing residents.

Learn more: https://otherwashingtons.com/

08/11/2026

Subscribe today—Out of the Archives, our flagship oral history podcast, returns this month with new episodes featuring public housing residents whose creative innovations helped put Chicago and Black creative practices on the map. Don’t miss out on these stories of art and community from Knee-Key-Tah, DJ Slugo (K.O.G.H), Katherine Davis, Tom Tom Washington, Black Ensemble Theater Jackie Taylor, and Jillian Lenae.

“Black Creative Innovation in Chicago Public Housing”
Out of the Archives, Season 5, from the National Public Housing Museum
📡 Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

08/09/2026

Sequane Lawrence joins us TODAY as we conclude our summer drop-in series of civic conversations about the the history of the Robert Taylor Homes.

The chat features Sequane Lawrence, a former Robert Taylor Homes resident and the President and CEO of Revolution Institute, a community economic development and workforce development organization in Chicago focused on cooperative business development and the digital economy on behalf of under-resourced communities.

The conversation series is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Nathaniel Mary Quinn: A Love Letter to My Mother.” The Robert Taylor Home reading room is made possible by the Department of History at Loyola University Chicago in honor of Professor Brad Hunt.

📷 by Camilo J. Vergara, Library of Congress.

08/07/2026

“Push past timeworn classics—and ignore the stereotypes—by venturing to different pockets of town.” A fresh 36 Hours in Chicago itinerary from Natalie Moore in the New York Times, including a stop for one last history lesson at the National Public Housing Museum.

The city shines in the summertime — and this year’s light is especially bright, thanks in part to a new presidential center.