ongoing Projects
TAXI DRIVER JUSTICE PROJECT
The Taxi Driver Justice Project (TDJP) explores the experiences of taxi-drivers in Chicago -- a low wage workforce comprised primarily of immigrants. Their lived reality is a compelling cross-section of timely issues, including migration, the future of work, and the tension between unprecedented technological advancement and traditional regulatory, legal, and municipal frameworks in both the local and global contexts. While powerful political and economic forces under-gird the economic "disruption" of the transportation industry, drivers are impacted by an antiquated regulatory framework and caught between multiple exploitative systems. Drivers' stories are the stories of the globe and of the new global economy. They face issues including lack of transparency around regulations and laws, administrative injustice and imbalanced enforcement. Our accessible information platform endeavors to increase the visibility of this community and redress issues of systemic injustice through digital storytelling, public art, and creative open-source technology tools. We are focusing on very small pieces of this complicated, convoluted industry, using discrete tools. Other local organizations are doing broad scale work with drivers, including : Cab Drivers United - AFSCME and the UTCC. The City of Chicago also recently selected two companies to provide an app for drivers.
Stories of drivers experiences -- BBC World Podcast: Yellow Cab Blues: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021y31z.
Overview of the issues shaping the industry including both pluses and minuses of traditional taxi industry and ride share companies -- "Driving for Hire" documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpcJlw4CpPc.
Stories of drivers experiences -- BBC World Podcast: Yellow Cab Blues: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021y31z.
Overview of the issues shaping the industry including both pluses and minuses of traditional taxi industry and ride share companies -- "Driving for Hire" documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpcJlw4CpPc.
Craft(ing) Culture(s) Series
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Our series, Craft(ing) Culture(s), highlights the role of art and craft in the lives of immigrant and refugee women. Immigrant and refugee communities play an integral role in the constant reconfiguration of the City. Melding old and new, prosaic and unprecedented, pragmatic and quixotic, these communities are essential, generative contributors and leaders for a greater collective imagining of Chicago.
Embroidery, knitting, and quilting have a long history as artful expressions, particularly among women around the world. These crafting forms are a means of conveying wisdom, hardship, joy and the vast panoply of human experience. Deliberately dismantling barriers between the "art world" and refugee communities, an unusual combination of artists and organizations collaborated on this project to celebrate resilience, reinvention and reiteration.
We were honored to be a Featured Program for the 20th annual Chicago Artists Month's celebration of the City as Studio. Our series, Craft(ing) Culture(s), consisted of a series of seven workshops and events from October 3rd - November 6th.
Embroidery, knitting, and quilting have a long history as artful expressions, particularly among women around the world. These crafting forms are a means of conveying wisdom, hardship, joy and the vast panoply of human experience. Deliberately dismantling barriers between the "art world" and refugee communities, an unusual combination of artists and organizations collaborated on this project to celebrate resilience, reinvention and reiteration.
We were honored to be a Featured Program for the 20th annual Chicago Artists Month's celebration of the City as Studio. Our series, Craft(ing) Culture(s), consisted of a series of seven workshops and events from October 3rd - November 6th.
Past Projects
POP-ED-ART :: Art, Education, and Empowerment :: Pilsen
Join Project Prospera for FREE art-making, community building, and knowledge sharing for women and girls.
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Come relax, laugh, make art, and learn about:
--Higher education for moms with public benefits --Higher education access for immigrant/undocumented/Dreamer youth --How to research property online, property tax exemptions and appeals --Factors that help Latina girls excel in school --DePaul's Pilsen Gentrification Mapping project --Technology jobs for girls and women --Overview of immigration options |
Innovating legal Aid :: Justice Re(Imagined)
As part of the Chicago Community Trust's #onthetable event, we hosted a discussion about incorporating innovative strategies, new vision, and diverse voices into Access to Justice work.
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Artist Marisa Jahn's brilliant Nanny Van project uses art, design, storytelling, and digital media to disseminate information about both employer and employee rights under NYC's domestic worker law. This project inspired our interdisciplinary dialogue about how justice may be accessed and effected through creative cross-sector approaches.
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DESIGN(ING) JUSTICE :: VISUALIZATION and MAPPING
In the Summer of 2015, Project Prospera partnered with the IIT Institute of Design on a design project exploring access to justice for the under-served.
The project was led by Kulsum Ameji, Esquire and Professor Tomoko Ichikawa. Team members included Maryam Heidaripour, Amy Huang, and Mai Saito. The team did both primary and secondary research, held a design-thinking dialogue with legal services stakeholders, and created a visualization map. The map will be used as a tool to further engage the intersection between design and justice.