Underscoring Absence
Underscoring Absence
Exploring authentic labor at Chicago's Hull-House Museum
Greetings!
As I write this, the garbage truck just went down the alley with its familiar “beep beep beep” sound. Part of the symphony of life here in Chicago that also includes sirens, many spoken languages, birdsong, the wind whispering (or screaming) through the honey locust trees, and the whirrrrr of the “L” train. There’s comfort in the predictability of the garbage trucks.
Garbage collection hasn't always been a priority in Chicago and today, I’m delighted to write about Jane Addam’s role in this reform. This is part 3 of a 4 part series on Chicago’s Hull-House Museum. In part one, we talked about Jane Addams and part of her legacy, last week we talked about weaving women, art, and justice and this week, we’ll not only explore garbage collection but also the labor museum at Hull-House. Let’s dive in!
Let’s talk about garbage
In this documentary about Jane Addams, we learn about how she spearheaded efforts focused on decent housing as a basic need and leading the charge to reform the city’s waste disposal, sanitation, and housing services. This excellent article from National Park Service outlines the political and social reform efforts of the women of Hull-House in more detail.
Here’s a (long, but necessary) pull quote:
In her 1910 essay, “Why Women Should Vote,” she urged women to extend their traditional domestic duties to the ballot box. Addams stressed that women’s “individual conscience and devotion are no longer effective” to safeguard their families. Modern society had grown too big and complicated. Health and safety were now “utterly dependent upon the city administration” to enact laws to “protect the home from the dangers incident to modern life.” Addams argued that voting for these regulations enabled women to continue to fulfill their traditional duties.
Hull-House workers also advocated for protective labor laws for women and children and other social and political reforms. They demonstrated the powerful impact that women could have on the environment and the political landscape.
These women, through studying conditions, caring about people, and using their voices and privilege, helped change regulations, infrastructure, and the living conditions of people. The more I learn, the more gobsmacked I am by their efforts!
We owe our lives to people who cared enough to make a difference.
Modern Day Efforts
Like so many women, I started my late-bloomer, post-divorce era going to college. I mention this for the sake of context and time. My undergraduate degree program at Antioch University in Seattle included community service and environmental learning as part of Canoe Journey, an event of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The event I was part of in 2011 was hosted by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. At this event, strangers called me “cousin”. Everything was shared. I slept on the ground and both awakened and fell asleep to the beat of drums. I loved every minute of it.
Our part of the event was to educate participants about minimizing trash, to help people sort trash, and to take care of all of the trash generated. It was a large-scale event and required a lot of coordination and planning.
As we see everywhere in the world, here in Chicago, they are still working on garbage. They don’t compost here! One thing they are doing that I love is cleaning up the Chicago river and turning it into an urban oasis. Friends of the Chicago River have created a Chicago River Trash Trap that’s worth reading about.
Where there are people, there will be waste to manage. I love seeing the legacy that Jane Addams left not only at the museum but on the streets and beaches of Chicago. I see so little trash here and so much beauty!
Labor Museum
“We are elevating their histories by actually underscoring absence,” ~Liesl Olson Hull-House Museum Director
Unseen Labor
Hull-House’s co-founder, Ellen Gates Starr, spearheaded many of the arts programs at the settlement. She was both an arts educator and activist and was inspired by the aesthetic and political philosophies of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, which idealized a pre-capitalist world of authentic labor and quality design. Her radical move was to put these ideas into practice for people who lived in the most impoverished industrialized neighborhoods of Chicago.
Hull-House’s commitment to elevating the arts and crafts was part of a larger vision for a new society that would prioritize the creativity and humanity of workers. They promoted the work of many immigrant artisans, including the Irish weaver on Honora Brosnahan, the Danish weaver, Susanna Sorensen, the Mexican ceramicists Miguel Juárez, José Ruiz, and Jesús Torres, among others.
Most of the tens of thousands of individuals who participated in arts programs didn’t leave a record. The Radical Craft exhibit currently at the Hull-House Museum highlights the significance of unnamed artisans by displaying an attributed work along side work by the settlements better known figures
In this excellent piece about the current exhibit, Hull-House Museum’s Curatorial Director Ross Jordan said this:
“The Labor Museum was one of the most successful arts programs of the settlement, and it was really an experiment in response to the loss of heritage craft in the communities around Hull-House — the sense that this ability to embroider, to knit, to work in complicated ways with textiles was being lost as older generations were dying out…It was like a living museum, showing people the kind of expertise they brought from the Old World in an effort to give it value,” she said. “It was certainly an opposition to the kind of quick manufacture that was happening in factories.”
Jordan went on to say that he hopes people will be inspired by the exhibit. I know I certainly am! I am most especially interested in" “underscoring absence” by writing more about the unseen (and unpaid) labor of mothers in our current society which you can look forward to in future Wednesday Deep Dive Salons.
Here’s a short video of part of the Radical Craft exhibit for you:
The Radical Craft: Arts Education at Hull-House 1889-1935 exhibit is currently available for viewing and offers participatory art projects. Go see it if you can!
Next up: Legacy: Improv, Theater, and other Legacies of Hull House.
I hope you’ll join me.
I would love to hear what you think. Here are some questions to get started:
What is your labor?
Do you feel it’s seen?
When does your garbage get picked up?
Thanks for being here.
All my love,
Kymberlee
PS, Here’s a recent double exposure of mine of the aforementioned alley and honey locust tree.
