Crossing the Line

Free with registration

Reflecting on the 1919 Race Riot, join a dialogue on the power of lines in shaping places and lives. This program is presented in connection with the Chicago Architectural Club’s 2018 Chicago Prize Competition entitled “Crossing the Line.”

The crossing of an imaginary line 100 years ago resulted in the killing of an African-American teenager named Eugene Williams, inciting the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. This chain of events demonstrates the power of lines—conceptual and physical—in shaping places and lives. Whether material or immaterial, the lines of Chicago both define, and are defined by, the power relations between the city's spaces, its people, and how they use these spaces. On the centenary of the Race Riot, leaders from the architecture community will reflect on the power of cultural partnerships to redraw our city in previously unthinkable ways. This is a partner program of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial.