How do we prevent historical amnesia? When is historic preservation a force for gentrification and social displacement and when is it a force for equality? How should cultural significance be determined and who should determine it? How can we preserve vernacular history? What role should preservation play in fostering a sense of community?

Listen in as the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the National Public Housing Museum, and a distinguished and provocative panel of visionary thinkers and activists examines these and other questions related to historic preservation and social justice.

Featured panelists include: Vince Michael (moderator), heritage conservationist and cultural sustainability activist, John H. Bryan Chair in Historic Preservation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Estevan Rael-Galvez, historian of American Indian slavery and advocate for the power of place, and Vice President of Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Mary Means, leader in community revitalization and heritage development, Founder of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Program, Director of Community Initiatives at Goody Clancy; Roberta Feldman, architectural activist and researcher committed to democratic design, author of The Dignity of Resistance: Women Residents in Chicago Public Housing, Professor Emeritus of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Lee Bey, urbanist, photographer, critic specializing in architecture and the role politics play in the creation of the built environment, and Executive Director of the Chicago Central Area Committee.

Recorded Friday, February 2, 2012 at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.