Commissioned by the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Constructive Communication, as part of the realtalk@Boston project.

Notes

So why did I write a piece about housing?

In mid-2025, I received an invitation to be one of the artists for realtalk@Boston, a project of the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Constructive Communication. This citywide civic listening initiative saw community leaders from around Boston host more than 40 in-depth conversations with people from all walks of life—stories, as CCC shares, “filled with love, grief, struggle, hope, and dreams for the future of the city.” My fellow artists and I were tasked with bringing these stories to life, using art to help others pause, reflect, connect… and perhaps even share stories of their own.

When listening to these recordings, one thing I heard over and over was people sharing their struggles with the cost of housing and their hopes that, together, we could solve these. This is not something I only heard in those recordings: I hear it frequently just by existing in this city. And housing is not just about the buildings themselves—a loss of housing means a loss of community, a loss of the culture that existed in a place. As an artist, this kind of loss is devastating, so I knew that my response for realtalk@Boston needed to focus on housing.