Invisible Institute

 Invisible Institute is embarking on the next stage of its work with young people under the leadership of Senior Editor Audrey Petty. This next phase builds on our Youth/Police Project (y/pp) and Audrey's prior work with the same group of young people in the summer of 2022 and 2023. During that summer intensive, a group of high school students and young adults gathered regularly to learn about the life and legacy of Margaret Burroughs. In its current iteration with six students, the young people are exploring an aspect of Burroughs' community work that they found especially compelling: her decades-long volunteer work as an educator at Cook County Jail and Stateville Prison.

At the outset of their summer session, students were posed the same question Margaret Burroughs regularly asked her students: What will your legacy be? In asking that question and collectively seeking the answer, we can better understand how young people engage and evaluate community-led historical additions and revisions.

This new line of inquiry emerges from an energizing and inspiring conversation with Cedric X Cal and Carl Williams. Dr. Burroughs taught them while they were incarcerated; they began their artistic practices as her students and mentees. When the team of young people met with them during the summer of 2022, Cedric and Carl shared intimate and loving recollections of Dr. Burroughs and recited poems they'd created in her workshops.