Depave Chicago and The Montessori School of Englewood (TMSOE)  are working together to undertake a 10,000-square-foot project  on TMSOE’s South Side campus. The project embodies practices of  codesign and future-building focused on depaving (replacing  impermeable surfaces with green space and natural materials) and  remaking urban land as a space for critical reflection and direct  action on the built environment in our communities. TMSOE,  a nonprofit charter school of 350 kindergarten through eighth  grade students, teaches the Montessori method of child-centered  education and hands-on learning, with a focus on empowerment  and healing of trauma. Together, Depave Chicago, TMSOE, and  dozens of volunteers from across the city, will learn how to depave the  site together in a two-day event, then undertake several weeks of  planting, gathering, ecological and creative education, and renewal.  The project is a live demonstration of coproduction that expands the  regenerative and liberatory capacity of rebuilding land in our schools  and communities. 

Drawing by: Mary Pat McGuire, Bowen Dong, Vidhan Goel, Wendy Wang, in  partnership with TMSOE teachers and staff: Maggie Mikuzis, Rita Nolan, La Kiesha  Dunn, Jonathan Howell, Vicki Bowens, Tina Rush, Vicky Coleman-Cox, Ebonie  Townsend, Lynetta Denson, Caleb Wagner, Candice Rogers, and TMSOE students:  Kahmani Hester, Armani McLaurin, Jade Nutall, Jazmynn Thomas, Brandon Littleton,  Alexander Jones, Melany Renderos, Asia Starling, Leah White, Trinity Crockett, and  Ceonna Black