Abstract
This essay analyzes ten disparate but linked moments in the history of the depiction of the spaces of public housing. Investigating the image of public housing that emerges from a range of cultural forms and practices – from hip-hop to literature to social reform to urban planning to boogaloo – the essay inhabits the perspectives of a host of different actors with an interest in the life of public housing. By surveying a range of attitudes towards public housing from different moments in its history, it hopes to renew a vision of the public goals at the heart of its creation. Understanding the creative use of public housing's superblock spaces offers a way to imagine a form of shared ownership over its fate.