The DePaul Art Museum in Chicago has opened a new exhibition titled "Tengo Lincoln Park en mi Corazón: Young Lords in Chicago," curated by Jacqueline Lazú. The show explores the history and activism of the Young Lords Organization, a group that began as a Puerto Rican street gang in the 1950s and evolved into a civil rights advocacy group fighting against displacement and discrimination in Lincoln Park. The exhibition features objects like purple berets, protest art, and photographs, and is the result of decades of collaboration between DePaul University and the Young Lords.
This exhibition matters because it arrives at a politically tense moment when President Donald Trump has attacked museums as "woke" and the administration has cut arts funding. The DePaul Art Museum is deliberately not backing down from its social justice mission, making the show a pointed act of institutional defiance. Additionally, the Young Lords' legacy has been historically underrecognized in Chicago, and this exhibition seeks to correct that erasure while offering lessons for today's struggles over displacement and civil rights.