Chicago Sukkah Design Festival at James Stone Freedom Square

The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival convenes community organizations and architectural designers to create sukkahs—outdoor structures inspired by a Jewish architectural custom. The festival celebrates how these usually temporary structures can be repurposed to build community in new contexts by initiating long-term creative collaborations among the participating organizations and designers, as well as an interconnected coalition of neighbors, students, program partners, and other engaged citizens. The co-created sukkahs initiate solidarity and collaboration, particularly among the Jewish community that historically lived in the neighborhood and the predominantly Black community currently residing there now. During October, James Stone Freedom Square, the dedicated festival grounds come alive with public programming that welcomes all. Afterward, the sukkahs are relocated to permanent sites within the community, where they continue to serve as vibrant centers for education, cultural events, and social services, transforming each sukkah into a valuable and ongoing community asset and contributing to broader community development efforts already underway in the neighborhood.