LINCOLN PARK — U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley stopped by DePaul University Thursday night to hold a roundtable discussion on the gun violence in Chicago, complementing students for their efforts to expose the problem.
The topic of gun violence has been on Quigley's agenda for years, and the roundtable focused on a recent book of interviews compiled by DePaul students titled How Long Will I Cry? Voices of Youth Violence.
The book was published in the fall after two-years of interviews conducted by assistant professor Miles Harvey and DePaul University students who collected first-person stories of how the city's youth violence has had an impact on the everyday people of Chicago.
"I want to thank the dedicated students at DePaul and our gun violence prevention advocates for providing their eye-opening and personal accounts of the overwhelming toll gun violence has brought upon Chicago families," Quigley said.
DePaul University is giving out copies of the book under its new publishing arm, Big Shoulders Books.
Harvey said he had been receiving requests for the book from all over the country ranging from school programs to police departments.
The interviews in the book were collected by graduate and undergraduate students in Harvey's courses.
"We have to start listening to people whose lives are affected by the bloodshed on a day-to-day basis," Harvey said. "My student collaborators and I are honored and encouraged by Rep. Quigley’s belief that these stories matter.”
A selection of the stories gathered by the students were compiled into a play that was performed at Steppenwolf Theater in March 2013 to rave reviews.
Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the book can request a copy at bigshouldersbooks.com.
