Immigrant rights groups and supporters gathered for a march and rally in Washington, DC on April 5, 2014. They joined activists in over 40 cities across the country to tell President Obama to stop separating families before he reaches a total of 2 million people deported during his presidency.
The rally began in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of DC.
Photo by the Lamont Street Collective
Immigration activists and allies appropriate imagery of monarch butterflies to symbolize the right to migrate freely, despite geopolitical borders.
Photo by CultureStrike
A crowd of hundreds marched down 16th Street to the White House.
Employers threaten deportation of undocumented workers to stop them from speaking out about poor working conditions, wage theft and abuse.
For LGBT immigrants, deportation to their home country can mean a death sentence.
At the White House, the crowd raised their voices through story and song. Son Cosita Seria uses the art-form of Son Jarocho music for political commentary.
NotOneMoreDeportation.com is a project of NDLON to foster collaboration between individuals, organizations, and artists to support individuals in deportation proceedings to stay in the place they call home and to build a movement to push back against criminalization and toward inclusion through organizing, art, legislation, and action.
The participants of Bread for the City’s first ever media training included several BFC clients: A graduate of BFC’s Pre-Employment Program (PEP), a returning citizen, one former and two current BFC Client Advisory Board members, and two residents of the Potomac Gardens public housing complex.
The first three sessions were held in Bread for the City’s SE Center and dedicated to:
Gaining a better understanding of what a powerful tool the media plays in perpetuating racism and oppressive stereotypes
Understanding how the media helps to perpetuate the cycle of oppression
Strategizing how to make media production skills available to the people who are most affected by oppression and stereotypes in the media
The last three sessions were held at the Potomac Gardens public housing complex and dedicated to:
Teaching the technical skills of videotaping and editing using Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Elements 11 software
Discovering creative ways to use cellphones as media tools
In today’s world of ever evolving technology, it’s exciting that those most affected by poverty are steadily gaining more control over how their stories are told. They are also being given the tools to share their stories with a wide audience. We plan to begin another session in April 2014.
Remember- we can be the change we want to see!
Below are two of the videos produced in the class. The first is a testimonial by William McIntyre who was a smart kid. He graduated from high school and everybody thought he was going to be just as big a man in the world as he was a big man on campus. But six months later he’s still working at McDonalds. What happened next? Watch and find out.
The second is of Ms. Brown who spoke to her daughter about life in the District of Columbia throughout the years. Ms. Brown, being born in 1931, had a lot to share. This 10 minute video is just a start.
Back in December 2012, I took a look at the Wikipedia page for Potomac Gardens public housing at 13th and Pennsylvania Ave, SE. At that time, I was surprised by what I read:
The existing [Wikipedia] page surprised me because it focused exclusively on 1) the potential replacement of the buildings either with Marine barracks or mixed-income housing and 2) crime in the area (under the only category of “Incidents”). There was no discussion of what life might be like in Potomac Gardens, as well as no mention of people important to the community, significant sites within the property, or important events or activities. There was also no discussion of how life in Potomac Gardens may have changed over time. In general, the page seemed to be written from the point of view of people unconnected with those living in Potomac Gardens. Yes, those living inside and outside Potomac Gardens have a great interest in the potential redevelopment plans, but the page does not capture much about Potomac Gardens. Without knowledge of the life within Potomac Gardens, it becomes very easy to argue that Potomac Gardens should be dismantled, since it appears to have no value or significance.
In that post, you can see what the original Wikipedia page looked like. I made some additions to try to expand the perspective of the page. Others have since revised it further. However, I knew that those living in Potomac Gardens would be the ideal editors of the Potomac Gardens Wikipedia page.
A couple of weeks ago, I got to visit Grassroots DC‘s Wednesday evening computer class in Potomac Gardens. The computer class had seven adult students learning how to use computers to do email, explore the internet, write letters, resumes, produce documents, etc. Earlier the class had written a letter to Councilmember Tommy Wells, asking for help with the former recreation center in Potomac Gardens. This meeting, we were going to update the Potomac Gardens Wikipedia page!
I handed out this guide, which anyone can use:
After they logged into Wikipedia at their computers, there was an immediate debate about whether Potomac Gardens ever had the nickname “Magic City.” Someone told me that it had been called this, and months ago I had added it in the Wikipedia page. While one person vaguely remember this name, everyone agreed that Potomac Gardens had only one nickname: “The Gardens.” So, two of the students changed that on two different parts of the page.
A discussion broke out about how anyone could update the page. Someone suggested that the history on the page must therefore be false. Someone else referred to a fact about Potomac Gardens that was true. Another asked, how do you know that? She said, I know it from the Wikipedia page. I admitted that I had written most of the page. One person turned to me quite surprised: but you don’t live here. How do you know this information? Another student said, you did research? I then asked, how can we get information about the history of Potomac Gardens, how can we get historical information? Some said that they could ask some older residents. Others said that one could Google for more information. I said that there was almost no information on the web about Potomac Gardens’ history. So, they would have to research and write it themselves.
The discussion was a professor’s dream discussion. The class became incredibly loud as the very nature of history was debated along with the topics and details they each wanted to include in the page. It was agreed that a section called “Community Life” would be added. A student added this section, while other students wrote up different paragraphs in Word, which they then posted to the new section. Actually, more correctly, most of them wrote up their parts in beautiful handwriting and then typed it up in Word. The non-profit organizations operating on “Community Row” in Potomac Gardens and the old recreation center came to life. One of the senior residents revealed the pride and joy of the senior building — the greeter system they had implemented themselves (see the page for details).
So, it was a fantastic time. The experience made very clear how history writing reflects one’s perspective. The glorious University of Maryland, College Park, sociologist Patricia Hill Collins has contributed her work on “intersectionality” to feminist standpoint theory, which is valuable when thinking about how one’s perspective or standpoint influences one’s view of history. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Feminist standpoint theorists make three principal claims: (1) Knowledge is socially situated. (2) Marginalized groups are socially situated in ways that make it more possible for them to be aware of things and ask questions than it is for the non-marginalized. (3) Research, particularly that focused on power relations, should begin with the lives of the marginalized.(1)
Wikipedia provides the tools for marginalized groups like those at Potomac Gardens to make the non-marginalized aware of histories and power relations not necessarily visible to the non-marginalized. Much more research and further revisions of the Wikipedia page are necessary. I also, of course, can’t stop making revisions based on information I find. One can then ask what my perspective or standpoint is. In the meantime, you can see the page’s current state, and you can take part in this history writing as well.
Cross-posted from Truth Out Written by Rania Khalek
Barry Farm, a public housing complex in southeast Washington, “is the line in the sand,” says Schyla Pondexter-Moore, a community organizer. “If you take away Barry Farm, you’re basically just giving away the whole Ward 8.”
A row of public housing units in Barry Farm. (Photo by Rania Khalek)
Barry Farm is the latest battleground for grass-roots housing advocates in the nation’s capital, where intense gentrification has altered the city’s demographic landscape dramatically. Because Washington was America’s first city to have a black majority, it came as a shock to many in 2011 when DC’s black population dropped below 50 percent for the first time in more than 50 years. In the past decade, the district lost nearly 40,000 black residents, many driven out by skyrocketing rents fueled by an influx of mostly white professionals flocking to increasingly gentrified neighborhoods.
Until recently, Wards 7 and 8 – the district’s poorest, most segregated and longest-neglected wards – largely were untouched. But as developers become desperate for new real estate to flip, residents living east of the Anacostia River (the unofficial dividing line between the city’s haves and have-nots) are seeing the beginning stages of gentrification take shape, starting with plans to demolish public housing, like Barry Farm. And if the past decade has taught them anything, it is that gentrification usually leaves longtime low-income residents out in the cold – literally.
Demolitions and Broken Promises
If the DC Housing Authority and developers have their way, all 434 public housing units at the Barry Farm complex will be razed to make room for “mixed income” housing, part of a four-phase $400 million redevelopment plan under DC’s New Communities Initiative, a public-private urban revitalization partnership modeled after the federal Hope VI program.
But if the past is any indication, New Communities is far more likely to displace Barry Farm residents indefinitely, as the former residents of DC’s Temple Courts public housing complex can attest.
Last September, the DC Beat Club–a digital music workshop that travels to neighborhood libraries and community centers in the DC area–came to Potomac Gardens. After participating in September’s Beat Club, Larry Jackson a 13-year-old Potomac Gardens Resident, has come by every week asking if he can rap and if we can put it on Youtube. This past Saturday, January 18, 2014, Grassroots DC hosted the DC Beat Club for the second time and Larry’s wish came true. DC Beat Club founder Barrett Jones and his friend Audrius Reskevicius with his own video camera and laptop, helped Larry put together the following video. Enjoy!
The DC Beat Club is part of Grassroots DC’s efforts to teach music and radio production to Potomac Gardens Youth. We plan to build up this partnership in the very near future.
In other news, Saturdays have become pretty busy at Grassroots DC. We’ve begun pre-production on a documentary called Potomac Gardens Inside and Out. Our first step is to conduct surveys of the residents living around the public housing complex. In February, we plan to put the same survey questions to the residents within Potomac Gardens itself.
In addition to the Beat Club and the surveying, students from Monday’s video production class have begun to use the open lab time to work on their video projects. Brenda Hayes, producer of radio program This Light: Sounds for Social Change, which airs Sunday nights on CPR radio, stopped in to do some audio editing. Knowing there would be a crowd, I served chicken and collard greens. If Grassroots DC can afford it, we may make that a regular thing. In any case, Saturdays are generally a good time to stop by and get involved. Doors are usually open by 10 am, but it’s good to call first, 202.608.1376.
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