UMP at City Reliquary Museum

Students from the Lyons Community School and their teacher, Joshua Sol Lewis, worked with UMP's Rebecca Krucoff and Dave Hermann from the City Reliquary Museum on a study of the rapidly changing community of Williamsburg. Students took several photo-walks of the neighborhood, visited the City Reliquary Museum, as well the Crest Hardware Store, a community landmark. The students also met and interviewed photographer Vincent Cianni, who documented the south side of Williamsburg in his series We Skate Hardcore in the 1990s. At the end of their eight-week unit, the students chose photographs and wrote labels to include in an exhibition at the City Reliquary Museum. The result is a beautiful display of photographs that capture the neighborhood's history, character and current trends. We hope to continue our work with Lyons and City Reliquary Museum in the future!

Students on panel about Gentrification

Five students from the Secondary School for Research, Nicol Medina, Kia Yard, Kittrell Breland, Ramshah Kanwal and Jake Lehman, were on a panel discussion about gentrification as part of the public programming for the exhibition The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks, at the Museum for Contemporary African Diaspora Arts in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The panel was organized by Ruby Amanze, the Director of Education for MoCADA, and visiting curator, Dexter Wimberly, who curated the exhibition, and facilitated the panel which was held in the school's library on Wednesday, Feb. 24. The five students were part of the Brooklyn History class led by teacher Michael Salak in collaboration with Urban Memory Project at the school from September - January. The students discussed issues ranging from how gentrification impacts the architecture and feel of their communities, as well as the ways in which it both harms and helps their neighborhoods.

Student photographs on New York Times blog

Fabian McGriff, Kayla Brown and Keith Brown, students from Urban Memory Projects at the Secondary School for Research (2009) and the Brooklyn School for Global Studies (2007), each documented the Gowanus Canal during their study of the issues facing that area of Brooklyn. Their photographs, along with approximately 200 others, have been posted as part of a New York Times blog documenting the Canal, in conjunction with the news of its Superfund status.

Teachers Michael Salak and Jessica Rofe, along with UMP staff, organized guest speakers, research time and photo walks around the community so that students would have a first-hand opportunity to observe and record their observations of the neighborhood and gather evidence to answer the question "What is the greater good for the Gowanus?" At the end of their unit, students debated the Gowanus' fate in an academic seminar and role play debate, taking on the various perspectives of the community.

Students show off their work!

UMP students proudly show off their hard work at the Secondary School for Research Performance Night -- an opportunity for the school community of parents, teachers, administrative staff and community residents to gather and and gain information from the students' semester-long research and documentation of Brooklyn. History teacher, Michael Salak, led the class with the Urban Memory Project for a semester long study of how the borough of Brooklyn is changing, taught to the school's three senior classes.

UMP students in exhibition --Gentrification in Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks

Some Secondary School for Research students who just finished a UMP will have their work displayed alongside professional artists grappling with gentrification in Brooklyn in the exhibition Gentrification in Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks.
The exhibition will be held at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts in Fort Greene. See the link to the museum's flyer and click on exhibitions. All are invited to the exhibition opening on Thursday Feb. 4, 2010.

Courier Life newspapers published an article about the exhibit. In addition to the work in the exhibition, 5 of the students will be part of a MoCADA public program as a panel who discusses the impact of gentrification on themselves and their communities. This panel will take place on February 24, from 6-8pm at the Secondary School for Research in Park Slope. For more information on the event, check out the MoCADA calendar . Hope to see you soon!

Students Photographs 2009

In the fall of 2009 UMP students at the Secondary School for Research closely examined the neighborhoods of Park Slope and Gowanus, both of which continue to be impacted by the trends of migration, development, and gentrification. The students took photo walks, read articles, researched the neighborhoods’ histories and argued their opinions in seminars and debates. The students then applied what they learned about trends and history in these two neighborhoods to a close examination of their own communities.

At the end of the semester, students organized their work into a formal exhibition of photographs, texts and multi-media pieces demonstrating their connection to, and observations of, their borough. Opinions on what is the Greater Good for Brooklyn are as varied as the students in the course, but regardless of their point of view, the students’ observations reflect an awareness that daily changes are erasing the Brooklyn the students might have imagined to be permanent.

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Final Projects 2008/2009!

Check out the work created by Urban Memory Project students at the Secondary School for Research and the Brooklyn School for Global Studies. The blog Keepin' It Brooklyn documents an oral history project and collaboration with long-time Park Slope residents. The film My Brooklyn is Changing was produced by students at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies. Social Justice educator, Keedra Gibba, in collaboration with Malik Parker at MNN's Youth Channel helped students to document the impact of gentrification in their own neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn. Both projects were components of a larger study that researched, documented and presented changes occurring in the borough.