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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