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.