7th Annual DC Community Heritage Project Showcase

DC's Largest Exhibition of Community History and Historic Preservation Projects

Join us for a celebration of Washington, DC history, preservation, and local culture! The 7th Annual DC Community Heritage Project Showcase at the brand new Dunbar High School (note the venue change; updated 11/22/13) will introduce you to some of the most creative and innovative local historians in the city. Recipients of the 2013 DC Community Heritage Project Grant will demonstrate 18 exciting new projects and all participants will enjoy FREE food and drink while talking about local history! You are guaranteed to learn something new about Washington, DC!

Visit http://dcchpshowcase2013.eventbrite.com to register for this program.

This year's showcase will feature the following grantee organizations and their projects:

Logan Circle Community Association, “Logan Circle Heritage Trail Education Curriculum”

The Logan Circle Community Association (LCCA) proposes to collaborate with Garrison Elementary School, Cultural Tourism DC (CTDC), and instructional specialist Chris Magnuson to develop a curriculum outline for fourth- and fifth-graders that will accompany the forthcoming Logan Circle Heritage Trail. The Heritage Trail, which will be dedicated on July 13, 2013, highlights the civic and cultural history of the Logan Circle neighborhood via beautifully crafted signs that will be mounted on public property along 15 stops throughout the Logan Circle neighborhood (the trail map and examples of three signs are attached as appendices).

Chowan Discovery Group, "The Gold Coast"

The project is to produce a 15-25 minute documentary video about Washington, D.C's upper 16th St Northwest neighborhoods of Crestwood, Shepherd Park, Colonial Village and North Portal Estates during the period of the 1950's to the 1990's, when most of the population was made up of African-American leaders in the areas of law, education, healthcare, government administration, military and business. Included in the interviews are residents of multiple generations. The final product is a DVD video.

Crestwood Citizens Association, "Crestwood History Project"

The Crestwood History Project will publish a book tracing the little-known history of an area that has been united within nearly consistent boundaries ever since its first survey in 1720. 

It is a narrative of Native American quarries...larger-than-life individuals such as Alexander de Bodisco and Thomas Blagden...mills, farms and historic country roads in "Washington County"...and a geography that restrained development in the past even as it enhances the neighborhood today. 

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School Convocation and Alumni Federation, "Dunbar High School Student Project on Dunbar Alumni Legends and Pioneers"

The Dunbar High School Student Project (Project) on Dunbar Alumni Legends and Pioneers will involve and engage students at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in a range of educational, research and training experiences that will provide skill sets that will be beneficial in college and in any work environment. The purpose of the Project is to work with students at Dunbar to accomplish the following: (1) begin research and identification of renowned Dunbar alumni and faculty that have made historically significant and vital contributions to the District and nation; (2) begin to catalog the amazing life stories of prominent Dunbar graduates and faculty and the role the school had in their growth and development; (3) understand and implement ways to leverage the prestige of Dunbar and its distinguished graduates in order to enhance the education of Dunbar students; and (4) participate in work groups to identify notable alumni, principals and faculty to be enshrined in wall and floor plaques throughout the new school building, to serve as models of inspiration.

Anacostia Community Outreach Center, "The Langston Terrace Dwelling Oral/Video History Project"

The Langston Terrace Dwelling Oral/Video History Project will give the Langston Dwelling Summer campers an opportunity to learn, witness and embrace the importance of the history of their community. The young people will research the history of Langston and interview, photograph and video artifacts of several residents and other stakeholders of the community to be included in the final presentation. The final presentation will include a program open to the community that will feature a showing of the finished product at the Anacostia Community Outreach Center office.

Female Union Band Society, "Mt. Zion/Female Union Band Historic Memorial Park Foundation Website Development Project"

The Foundation seeks funding to hire a web designer to design and launch a website for the Foundation. The Scholar will compile content for the website including a bibliography of historical information pertaining to the Cemeteries. The Foundation does not currently have a website, nor has it ever had one. A website will be a valuable tool for the Foundation to use to increase visibility of the cemeteries and to raise funds so that we can hire a consultant to develop a long-term plan for the future of the cemeteries.

Neighborhood Farm Initiative, "DC Garden Oral History Project"

The goal of the project is to gather oral histories from older Washingtonians who have spent significant portions of their lives growing their own food and have participated in Washington's local food economy and culture. By conducting interviews with a diverse group of individuals across the District, we will attempt to document not only each gardener's individual story but also the culture, traditions, and practices of food-growers in this city. Interview questions will be geared towards capturing the ways that food has connected people in their neighborhoods and communities at different points in history. We will rely on NFI's connections to a broad urban agriculture network to reach a diverse group of Washingtonians who represent the broad range of food growers in our community.

Deanwood Heights Main Streets, "Master Builders of Deanwood"

DHMS proposes to host a Saturday seminar and screening of Michelle Jones' latest film about African-American architects and their work in DC. DHMS wants to spotlight the architects who lived and worked in Deanwood. We will include a subject matter speaker about the history of African Americans and Architecture.

African American Holiday Association, "African American Pioneer Muslimahs in Washington, DC (Part Two)"

This project is Part Two of the first documentary completed in 2011 through a grant from the Humanities Council, WDC. We will conduct another set of interviews with four or five African American elderly Muslim women (Muslimahs) who we were unable to capture with the first film. Our focus, again, is to give exposure to the untold history of these "sisters" who are in the 80's and 90's. We will discuss the challenges they received from their families, their community and other unfortunate, negative elements as they converted to a religion and way of life that seemed "foreign" to many. Some of these Muslimahs were married and they worked alongside their Muslim husbands to establish this new way of life for themselves and their children. Additionally, they helped to build the only "temple" now that masjid from the ground up in Washington, DC by African Americans. Also, it's the only street named Islamic Way in Washington, DC.

Black Student Fund, "Remembering the Dream Makers of Black Student Fund"

With the support of staff and interns at the Black Student Fund (BSF), BSF Scholars will archive, research, and document the history of BSF. The research will focus on BSF's leadership and BSF's impact on the DC independent school community. The project will include the production of a video by BSF Scholars so that they can learn how to archive, research and document history. In addition BSF wants current students attending one of our 44 Member Schools to contribute to the legacy of the organization by serving as BSF's historians. BSF Scholars will work with a Social Sciences scholar and a professional videographer.

Henson Arts in Learning, "Citizens We"

The Citizens We Project is a photographic portrait of the people in the neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, and Columbia Heights in Washington, DC. The project consists of an exhibition of thirty 17 x 25 inch Black & White prints of clients from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Dinner Program and an online publication using HP MagCloud, about the Dinner Program and the challenges of immigration in contemporary American society. The publication can be viewed online for free and sold as a soft cover book.

ANC7B, "We are Fairfax Village"

“We are Fairfax Village” is a newly formed organization created to document the extensive history of the Fairfax Village neighborhood. The mission is to: 1) pursue and value the oral histories of past and current residents of Fairfax Village, 2) perform historical research of various resources related to Fairfax Village, 3) work collaboratively to author, illustrate, and share documents in accessible and user-friendly ways. 

The organization is the idea of Libya Doman in 2013 who has been a home owner in Fairfax Village for nearly 8 years. Over these years she has heard stories of the predominately African-American neighborhood being used in the past as housing for Congress members as it was just a short distance from the Capitol Building. Ms. Doman met an older, Caucasian woman who shared that she grew up in Fairfax Village when it was military quarters. Many of the community’s elders have lamented the changes in the community from tree-lined streets with quality neighborhood dining for homeowners to nearly 60% tenant occupied units where neighborhood organizations struggle to curtail drug deals hidden in alleys.

WSC Avant Bard, "Kendall Green and the National College for the Deaf"

WSC Avant Bard seeks support to develop a play that explores the history of deaf culture and the history of Kendall Green. Funds will be used to support the work of researchers, the writer/humanities scholar, the director and theatre artists in exploring this fascinating corner of DC.

All African People's Development and Empowerment Project, "Marcus Garvey Enrichment School Documentary Project"

The Marcus Garvey Enrichment Documentary Project will work with African American youth living in the Barry Farms community of Washington D.C. Youth from the ages of 13-18 will produce a documentary about the historical Barry Farms community, its current social history, and the thriving culture that highlights the positive culture of Barry Farms, but also the historiography of South East, Washington D.C. The initial phase of this project seeks funding for research and development of a proposed documentary that audio-visually depict the rich, but under-represented African American youth’s perspective on the current issues of Barry Farms and the broader African American Washington, D.C. community. 

Military Road School Preservation Trust, "Oral History of the Military Road School Alumni before 1954"

As part of the Sesquicentennial observance of the Military Road School, a video of oral histories provided by alumni who lived in the Brightwood community as well as nearby Maryland and attended the School from the 1930's to 1954 will be developed for the purpose of corroborating the educational legacy for which it was well known until closing as a D.C. public school in 1954. This project will document the experiences of some of those African-American students who, despite a lack of materials and amenities that were available to their white counterparts, were able to thrive and excel in a segregated environment. 

Community Resources Incorporated, "A Loud Silence: A Visual Code on the Underground Railroad"

The proposed project will research sites of the Underground Railroad in WDC, obtain maps of the topography and terrain at the time of the UG, create mixed media work that would depict markers, codes, symbols and signs, and tell the story of their composition, creation, use and meaning. The work created will be documented and presented as if they were actually in use during the time of the Underground Railroad.

Rehoboth Baptist Church Historical Committee, "Documenting History of Rehoboth Baptist Church (150 Years)"

The committee will be gathering, organizing, cataloging and archiving materials to prepare a comprehensive and complete History Book on the life of the Rehoboth Baptist Church (1864-2014). A catalogue of these materials will be compiled for our usage and for the Historic Preservation Office. The Rehoboth Baptist Church was founded by former slaves and is one of the oldest Black Baptist Churches in the city.

Seeking Qualified Educator to Serve on the Advisory Board for the Schimel Award for Teaching Leadership Through the Humanities

A Great Opportunity to Recognize Washington, DC's most Innovative Teachers

The Humanities Council of Washington, DC seeks a current or retired educator to serve pro bono on the Advisory Board for the Abraham Lincoln Schimel and Beatrice Schimel Award (ALSBS Awards) for Teaching Leadership to High School Students through the Humanities, sponsored by The Schimel Lode. 

This original commendation will be awarded to up to 10 Washington, DC high school teachers who want to experiment with, or who have successfully developed innovative, new ways to encourage leadership capacities.

These new approaches will integrate the study of history, literature, language, theory of the visual and performing arts or other major humanities disciplines.

This pro bono work will involve participating in about 4-5 weekday evening meetings with engaging collaborators over a six-eight month period.

Responsibilities: 

• Participate in the ALSBS Awards Advisory Board and contribute to the development of award criteria for the teacher nomination application.

• Help promote the opportunity throughout the Washington, DC education community.

• Review nominations and select up to 10 awardees as a member of the Advisory Board 

Skills and Experience Required:

• Articulate, straightforward, critical thinker  

• Experience creating lesson plans and/or educational materials

• Knowledge of current best practices in education, particularly in humanities subjects and leadership training

• Experience with leadership development and teaching methods 

Education:

B.A. or above in Education and/or B.A. or above in a humanities discipline; relevant experience teaching at the high school level, especially in the DC area.  

Interested educators should submit a one page letter of interest by November 29, 2013 , please contact Ruth Schimel at ruth@ruthschimel.com, 202.659.1772, or Mark Smith at msmith@wdchumanitiescouncil.org, 202.387.8391, to inquire further. Interviews will be held in early December.

Grant Writing Lesson from Your Local Humanities Council

Go Beyond the Basics of Grant Writing and Get Personalized Feedback on a Proposal

The Humanities Council of Washington, DC has distributed grants to non-profits across the city to stimulate humanities learning opportunities for over 30 years. On November 19th, the Council will offer its first Grant Writing Clinic to help nonprofits improve their ability to fundraising for cultural initiatives in the city, using the Council’s extensive grant-making experience to offer unique insights to Clinic participants.

The Grant Writing Clinic will go beyond the basics of proposal writing, and help you strengthen your personal grant writing skills. Open to grant writers at all experience levels, this clinic will give individualized feedback to each participant on one of their own grant proposals, while providing them with the fundamental knowledge to strengthen their fundraising efforts.

Using group exercises and feedback, participants will gain a better understanding of:
•    the grant-seeking process,
•    the components of a competitive grant proposal,
•    tips from the grant-maker’s perspective,
•    and how to build a relationship with a funder.
As a participant, you will receive peer and instructor critiques on your proposal, review peer proposals as a “grant-maker,” and identify ways that you can strengthen your grant writing.

Class preparation: All participants will be able to submit one current or previous grant proposal that they have worked on. Individual feedback with suggestions will be returned to the participant at the clinic. Applications cannot be proposals intended for submission to the Humanities Council (we provide grant application feedback during the grant-making process). Proposals must be submitted to the instructor by e-mail (rdutcher@wdchumanities.org) as a Word document by November 14th, or the participant will not receive individualized feedback.

When: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 6pm - 8pm 
Cost: $50.00
Where: The Council’s Offices, 925 U Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 (across from the 10th Street Exit of U Street Station)

Register Here: http://humanitiescouncilgrantclinic.eventbrite.com

First Who's a Washingtonian? Grants Awarded Tonight

10 Organizations To Receive $5000 for Projects Promoting Understanding and Collaboration Through the Humanities

The Who's a Washingtonian? grant was created this year to support projects that actively seek to spark dialogue between groups of residents that have been isolated from one another either geographically or culturally. Using the humanities disciplines as lenses, these projects will help Washingtonians better understand the ties that bind them such as music, literature, history, religion, and language.

Alliance for Global Justice - A Conversation at the Lincoln
This project will bring senior citizens with an intimate connection to the Lincoln Theatre's past together with young up-and-coming performers who have been featured
on the historic stage, to discuss the iconic landmark's importance in defining a sense of community, identity, and place in the greater U Street area.

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop - This Neighborhood has a Face: Talking Pictures
CHAW will engage a historian to collect images, videos, oral histories, and other materials from longtime and newer residents of the Canal Park neighborhood. The historian will augment the collected materials with archival research, that will culminated in a daylong celebration of the neighborhood and its residents.

Center for Inspired Teaching - Dream City Revisited
CIT will create an instructional module for educators teaching 12th grade Washington, DC history that will ask students to read from the book, Dream City: Race, Power and the decline of Washington, DC. Students will then interview residents who lived in the city from 1960-1990 to gain further perspective.

Georgetown Day School/Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ -Preserving the Past/Protecting the Future
This program will bring the students and members of the Lincoln Temple congregation together to document, preserve, and learn from the church's rich and vibrant past.

Grassroots DC - Potomac Gardens Inside and Out Documentary Project
This program will explore the persistent divide between the residents of the Potomac Gardens housing complex and the changing population of the surrounding neighborhood. It will seek to identify the barriers to communication between these two groups of neighbors and the means to mitigate them.

Historical Society of Washington, DC - Urban Photography Series
This program brings residents together around the photographic preservation of the city's streetscapes. HSWDC will hold workshops to teach best practices in urban photography and feature participants' work in an educational exhibit.

Life Pieces to Masterpieces - LPTM Color Me Community Conversations
This series of conversations is designed to engage people from all walks of life in an exploration of the common challenges faced by residents of the DC metro area.

ONE DC  - From the Streets to the Rooftops: Perspectives on a Changing City
This series of public events will bring together long-time and newer residents of the Shaw neighborhood to explore the dynamics of urban renewal and displacement in DC.

The Theatre Lab School - Teenaged DC: Life Stories Then and Now
This drama program will pair senior citizens with middle school students, who will, together, explore the past and present of adolescence. The seniors will talk with the students about their teenage memories, and the students will act out the stories as part of a public performance in May 2014.

University of the District of Columbia - Tally's Corner TALKS
This project will revisit a 1967 ethnographic study by Elliot Liebow entitled Tally's Corner: A Study of Streetcorner Negro Men that transformed the way policy makers understood urban poverty and race in America. Liebow's research focused on a group of black men who lived, loved, and labored in the neighborhood surrounding the corner of 11th and N Streets NW in Washington, DC. "TALKS" hopes to inspire dialogues among the many different ethnic and socioeconomic groups that now call this neighborhood home.

HCWDC Funded Documentary to Air on WETA, Monday September 16

"The Bayou: DC's Killer Joint" documents the history of an iconic DC night club and music venue!

On Monday, September 16, the memory of one of DC's most storied music venues will be resurrected on the small screen! Tune in to WETA at 10pm EDT to watch this Council-funded documentary! 

Check out the full documentary description on the producers' website, or read the Washington post review!

WETA programming schedule. 

Who's a Washingtonian? Grant To Bridge DC's Invisible Divides

Grant Requires New Collaboration Between Two or More Geographic or Cultural Groups

Who's a Washingtonian? Grants ($5000) Current Deadline - Proposals Due: September 1

Visit http://www.wdchumanities.org/grants/deadlines to register for a FREE Humanities Council grants workshop or visit http://grantapplication.wdchumanities.org to begin an online application now.

The Humanities Council requests proposals for grant projects that actively seek to spark dialogue between groups of residents that have historically been isolated from one another either geographically or culturally. Using the humanities disciplines as lenses, these projects will help Washingtonians better understand the ties that bind them such as music, literature, history, religion, and language. 

Each "Who's a Washingtonian?" grant proposal must feature the following three components...

1. A clearly articulated effort to link two geographic or cultural groups in the city that rarely come in contact with one another.

2. A clearly defined theme, explored through the humanities disciplines, that the two groups will explore collaboratively. 

3. A "civic reflection" component. 

Civic reflection discussions have three elements – a group of people, the civic activity they are involved in, and an object (usually a short reading, image or video). We begin by talking about the object in front of us, the thing we share and have in common, and gradually open up into larger questions of civic engagement, social justice, and the work we do in the world. 

- From the Center for Civic Reflection (civicreflection.org)

Examples of potential projects may include:

• Two geographically distant neighborhoods may simultaneously create traveling exhibits on their history and culture and trade them with one another upon completion.
• Long time residents and recently arrived residents may produce an oral history project through which they seek to examine one another’s goals, motivations, and cultures.
• Several religious organizations may host an interfaith conference during which they may discuss their perspectives on the challenges currently facing the DC community
• Book clubs from different neighborhoods may create a project wherein they celebrate their mutual appreciation of a particular work or genre

New Grant Cycle to Support Commemoration and Remembrance

Proposals are Due March 11

Commemoration and Remembrance Grant Opportunity

Beginning this year, in partnership with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Council will offer 5 grants of $2000 each to organizations and qualifying individuals developing projects that commemorate and remember local and national histories. Commemoration, though almost always celebratory, works in the intellectual sphere much the same way historic preservation does in the physical. If memories can only be preserved by remembering so collective memory can only be preserved by commemoration. 

Though history will always remember DC as the testing ground for emancipation, it is the ritual commemoration of Emancipation Day that makes it an integral part of the city's culture and character. A statue in a local park may provide its subject with an aesthetic sense of immortality, but  it soon becomes merely decoration unless the meaning behind the bronze is consciously remembered through ceremonies, parades, and other traditions. 

The people, events, and sites a public chooses to remember and commemorate can say more about the current community than the remembered past. What histories do we choose to commemorate? Why do we commemorate them the way we do? What messages do we hold on to so that we may apply them dutifully to our daily lives? 

Help us answer these questions while preserving the collective pasts important to the people of Washington. Visit grantapplication.wdchumanities.org and start your grant proposal today. A preliminary application is not required for the Commemoration and Remembrance grant, the final proposal is due on March 11 at midnight.

Small Grants (Also due March 11)

The Council awards small grants in amounts up $1500. These grants are often used to support planning, research, or the early stages of larger endeavors. Like the Major grant, this opportunity is for projects that bring the humanities to the people of Washington, DC. The online application can be found at grantapplicaton.wdchumanities.org.

Kent Boese Believes Historic Preservation Can Promote Respect and Progress Within a Community

Recent DC Community Heritage Project Grant Recipient Discusses Community History and his Forthcoming Park View Walking Tour

By Priya Dadlani

Kent Boese is a DC Community Heritage Project grantee, who created the Park View Walking Tour project and gave the Park View neighborhood a prominent voice in the DC community. Boese moved to the neighborhood in 2007, not knowing much about the community, but after getting to know his neighbors and conducting some research, he found out that this small neighborhood is very unique and holds interesting stories unknown to most of the District. Boese grew up in Harvard, Illinois,a small town of about 5,000 residents. Boese says, “I've discovered in many ways each neighborhood within D.C. operates like a small town. I guess that's why I fell in love with my neighborhood and why I am an effective advocate for it.” Like small towns, communities in the District function better when people work together. Helping neighbors, calling officials and assisting the community are common actions for Boese and others living in communities like Park View.

Boese quickly realized that other local blogs often distorted Park View or fostered their own bias about it. To properly represent the neighborhood, Boese created a blog where he shares information about Park View to anyone who wants to learn more about the community. “I wanted the community to have an equally strong voice as surrounding neighborhoods. I also wanted to create a place where local news and articles on history, development, crime, etc. could be shared and foster discussion within the neighborhood,” says Boese.

Boese’s blog, Park View, D.C., includes reports on the “collective memories and experiences of DC citizens”. Boese believes these details are important because Park View, with the rest of DC, is going through many changes. But the Park View Boese fell in love with is the one that he moved to, not “some mythical future neighborhood”. So for him, it is important to preserve the deeply rooted history of the community and its citizens and make these stories available to newer residents so they will be able to more thoroughly understand what Park View is and make stronger connections to the history of the community. Boese says that, “one of the greatest assets of the neighborhood is the long-established residents. It is in the community’s best interest for the contributions of all previous generations to be known if we are to value and respect each other and continue to move forward as one community.”

The love Boese has for DC comes from a very rich history and to him the District is interesting because it has both “deep roots” and a “transient population”. It also has both a national and a local presence. After many years of relative stability, the city is undergoing a lot of growth and demographic changes. “How we as Washingtonians respond to these changes - preserve, document, and make our history accessible - successfully fight and minimize displacement - and move together as a city will determine our worth to the country and the world,” says Boese. DC has great potential for a better future , but it can only be realized if newer residents and older residents are able to work together and learn more about one another’s history . Boese believes that preserving the history of the city and passing it on to new generations will help District citizens in achieving this goal.

Kent Boese has done something great for DC by giving Park View a voice just as loud as those of its’ neighboring communities. The walking tour project Boese is working on is nearing completion, and a draft was recently sent to the printer. The next step is to distribute all the brochures throughout the District and get the word out about where copies can be found. The Humanities Council is excited about Boese’s walking tour, and we hope the Park View community will be too.

Public Screening of "African American Pioneer Muslimahs in Washington, DC Part One!"

A Fascinating Look at the Lives of Muslim Women in DC

From a Press Release...

This one-hour screening is a fundraiser for POI television featuring the 50 + years journeys of three women (Sisters Baseemah Beyah, Aidah N. Sabir, and Shukriyyar T. Nisar) in their 80s and 90s. They each left South Carolina for Washington, DC as members and singers in the church and transposed their lives by joining the Nation of Islam and later all making their pilgrimage to Mecca as Muslims. These extraordinary, three ladies will be our featured guests for a question and answer segment after the viewing.

A donation of $20.00 per person over 10 years old and $10.00 per person over 65 years old is requested. However, If you cannot attend this exciting event, contributions can be made payable to the African-American Holiday Association, the fiscal agent and 501©3 organization financially handling this POI project. Please send c/o Z Productions, P.O. Box 77344, Washington, DC 20013. We have begun to work on Part Two, so we can continue to tell our stories.

Refreshments will be served before the screening and several, women business vendors will be available before and after the showing. Please try to RSVP and for further questions, directions and/or information call 202-302-4708 or contact zasha121@yahoo.com.

At the Rumi Forum, 1150 17th Street, NW, Fourth Floor,

Near M Street, NW across the street from the National Geographic Bldg.

On Sunday, June 10, 2012, 3:00 to 6:00 pm

Zion Baptist Church Oral History Project

Narrators Reveal a Southwest Centered On Neighborhood Churches, Schools, and Businesses

During the 1930s and 40s, despite the fact that Washington, DC's population was well on it's way to reaching 700,000 people, the city's Southwest quadrant retained the appearance and feel of a small town. The narrators of Zion Baptist Church's "Spoken Memories" oral history project recall this slow-paced, civic-minded community from the shadows of the hulking concrete highrises that now line Maryland and Virginia Avenues. 

One interviewee remembered, "I missed the church in Southwest because we had strong family ties. All of us had friends and family members at the different churches. My grandfather and one uncle were members of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. I had cousins who went to Friendship, and friends who attended the Catholic Church, St Vincent De Paul. Southwest was a community because its residents were always together. We all went to Randall Junior High, and we socialized in the neighborhood together. Zion always had church sponsored summer trips to the beach for us. We went to Carr's Beach, Sparrows Beach and a beach in New Jersey. We went on hay rides to the outskirts of Maryland, and we had summer-long Vacation Bible School. Southwest was a meeting place." 

Other narrators also speak of the close link between Southwest's religious community. It was a neighborhood of many churches, and many different religions, but all were bound together through service to their congregants. Long term social bonds, and a general sense of steadiness seem to have contributed to the narrator's memories of Southwest as a tight-knit neighborhood. "I don't see Zion as the family and community church that we had in the past," observed one narrator. "Now, new members join Zion and leave before you can get to know them. In earlier times, Zion had more stability and folks got to know each other. We were a true family and we looked out for one another." 

But old Southwest's character was not to be found solely in it's thriving religious life, but also in the school system and it's ever-observant teachers. One narrator remembered, "Mrs. Peterson was my Principal at Randall Junior High School, so seeing her at church was like seeing her at school. Many of our teachers were also members of Zion. There was Mr. Herbert, who taught at Randall and was a member of Zion. The teachers knew the 153 families of Southwest, so nobody got away with bad behavior. They always made us aware of our conduct." Some years later that same Mrs. Peterson became Assistant Superintendent of the DC Public School system, but her students and neighbors still remembered her fondly for all she had done in Southwest. "She knew the Southwest families," recalled one narrator, "and often assisted them in their struggles."

Schulman's Market at N and Union Streets, SW
Image Courtesy: Library of Congress

Though Southwest is currently experiencing a resurgence in business activity, the urban renewal of the 1950s transformed many of the commercial corridors into residential streets, and many of the storefronts into government office buildings. But in the 1930s and 40s, a thriving small business community contributed to the cohesiveness of the neighborhood. One narrator remembers, "Many members had businesses located in the Southwest. Everything we needed was in our community. We had restaurants, cleaners, barber shops and stores." Another interviewee is more specific; " A lot of our members had businesses on Third Street, F Street, and Fourth Street... ... Someone had a shoe shop. Mr. James Brown had a print shop and used to do all of Zion's bulletins. The Barnes & Matthews Funeral Home was located on Fourth Street. I also remember the drug store, Campbell's Funeral Home, John T. Rhines Funeral Home, Bruce Wahl's Night Club, and a restaurant. Everything we need was within the Southwest community."

Zion Baptist Church's oral history project is valuable to Washington, DC not just because it preserves the history of a venerable religious institution, but because the words of its narrators breathe life into interpretations of archival records. The housing stock, church buildings, storefronts, an d school buildings of neighborhoods such as Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Shaw serve as visible reminders of what those neighborhoods once were. But in Southwest, where there are only shadows and glimpses of the neighborhood's historical city-scape, we must try to rebuild it in our minds through the memories of those who were there. The next post in this series will examine Zion, and its congregants' transition from Southwest to it's current home on Blagden Avenue, NW.

To view the edited transcript of the Zion Baptist Church "Spoken Memories" Oral History project, visit the Humanities Council's DC Digital Museum. 

DC Murals Project will be Featured as Part of Lumen8Anacostia

One of Many Great Projects Featured in Ward 8 Between April and June

As part of Lumen8Anacostia, American Dreams & Associates, Inc. will present a program showcasing the public art that is transforming Wards 7 and 8. Local artists Rik Freeman, Byron Peck, Cory Stowers, and Roderick Turner will display recent works and discuss the creative process.

This program is part of the continuing project to document the contemporary public murals of Washington, D.C. The current work includes a website developed by American Dreams and Associates, Inc., and City Arts, Inc., with partial funding by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. (Website in progress: http://www.dcmurals.info)

Critical Exposure Announces Spring Exhibit

The Show Will Highlight the Work of DC's Student Photographers!

Visit http://criticalexposurespringexhibit.eventbrite.com/ to RSVP for the opening reception with a suggested donation of $35.

Critical Exposure has been nominated for a 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. Congratulations to this recent Humanities Council grant recipient!

In DC, Church History is Neighborhood History

Zion Baptist Church Oral History Offers Unique Perspective on Urban Renewal

Southwest Washington may be one of the most enigmatic neighborhoods in the district. During the 1950s, homes and businesses that had stood in the area for decades were razed as part of the Federal Government's plan to revitalize the neighborhood, and provide office space for government agencies. The story has been written time and again by Washington historians, and a documentary film was produced that emphasized the human cost of the wholesale relocate, raze, rebuild, and return process that left out that final step for many families. A 2009 DC Community Heritage Project examined that disruptive and traumatic experience through an entirely new lens - that of the Zion Baptist Church Congregation. 

The oral history project, led by church historian Sarah J. Davidson, captured the stories of 46 longtime congregation members and former pastors. A group of professional and volunteer oral historians asked the narrators a set list of questions, that generally focused on church life and community. The oldest person interviewed was born in 1916 and had become a church member in 1928, but most of the interviewees were old enough to remember when Zion moved from Southwest to a temporary home in the YWCA on Rhode Island Avenue, NW.  One narrator recalls, "We moved from Southwest because the city took over that community to rebuild. The address of the old Zion was 337 F Street, SW. It was in the middle of the block. The freeway is there now, behind the Market Inn Restaurant." 

Some of the interviewees could trace the history of the church back even further because their families had been members in the 19th century. Zion's archives reveal ties to a group of Freedmen who were brought to Southwest Washington with the Union Army during the Civil War, and who constructed the first church in 1867. One of the narrators, recalling family traditions handed down through generations, said "my ancestors were members of Zion Baptist Church. .. They remodeled the feed store, when the church was located there." In 1870, that remodeled feed store was replaced by a new building on the same site at 337 F Street, SW where it became a major focal point in the lives of many Southwest DC residents. 

We will continue to examine this remarkable oral history project for what its narrators can tell us about life in Southwest before the 1950s, and the traumatic experience of the Federal Government's early experiment in urban renewal there. The next post will focus on the interviewees memories of Southwest as a village within the city, including relationships with neighbors, business-lined streetscapes, and, of course, the centrality of church life.

Zion Baptist Church Oral History Interviewers and Narrators, “Zion Baptist Church Presents "Spoken Memories": An Oral History Journal,” DC Digital Museum, accessed April 30, 2012, http://www.wdchumanities.org/dcdm/items/show/1421. 

Author Reading at The Arts Club of Washington

Don't Miss This Enlightening Grantee Event

Event:  

Yaël Tamar Lewin on Night's Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins

Date & Time:  

Wednesday, May 9th at 7:00pm

Location:  

The Arts Club of Washington / 2017 I Street, NW / Washington, DC / 20006

Description:   

Yaël Tamar Lewin, winner of the Sixth Annual Marfield Prize National Award for Arts Writing, will present a free public reading from her prize winning biography, Night's Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins (Wesleyan University Press: 2011) . Night's Dancer chronicles the career of Janet Collins (1917-2003), a classical and modern dancer who in 1951 became the first African-American prima ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. She also worked with influential Lester Horton and Katherine Dunham; taught at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet; and appeared in films and on Broadway for Agnes de Mille and Hanya Holm.

Beginning with Collins’ unfinished memoir detailing her early life, Lewin continues the fascinating portrait of the pioneering dancer, drawing on her own extensive research and interviews with Collins and her family, friends, and colleagues. Lewin is a dance historian, writer, and dancer living in New York. This program was funded in part by a grant from the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. Book signing and reception to follow. 

Don't Let the History of Your Neighborhood be Lost

Apply for a DC Community Heritage Project Grant

For the past five years, the Humanities Council of Washington, DC (HCWDC) has made over 80 grants to citizens and organizations interested in preserving the heritage of the city’s unique neighborhoods, landmarks, and culture through the DC Community Heritage Project (DCCHP). The DCCHP is a collaborative effort of the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, the DC Historic Preservation Office, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This year, HCWDC will maintain its commitment to preserving local history and culture, by investing in neighborhoods that have not yet had their stories told.

In recent years, D.C. has become a renaissance city, through an influx of buildings, monuments, and newly minted Washingtonians. With all this change, struggles in reconciling the old with the new are inevitable. As such, we are encouraging residents, long-time or newly-arrived, to preserve the histories they have come to appreciate.

Communities can have a powerful connection to the local school house, or the neighborhood church because of the powerful memories associated with these structures. A particularly cruel teacher or benevolent pastor are experiences shared by a group of people and talked about for years, that can eventually be raised to the level of local legend. When those memories are tied to a historic structure, the very character and culture of a neighborhood can seem to hinge on that building’s preservation. In 2009, Deanwood Heights Mainstreets produced their first walking tour of Deanwood's churches entitled “Faith and Foundation.” The group has received subsequent grants to document more houses of worship, and has added other historic Deanwood landmarks to the tour.

In 2010, Historic Mt. Pleasant Inc. combed the local archives to produce a survey of their neighborhood's historic storefronts from 1901-1938. The database they compiled includes ownership transfers, businesses operated, and architectural changes. The data reveals a past Mt. Pleasant dizzy with change and population growth, but it is open for interpretation, and available in full on Historic Mt. Pleasant's website.

But it is not just in the bricks and mortar of the cityscape that collective memory resides. In fact, the most powerful, yet ephemeral local histories reside in the minds of those who have lived them. These are the types of histories best preserved through oral history interviews. In 2007, Empower DC organized an oral history project that captured the memories of long time residents of Ivy City. The tapes revealed strong remembrances of the historic Crummell Elementary School, an endangered historic landmark and the focal point of the community. Empower DC has since expanded the oral history project and has produced a draft documentary film.

In 2009, Tendani Mpulubusi and Helping Inner City Kids Succeed produced an extraordinary documentary film on Barry Farm that explored the community's history and examined its present-day challenges. Barry Farm: Past and Present used interviews with scholars, community historians, students, and community leaders to tell a thoughtful and textured story about one of Ward 8's most historic neighborhoods.

The DCCHP seeks to preserve both the physical and the intellectual heritage of Washington’s neighborhoods. Last year, students and educators from John Eaton Elementary School used a grant from the DC Community Heritage Project to fund a study of the school's past. Students used architectural clues, oral history interviews, and archival research to piece together the history of Eaton Elementary and the surrounding portions of the Cleveland Park neighborhood. The project coordinators used the experience to create a lesson plan that they hope will be replicated by other schools in the District and across the country! The student history detectives were invited to present their findings at last year's 38th Annual DC Historical Studies Conference.

The ultimate goal of the project is to provide the skills and financial means for every neighborhood in Washington, DC to make its history known. We welcome new concepts from neighborhoods already reached by the DCCHP, but we need proposals from communities such as Trinidad, Lamond-Riggs, Lincoln Heights, Brightwood, and others that have not received a grant. Any DC resident with a story to tell about their community is encouraged to apply.

We strongly encourage first time applicants to attend one of our grant workshops. To register for a DCCHP Grant Workshop, please visit http://www.wdchumanities.org/grants/deadlines

Looking for the Grant Application?

Apply Online for an HCWDC grant Today!

The Humanities Council has gone green, streamlined, digital, and efficient! Our current grant cycle will be the first ever here at the HCWDC to use our new online grants system. The online application will make things easier for us at the office, our reviewers, and also for prospective grantees. Gone are the days of assembling large quantities of paper, multiplying them, and then toting them to the HCWDC office by 5pm on the day of the deadline, now all materials can be written, saved, returned to, attached, uploaded, sent, and verified online!

To begin an application visit our home page at http://www.wdchumanities.org

Click on "Grants" in the main navigation menu

Click "Apply for a Grant Online"

And then click "Create a New Account" to start the registration process

The deadlines and important dates for Cycle I 2012 are:

Feb 10th - All prospective applicants for a Major Grant ($1500 to $5000) must submit a preliminary application which will be reviewed by our Director of Grants. The Director will suggest improvement or updates, and decide which prospective grantees will be invited to apply.

March 9th - All applications for small grants (up to $1500) due. Grantees invited to apply for the Major Grant must submit their final proposals.

April 7th - Grant review panel meets to make final funding decisions.

April 25th - Cycle I grants awards ceremony.

For more information email grants[at]wdchumanities[dot]org.

Still Looking for that Perfect Holiday Gift

M.O.M.I.E.S TLC 's Children's Black History Calendar May Be Just What You're Looking For

M.O.M.I.E.S TLC is the outstanding organization which annually produces "The Children's Gallery of Black History," an interactive museum exhibit designed to bring history to life for kids. The mobile gallery travels around DC, and can be brought to an school or youth group near you! For more information, click here, email Nicole Howard at nicole@momiestlc.com, or call 202-545-1919.

M.O.M.I.E.S TLC is currently offering their Children's Black History Calendar for only $15. The proceeds go to support the organization, and their mission to "use cutting-edge techniques to cultivate our children's talents."

38th DC Historical Studies Conference Kicks Off this Weekend

Annual Letitia Woods Brown Lecture on the Civil War in Washington

The 38th Annual DC Historical Studies Conference kicks off this weekend with the Letitia Woods Brown Lecture, and a fascinating plenary discussion about a Digital History of the Civil War in Washington, DC. The Brown lecture is titled "Lincoln's Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC," and will be delivered by Professor Kenneth J. Winkle of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Civil War is not the only topic of discussion during the 150th Anniversary of the conflict, but it certainly is a major theme throughout the two-day conference schedule. 

The sesquicentennial of the Metropolitan Police Department will be highlighted in a panel discussion featuring department historian Lieutenant Nicholas T. Breul, with Martin Murray, and Sandra Schmidt and moderated by Bill Brown. A session on political collections in DC's archives will be moderated by Yvonne Carrigan, Head of Special Collections and Archives at George Mason University's Fenwick Library. The panel will include librarians and archivists from other area Universities as well as the DC Public Library Washingtoniana Division. Professionally guided history tours will be offered of Lafayette Square and major sites of Prohibition-Era Washington. 

Recent recipients of the Humanities Council and the DC Historic Preservation Office's DC Community Heritage Project Grant will form a panel exploring neighborhood history. Another DCCHP grantee, John Eaton Elementary School, will demonstrate their student-produced, web-based history project. Their session is rounded out by Lucinda Janke, Kesh Ladduwahetty, who produced a Humanities Council funded online exhibit on the Franklin School last year, and Kimberly Springle, Director of the Sumner School Museum and Archives and Humanities Council Board member. It is great to see so much of the great work produced by these dedicated local historians and scholars represented at the conference.

This overview by no means covers all of the sessions offered at this year's conference. With so many great speakers and new ideas, there is bound to be something of interest to just about anyone. Check the conference's blog for more details on the schedule and how to register for sessions.

Students in Cemeteries: Hands on History Learning

Students From a Recent HCWDC Funded Program to Debut Film

The Female Union Band Cemetery
As seen from Rock Creek Park

Recent grantee "I Saw! The Experience of Learning in DC," and its cadre of cemetery exploring youth will screen their film on Saturday, November 12 at 5PM. The event will be hosted by the African-American Civil War Museum at 1925 Vermont Ave, NW. The film titled "We Are Not Afraid to Make History! (Part 1)," was directed, filmed, and edited by the young participants.

Last Summer 30 young students braved the hottest part of the year investigating Washington, DC's historic African-American cemeteries. They met with historians, archeologists, and other researchers who mentored them as they reviewed primary source materials to reconstruct the lives of some of the people buried in the Antebellum era gravesites. The forthcoming film is based on the video documentation of the project.

"I Saw! The Experience of Learning in DC" is an organization that implements "Living Images in my World" as a program of community based education projects with outcomes promoting a social good, high intellectual value, and creative artistic vision.

Click Here to View Their Full Press Release

Deadlines for Cycle I 2012 Grants Set

Grants Workshop Locations To Be Released Soon

Art Historian Perry Frank and
Muralist Byron Peck with Dir. of
Grants Mark Smith and Exec. Dir
Joy Ford Austin at the 2011 Cycle
II Grant Awards Ceremony.

Though the Cycle II awards ceremony just wrapped up last week, we are already looking forward to the first grant cycle of 2012! The Humanities Council offers major grant awards of up to $5000 to qualified 501(c)3 non-profit organizations which seek to provide high-quality humanities-based projects, programs, or events to the people of Washington, DC. Small grants of up to $1500 are also offered. 

The Humanities Council highly recommends that first time grantees attend a grants workshop to learn more about the proposal process, and the types of projects which have received funding in the past. More information about the upcoming workshop series will be available soon.

Important dates and deadlines for Cycle I include:

Grant Assistance Workshops

January 10, 2012

January 12, 2012

January 19, 2012

January 24, 2012

January 26, 2012

Times and locations are to be decided.

Preliminary Applications Due for Major Grants - February 10, 2012

Final Applications Due for Major and Small Grants - March 9, 2012

Cycle I 2012 Grants Awards Ceremony - April 25, 2012

For more information on grant opportunities from the Humanities Council of Washington, DC visit www.wdchumanities.org, email grants@wdchumanities.org, or call 202-387-8391.