About the Urban Memory Project
New York City stands on a precipice. Extensive development, unrestricted gentrification and urban renewal on a scale unseen since the post WWII building boom are transforming the city’s social, economic, cultural, and physical landscape, erasing layers of history. These changes are nowhere more evident than in a close study of many of the five borough’s neighborhoods. Developed by Rebecca Krucoff and Ain Gordon, The Urban Memory Project was created in response to this tide of change.
The Urban Memory Project introduces young people to alterations in the physical landscape by analyzing and documenting the surrounding environment. As historians, students draw meaning from their observations and pose a variety of questions based on their findings. What do these transformations tell us about ourselves and the world we inhabit? How will the changes impact our future? Understanding the forces at work behind such development and our role within this evolution provides us with a choice. Do we want to impact these changes, or not?
During the school years of 2005-2007, Krucoff and Gordon partnered with teachers from several Brooklyn schools to engage adolescents in an exploration of various Brooklyn neighborhoods. High school students from the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, Williamsburg Preparatory, the Secondary School for Research and Midwood High School examined trends that have influenced these communities and factors that have shaped their histories. In an effort to determine how current development impacts various segments of the population, the students used photography and oral history techniques to document aspects of the physical landscape they felt may soon disappear. Groups of students then displayed this work in community exhibitions featuring photographs, text, maps, interview excerpts and video footage of the project.
In the current school year of 2007-2008 Krucoff and Gordon are expanding The Urban Memory Project to additional schools in Brooklyn and throughout New York City, while deepening the level of student involvement within existing schools. An additional component of the project involves a research and development process that will allow Gordon to create a multi-media theatrical portrait of the borough featuring professional actors, video documentation and interview transcripts.
The Urban Memory Project introduces young people to alterations in the physical landscape by analyzing and documenting the surrounding environment. As historians, students draw meaning from their observations and pose a variety of questions based on their findings. What do these transformations tell us about ourselves and the world we inhabit? How will the changes impact our future? Understanding the forces at work behind such development and our role within this evolution provides us with a choice. Do we want to impact these changes, or not?
During the school years of 2005-2007, Krucoff and Gordon partnered with teachers from several Brooklyn schools to engage adolescents in an exploration of various Brooklyn neighborhoods. High school students from the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, Williamsburg Preparatory, the Secondary School for Research and Midwood High School examined trends that have influenced these communities and factors that have shaped their histories. In an effort to determine how current development impacts various segments of the population, the students used photography and oral history techniques to document aspects of the physical landscape they felt may soon disappear. Groups of students then displayed this work in community exhibitions featuring photographs, text, maps, interview excerpts and video footage of the project.
In the current school year of 2007-2008 Krucoff and Gordon are expanding The Urban Memory Project to additional schools in Brooklyn and throughout New York City, while deepening the level of student involvement within existing schools. An additional component of the project involves a research and development process that will allow Gordon to create a multi-media theatrical portrait of the borough featuring professional actors, video documentation and interview transcripts.
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