Just as the members of the East Austin community share in our video as it relates to the journey their neighborhood has been on, we too share in our own journey as members of this semester's African American Families class. As we formed our groups, each of us joined as individuals with our own stories and perspectives to share. As Jasmine pointed out in her blog, each of us in our committee were drawn to this project for different reasons, however each one of us was interested in raising awareness around the topic of gentrification in our target community. This once close-knit community had slowly changed. Our desire was to visit with both long-time residents and "newcomers" to learn more about their perspectives on the changes that had occurred over many years, and also the changes that are on the horizon. In the midst of the semester and our work together, we shifted our focus a bit; not in the information we wanted to learn more about, but the audience we wanted to share it with. Originally, we thought that we would create a video of collected interviews from people within the neighborhood and share it with the community at large to increase discussion about what is happening in their neighborhood. As the project evolved, we knew that sharing our project with the community was important. However, there is currently a group of very hardworking individuals that we feel do not accurately represent the face of East Austin. It was at this point that our focus shifted and our video project became a message to this committee of the importance of inclusion within their group. We are both excited and anxious to share with the class our work and look forward to additional voices to our message!
I really enjoyed the unique approach to your theme for the community service projects. I am interested to know what made y'all see this as an issue and what your goals are in doing the documentary?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your question as it is one we discussed both sides to while working on our project. The interest in this project started with a discussion around Cynthia and Jasmine's family ties in East Austin. Having worked on a previous project around this same subject, grown up in Austin, and my dad also growing up in East Austin sparked an interest for me as well. In visiting with folks we realized that there were differing opinions around the issue of gentrification in East Austin. From the previous project I worked on, I was aware of a group of individuals organized to be the stewards of the City's planning for this neighborhood. This group, while their intentions are good, is not representative of the diversity of this neighborhood as there are currently nine members, eight of which are White. I have remained in contact with this group throughout the semester and they are interested in learning more about the perceptions of long time members of this community. We will be forwarding our video to this team for their viewing and increased education on how the neighbors of East Austin feel about what their neighborhood was like in the past, what it is like now, and what it may look like in the future. Thanks for your interest in our project!
DeleteI really enjoyed watching your video the other day in class. I loved how you got the actual people who lived in the community's opinion. I never knew what gentrification meant till this project. I love the point you are trying to get across.
ReplyDeleteI like your video, interviewing real people in the community and to show us an intersection of their lives with the world. I am curious and I wasn't clear on if this was answered in class...after they found out that the community left them out did they try to pursue avenues to get involved again?
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