History Truck: Chinatown North Block Party
Now two years old, History Truck is a mobile museum creating interdisciplinary neighborhood exhibitions with the people who live, work, and play in Philly's places in spaces. In our first year of work, we collaborated with the East Kensington Neighbors Association, St. Francis Inn Ministries soup kitchen staff and guests, the Kensington Community Food Co-op, and the neighbors of Huntingdon Street to create an exhibit titled Manufacturing Fire at Little Berlin gallery which explored postindustrial textile mill fires and activism within the neighborhood over time. In its second year, partnered with Temple University's Center for Public History, I worked with the Free Breakfast Program art collective, artists Theodore A. Harris, Tree House Books, and Philadelphia Urban Creators to create They Say They Gonna Build, an exhibiition exploring the history of community building and university expansion in North Philadelphia. In 2015-2016, we will work in Chinatown North to create our third exhibition using our process of relationship-based history making to decide what the show will be about.