Remembering the Bottom Through The Street and Feets of The Neighborhood: How Former Residents of Knoxville’s Destroyed Black Neighborhood, Remember Their Place?
Topics:
Keywords: urban renewal, public memory, Black places, The Bottom
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Enkeshi El-Amin, West Virginia University
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Abstract
From the 1950 the city of Knoxville embarked on an urban renewal project that razed over 500 structures in a neighborhood that was called The Bottom. Despite having been a dynamic community with memorable people and places, the public image of the Bottom often only revolves around its destruction. The Bottom is depicted locally as a grossly impoverished neighborhood where people lived in slums that the city tore down. Former residents of The Bottom, however, remember their place differently. Almost seven decades since the onset of urban renewal, their collective accounts are not reminiscent of the poverty and hardship that was a reality for many, or even the disaster of urban renewal. Rather, they mapped their neighborhood by the “streets and the feets” they knew. They recalled the names, boundaries and their relationships with the people and places. On August 27th, 2022, in collaboration with former residents of The Bottom and others, I curated Street and Feets: A Living Exhibit of The Bottom. The exhibit entailed a neighborhood tour marked by signs of the “streets and feets” they remember. It invited the audience to celebrate and affirm the existence of the people and places of The Bottom while also providing the space for former residents to share their own stories and remember their place together. This paper discusses the main principles that guided the work of this exhibition, the decisions the team took in terms of design and narrative and the events of and public reaction to the tour.
Remembering the Bottom Through The Street and Feets of The Neighborhood: How Former Residents of Knoxville’s Destroyed Black Neighborhood, Remember Their Place?
Category
Paper Abstract