HOME 3 | Visible and Audible Energy

HOME 3 Visible and Audible Energy

Editor: Valerie Fox University Writing Program, Faculty Writing Fellow Book and Cover Design: Patty West Editorial Assistant: Lauren Lowe ’17 Alumni Fellow, Writers Room Kirsten Kaschock University Writing Program, Associate Director: Experiential Learning Rachel Wenrick Founding Director, Writers Room With thanks to: Merle Curran-Ackert STAR Scholar Summer ‘19 Hasciya Austin WorkReady Intern Summer ‘19 Mabedi Sennanyana Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships Co-op Fall/Winter ‘18-’19 Copyright © 2019 - All rights reserved.

All rights of works included here remain with writers and artists.

PREFACE The Cooperative Living Design Workshop, held April 20, 2019, focused on the dynamics between the private and the public in co-op living environments— what is needed to maintain privacy amidst a larger, shared community of cohabitation.

This book documents the day’s events, as led by architect and Mantua resident Uk Jung ’08 and YouthBuild Philadelphia’s Greenbuilding Coordinator, George Jenkins. Before participants even arrived, YouthBuild students built rooms on the premises, which participants later explored and imagined inhabiting. In Jung’s guided, hands-on workshop, participants envisioned and created models of their own ideal spaces. What spaces should be private, public, or in between?

Where are the thresholds in an ideal shared living space? What kinds of features are desirable or essential, and why?

Also included in this book are three pieces on the sensations of home, written for the Neighborhood Histories Roundtable in October. We want to invite you to think about these home-feelings living in the structures that Jung and Jenkins helped us imagine.

—Valerie Fox, Writers Room

CONTENTS Design Workshop with Uk Jung..............8-26 Notes from the Architect Images and Impressions

YouthBuild Building on Premises, for Imagining.............................27-37 Imagery

On Home...................................38-41 Shakiya Smith, Home Smells Like Serena Agusto-Cox, Home is the Pause Calvin Kiniale, Refined

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Notes from the Architect What still affects me to this day is the visible and audible energy in the room as soon as the workshop started. You could sense the excitement at each table as people worked together. It showed that this was a viable and relevant model of living in the surrounding neighborhood— one that needs further consideration, exploration, and development. There may not be one perfect solution that works for everyone, but we need to have housing models that are able to respond to diversity in age, background, current financial circumstances, family size. —Uk Jung

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In this photo, you can see a wide age range discussing and working together.

This is one of my favorite aspects of Writers Room, as we have so much to learn from all age groups. —UJ

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In this photo, you can sense that there was an active conversation about their living arrangement. This is something very few people will ever have the chance to actually control, as it is usually arrangement informed by financial or other circumstances.

Hopefully we can learn from this and continue to research and one day develop shared living scenarios that give people that flexibility and control over their living spaces. —UJ

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I am an educator and architect living and working in the Mantua neighborhood of Philadelphia. As an architect, I am most inspired by Samuel Mockbee’s work that integrated social responsibilities with education, and in creating homes and other structures that resonate with the context and create true places. —UJ

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Group design 1 17

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Group design detail 19

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Group design 2 21

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Group design 3 23

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What I find compelling about cities like Philadelphia are the distinct neighborhoods with unique communities and character. In gentrification as we have seen in Philadelphia so far, we seem to lose that sometimes.

Fortunately, the other aspect about Philadelphia that I really appreciate is the sheer number of individuals and existing community organizations doing amazing work to combat this displacement and replacement. As a large institution in a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Drexel is a large component in the mix—and hopefully it will make proactive steps to reinforce existing surrounding communities with programs like Writers Room. —UJ

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YouthBuild Building on Premises, for Imagining Home Symposium provided an opportunity to work with adults, young people, professionals, novices—and these people are all from different cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Writers Room brings all these people together and allows them to express their inner thoughts in their own ways as they discuss the same topic. —George Jenkins

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GreenBuild students framing rooms to imagine shared spaces 29

Yusha Johnson and Lowell Nottage in conversation�

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I have seen all of my students grow and be inspired. And it brings joy to me when I see them connecting to the community and learning so many positive lessons that will affect them for life. I wish everyone could feel the power that we have when we all come together in one room to talk and to write. —GJ

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After working with so many positive people during the Home Symposium at Writers Room, it has shown me that Green Building is not only about construction, but it’s about what each person has to offer. You don’t just have to be energy-efficient—you have to care about people in your community and what affects them.

—GJ

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Participants mapping communal spaces 35

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SENSATIONS OF HOME These impressions were written as part of the first symposium on October 13, 2018.

Home Smells Like Shakiya Smith Home smells like cleaning products and the newest Febreze because my mom really likes to clean—and loves trying out new Febrezes.

Home sounds like K-pop and my nephew laughing. Because that’s what type of music I’m into now and my nephew finds everything hilarious.

Home looks like the inside of my room where I spend all my time.

Home feels like the carpet beneath my sock clad feet.

Home tastes like the pizza I eat almost every day.

Home is the Pause Serena Agusto-Cox Home is the pause in the lines of a new stanza, it blankets you against unexpected winds that blow in.

It’s the coziness of the familiar lines in a poem you memorized as a child in school that provides you strength in trying times. The warmth of the sun in a stanza born from imagination that keeps out the chill of writer’s block and of disappointed readers. Home is a fully realized poem infused with ancestors whispering the truth amidst the darkness and uncertainty.

Refined Calvin Kiniale Home smells like grass and cow dung Home sounds like chicken Home sounds like silence Home sounds like Renee Home looks like my tired mum Home tastes like fresh tomatoes Home tastes like honey Home feels like home Home feels like rest Home smells like curry chickpeas Home feels like not home until I leave

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ABOUT Writers Room Writers Room is a university-community literary arts program engaged in creative placemaking and art for social justice. The mission of Writers Room is to develop inclusive, intergenerational, co-creative places that foster connection and community. When all stories are valued, emerging and more experienced writers can recognize and share in each other’s gifts. www.writersroomdrexel.org

YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School’s mission is to empower young adults (18-20 year-olds) to develop skills and connect to opportunities by fostering an environment of love, support, and respect for their whole person. Students graduate high school and successfully transition to college and career as critically conscious leaders, committed to positive change for themselves and their communities. www.youthbuildphilly.org

Photo Credits: All photographs in this book are by Lauren Lowe and Devin Welsh.

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SMART HOUSE