Genealogy of Home: Past, Present, and Imagined Future
Artmaking and Writing
Special thanks to— Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, and Office of the President for their continued support. Canon for supporting TRIPOD, our intergenerational writing and photography project, since its inception in 2017. The Philadelphia Cultural Fund. Their support allows us to further our creative work for the good of our community and for all Philadelphians. TD Charitable Foundation for supporting a three-year series of public programming to develop our arts-centered model of co-living. AmeriCorps for sponsoring Anti-displacement: The Untapped Potential of University-Community Cooperative Living, a Community-led Participatory Action Research study investigating the landscape of residential displacement and affordable housing options in West Philadelphia. The Barra Foundation for supporting the pilot phase of Second Story Collective, our intergenerational co-living model that leverages the arts to spark community cohesion, neighborhood stability, and economic mobility.
Layering and Walking Jacklynn Niemiec
Jacklynn Niemiec is a Registered Architect and Assistant Professor at Drexel University teaching architectural representation and design studios. Her research focuses on the relationship between spatial memory and movement, indoor navigation, and wayfinding in architecture.
Layering and Walking Jacklynn Niemiec
LAYERING Part I: GRAB BAG Open the envelope. Select swatches. Arrange. WAYS TO LAYER: CHANCE/
Select one at a time without looking. Arrange by chance. SHARE/
Take turns selecting and arranging with a partner. ARCHIVE/
Carefully review the swatches; select ones that have meaning, arrange with intention.
Part II: CONNECT THE DOTS Connect the swatches with drawings or words. Doodle or write to bring out some memories to share with yourself or others .
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Layering Example
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WALKING Part I: RECALLING Place your pencil at the front door of a home that is special to you. Close your eyes and “walk”through the home. Use the labels to locate memories based on the senses; sight / sound / smell / touch
Some Notes:
Those curtains (sight) The Dog Barking (sound) Mom’s Cooking (smell) The Worn Handrail (touch) Repeat the drawing several times to clarify the line of the path. It is okay to draw off the page...
Part II: STORYTELLING Describe the labelled areas to someone. What do you remeber there? Why do those areas stand out to you?
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Walking Example
LAYER HERE
LAYER OR WALK
WALK
STORYTELLING
STORYTELLING
Points in Time Valerie Fox
Valerie Fox is a Teaching Professor at Drexel University and a Faculty Writing Fellow with Writers Room. She writes poetry and fiction. With Jacklynn Niemiec, she created The Real Sky, a handmade book featuring words and art. She co-wrote, Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets, 2nd edition, with Lynn Levin.
Points in Time Valerie Fox
1) Short Writings (Free Association and Memory Accessing)
PEOPLE
Think of a home you felt happy in. List family members and others who were often in this home. To go along with each person listed, include a few sentences about one or more important words or artifacts that you associate with them. Or of a specific memory. Use words to appeal to the senses (sight, sound, hearing, touch, smell). CHANGES
List several changes that occurred to the house or a room in it over the course of your time there—list several. (Any kind of changes are okay. They can be changes to people, the structure, relationships, to the inside and outside, etc.). COLORS
Think of a color that you associate with a room or space in or near your home that has been important to you. You might explore an outdoor space or an indoor space (or something in between outdoors and indoors). Describe the space and its colors. Why do you associate this color with this room or space? LEARNING/PRACTICING
Write about learning or practicing in this place—either on your own, with your family, etc. Whether learning to cook a favorite recipe, practicing an instrument, gardening, sewing, playing a game, etc. Write about teaching and learning in this place, over time.
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Short Writings (Free Association and Memory Accessing)
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Short Writings (Free Association and Memory Accessing)
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Short Writings (Free Association and Memory Accessing)
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2) Writing and Sketching (Expanding to Make a Timeline) Create a timeline that highlights three points in time, memories, connected to a place. You might use some of the writings in #1 to help you determine your points in time. Be creative in how you determine your points. Here are just a few possibilities for your points: exact dates, even times of day; colors; people; feelings; objects; perspectives. Try to represent at least three distinct moments or memories connected to both you and your home (or room, or important place) through your timeline. Think about how in a certain books you might find parallel histories, side by side, showing cultural, personal, historical happenings. Perhaps such parallel histories will find their ways into your timeline. For your structure, you might build paragraphs on three ideas. Or, you might sketch out a timeline (or timelines) and explore these memories pictorially. You might include an image (a drawing, photograph artifact) with each memory, also. Feel free to invent your own structure.
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Writing and Sketching (Expanding to Make a Timeline)
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Writing and Sketching (Expanding to Make a Timeline)
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Writing and Sketching (Expanding to Make a Timeline)
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3) Letter-writing (For Reflection and Connection) For your own enrichment or these archives, write a letter. The letter could be an update (your story so far), an explanation, or even a series of observations or questions. Possible approaches— Write a letter to someone with the idea of sending it, perhaps today. Write a letter to someone you miss (even if you know the letter might not be read). Write a letter to yourself in the future. Write a letter to your past self, at a specific point in time in your past. Write a letter to a fictional character (from a book, movie, etc.).
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Letter-writing (For Reflection and Connection)
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Letter-writing (For Reflection and Connection)
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Letter-writing (For Reflection and Connection)
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4) Follow-up (Creating More Archival Works) Share what you’ve created here with friends and family. Replicate the writing or creating activities that felt most meaningful to you. Integrate into your current hobbies and practices. For example, if you love to cook and have written about food in your home, share and try out some family recipes. If you love music, create a playlist to accompany your points in time. Relate the story of a family/group adventure or important moment (a vacation trip gone awry, a memorable holiday, how two people met each other, etc.). Create a page for your archives that tells this story. Do any of the people involved remember the story differently? If so, you might include more than one version. Make a list of favorite sayings of a beloved person in your family/home. Integrate into a representation of your home or include some pictures along with your list. Create a page for your archives honoring this person.
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Follow-up (Creating More Archival Works)
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Follow-up (Creating More Archival Works)
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Follow-up (Creating More Archival Works)
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Follow-up (Creating More Archival Works)
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Partner Up: Time, Talent, Treasures Rebecca Rose
Rebecca Rose is a professionally trained and practicing artist. She also has her Masters of Science in Human Services. As a result of her years of service on the Dornsife Community Advisory Council of the Drexel Dornsife Center, she is a participant in a Drexel research Dialogue Project on Race. She combines community history, genealogy, and art in service to our cultural dynamics. She is a member of PVCA and MCA civic associations.
Partner Up: Time, Talent, Treasures Rebecca Rose
In this first part, two participants will talk and get to know each other. STEPS
A) Select a piece of colored paper. Cut out several 2” x 2” pieces. You and your partner should select different colors of paper. B) Use the Q & A Starter Suggestions to write answers on your paper pieces. C) Take turns placing the blocks onto the squared sheets. Continue until one sheet is filled with a combination of colors and answers (half full of each participant’s answers). Talk about your answers and get acquainted. D) After the first sheet is filled, as time allows, move along to the next partner’s sheet. O&A starter suggestions: •
What are some places I have visited?
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Where am I from?
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What’s a favorite book?
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What’s an important belief?
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What kind of music do I love?
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What’s a memorable movie? Or TV show?
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What are some of my interesting accomplishments? What did I learn?
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Who are some people I’ve kept in touch with? Who have I met recently? What are my important groups that I belong to?
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In this second part, create a brief family tree: past, present, and/or an envisioned future. (You can be detailed, abstract, or symbolic).
SHARING A TREE
THAT'S ME.
Family Tree Examples
Cosmo Randazzo
Carol Richardson McCullough
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Create a Brief Family Tree
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SECOND STORY COLLECTIVE