Neighborhood Stories
[bc]'s Neighborhood Stories is a research and documentation project that celebrates community identity, history, and culture by showcasing neighborhood histories. This initiative amplifies neighborhood voices by working directly with residents to document neighborhood narratives and provide a platform to share these stories. Products of the initiative include films, exhibits, and publications that trace the interrelated social, economic, political, and physical histories within a neighborhood.
Learn more through our Neighborhood Stories project guide.
Watch our series of Neighborhood Stories feature films.
View our collection of one-on-one Neighborhood Stories videos.
Check out other projects that fall within our POP [People Organizing Place] Initiative here.
[bc] Contributors:
Jennifer Dowland
Lauren Powers
Hafsa Ambreen
Lizzie MacWillie
Craig Weflen
Thomas Simpson
Emily Schmidt
Maria Bergh
Katherine Dike
Melanie Wood
Julia Lindgren
Diana Kichler
Roger Mainor
Laura Muniz
Elizabeth Jones
Andrew Tran
Matthew Weiss
Omar Hakeem
Jesse Miller
Valeria Landeros
Kevin Clapp
View individual neighborhoods:
Arts District
Wynnewood North
Elm Thicket
Cedars
Mount Auburn
West Dallas
10th Street
Downtown
Deepwood
Dolphin Heights
La Bajada
Joppa
UPDATES (General)
Community History Exhibits Published
March 19, 2021
We recently wrapped up our Dallas Neighborhood Stories project in partnership with the Dallas Public Library (DPL) with three digital Community History exhibits published to DPL’s blog, Booked Solid. The communities in focus were West Dallas, South Dallas, and Red Bird.
We began each community history effort in late 2019 with one full day of archiving at the local library branch, which led to multiple follow-up interviews and one and one meetings with longtime community members. This project is a small piece of a process that will take years, even generations of Dallasites, to truly give justice to each neighborhood’s robust history.
Check the exhibits out at each link below - and be sure to share with folks who might be interested!
South Dallas Community History
The contributions, which range from documentation of West Dallas residents’ struggle against lead contaminated soil to memorabilia from Carter High School in Red Bird, will help to reshape a narrative that has long been dominated by the history of white Dallasites. This work is an effort to strengthen awareness of our city, celebrate the diverse places that give it character and texture, and create platforms for active dialogue about its history and future.
The West Dallas portion of the project was featured in KERA News.
With these small exhibitions, we hope to encourage more people to record their personal history with the Library and help expand the collection.
Dallas Neighborhood Stories Event Update
May 7, 2019
Last weekend we kicked off our Dallas Neighborhood Stories series to collect and archive community histories in partnership with the Dallas Public Library. Held at the Dallas West Branch Library, the history harvest was an effort to digitize photos, documents, and other personal artifacts as well as collect and oral histories about West Dallas.
Folks from around the community came with their personal artifacts for preservation and several residents also opted to share their oral histories in a film interview. We loved seeing old letters, photographs, yearbooks, and other keepsakes from the area being preserved for future generations. Memorabilia from Oak Cliff’s 1940s women’s bowling league were among the treasures. These objects and first-person narratives are so valuable in preserving the history of this rapidly-changing neighborhood. These items will be available for public access through the Dallas Public Library.
Thanks to everyone who participated -- residents, volunteers, and staff alike. We are looking forward to adding to the work we began last weekend and working with residents of West Dallas to archive their histories.
If you are looking to contribute artifacts to be scanned by the library please contact the Dallas Public Library by calling (214) 670-1433 or email genealogy@dallaslibrary.org for more information on how you can scan your documents or contribute your history to the public archives.
If you are interested in sharing an oral history to be filmed please contact Lizzie MacWillie by calling 214-252-2900 or lizzie@bcworkshop.org to set-up an appointment to record your story.
This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
[bc] Receives Common Heritage Grant from the NEH
January 28, 2019
We are excited to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to partner with the Dallas Public Library for a new project which will further the digitization and oral history aspects of the Neighborhood Stories program through events and exhibitions in the neighborhoods served by the Library’s Polk-Wisdom, Dallas West, and Martin Luther King Jr. Branches.
This collaboration builds off of several years of work by [bc] to collect and preserve Dallas’s local histories as they relate to changes in the physical and cultural form of the city. Through oral histories and physical artifacts like photos and documents, the project will document how these changes have had an impact on Dallas’s historic communities of color and how residents experienced cultural and demographic shifts in their neighborhoods during the Civil Rights period and beyond.
Topics to be explored include city planning, development, and school desegregation. Ultimately, [bc] hopes to advance a greater understanding of the way in which historical inequities have had a role in shaping the communities we see today. Given various efforts currently taking place across the city to better understand issues of racial equity and how future development may impact vulnerable communities, the project will leverage this momentum to engage Dallasites in a re-examination of local histories.
Project activities will begin in 2019. [bc] encourages any individuals and organizations who are interested in participating in this effort to reach out to Lizzie MacWillie, Associate Director, who will lead the project.
Stay tuned for future updates on the dates and locations of digitization events in these three locales.
This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
We need your help!
Since 2011, our Neighborhood Stories program has been collecting stories from across the city to celebrate community identity, history, and culture. This initiative amplifies neighborhood voices by working directly with residents to document neighborhood narratives and provide a platform to share these stories. In 2015, [bc] launched the online version of the POP Neighborhood Map, and digital tool providing information and stories from the 300+ neighborhoods we have identified across Dallas. However, we still don't have a story for each neighborhood that appears on the POP Neighborhood Map!
The infographic above will allow Dallas residents to record their own Neighborhood Stories interview. The graphic comes complete with tips and tricks, a questionnaire, and instructions for sharing your footage with us. Once we receive the footage, [bc] will edit it, upload it to our YouTube channel, and link it to the POP Neighborhood Map. Help us make sure your neighborhood's story is told! Submit a Neighborhood Stories interview today!
Neighborhood Stories SEED Awards Honorable Mention
January 22, 2014
POP Neighborhood Stories has been recognized as a 2014 SEED Award for Excellence in Public Interest Design Honorable Mention! Winning projects span the globe from Peru, Brazil, India, Israel, Mozambique, China, and the United States. We are very proud to have our work recognized along side so many great projects.
2014 SEED Award Winners: Comunidad Ecologica Saludable, Puenta Piedra, Lima Peru Can City, Sao Paulo, Brazil The Potty Project, New Delhi, India Towns Association for Environmental Quality Green Building Headquarters, Sakhnin, Israel Community How-To-Guides, Detroit, Michigan, United States Manica Football for Hope Centre, Bairro Vumba, Manica, Mozambique
Honorable Mentions:Dime Kam Minority Cultural Heritage in China, Dimen, China Walk [Your City], Raleigh, North Carolina, United States POP Neighborhood Stories, Dallas, Texas, United States
The fourth annual SEED Awards received applications from 28 countries. The SEED Award recognizes designs that address the critical social, economic, and environmental issues in the world. Winners were selected by an esteemed jury based on the following criteria: Effectiveness, Excellence, Inclusiveness, Impactful, and Systemic and Participatory. The jury members were: William Morrish, Jury Chair, of Parsons The New School of Design; Cara McCarty of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; Andres Lepik of the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München; Esther Yang of the Max Bond Center for Design for the Just City; and Christopher London of The New School.
bcWORKSHOP's past SEED Award winning projects include the Congo Street Initiative (Winner, 2011); Gurley Place at Jubilee Park (Honorable Mention, 2012); and Colonias Planning & Implementation (Honorable Mention, 2013).
Neighborhood Stories at Housing Plus
August 29, 2014
POP Neighborhood Stories a Place by Design Finalist!
October 10, 2013
The POP Neighborhood Stories initiative was recognized this past week by SXSW Eco in Austin, TX as one of 15 finalists from 75 applicants in the Place by Design competition. The competition honors good design “having the ability to reflect a community’s culture and values and compels people to engage with their everyday surroundings.” See all of the Place by Design finalists here, and congratulations to the four great winning projects: Ballroom Luminoso, From Blight to Bright, INSITU, and The Looper.
Over the last year, POP Neighborhood Stories has hosted six celebratory events in the Dallas neighborhoods of La Bajada, Dolphin Heights, Wynnewood North, Tenth Street, Mount Auburn, and the Dallas Arts District, reaching over 1,400 total participants. Each event temporarily transforms space in historic neighborhoods into a celebration of each neighborhood's unique culture and development and provides a platform for dialogue about the history and future. This series of events was made possible in part by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
We would like to extend our thanks to all of the community members and volunteers that participated in and contributed to these efforts and who make this work possible.
In Awards, WorkTags Dallas, POP Dallas, Neighborhood Stories, Emily Schmidt, Thomas Simpson, Craig Weflen, Katherine Dike, Maria Bergh, Leslie Nepveaux, Lauren Powers, Melanie Wood
BigBang! 2012
October 26, 2012
bcWORKSHOP provided a variety of activities concerning Dallas neighborhoods at the 2012 bigBANG!, organized by Dallas Social Venture Partners. Located in Union Station, this day-long forum convened the thinkers and doers of the city for an opportunity to catalyze positive impact. Many components of the POP Dallas initiative were engaged by event participants, including the POP City Map which allowed attendees to identify and mark their neighborhoods. The Story House also made its debut, and new interviews were collected inside of it in collaboration with educational nonprofit Commit!, an organization dedicated to realizing children's full potential. Fifteen different neighborhoods were represented with 30 new recorded interviews. Next door, bcFELLOWs led two high-energy work sessions utilizing the POP Toolkit, empowering participants to think about the changes they can affect in their own communities.
Neighborhood Stories
September 27, 2012
Neighborhood Stories is an effort of bcWORKSHOP to strengthen awareness of our city, celebrate the diverse places that give it character and texture, and create a platform for active dialogue about its history and future. Neighborhood Stories celebrates individual voices through interviews with residents and other neighborhood stakeholders as part of bcWORKSHOP’s POP Dallas (People Organizing Place) initiative, a public interest design effort to strengthen the identity and vitality of our city’s neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are the scale of space where we most naturally interact--the space of our everyday lives--and where we form the communities that help shape ourselves. The stories people share about where they live--their memories, their concerns, their dreams--show us why place matters.