As part of their final project, students in Critical Pedagogy, Artists, and the Public Sphere developed a workshop to hear and collect stories based around the Lower East Side. The workshop focused on people’s stories about the L.E.S. in relation to four words/concepts: belonging, displacement, territory, and resistance/insistence. These words share an overall theme of gentrification and were chosen based on the students’ discussions of their unease as NYU students taking up neighborhood space in a vastly changing area. Students asked passerby to write their story of displacement or belonging in the L.E.S. on post-it notes to place on a map of the area. The workshop was held in two locations with vastly different interactions: St. Mark’s Place and the Tompkins Square Library.
Preparation for the workshops:
Workshop #1: St. Mark’s Place
Workshop #2: Tompkins Square Library
