The project Passport to the Past is a guided walking tour that highlights twenty sites of resistance and resilience of historically marginalized groups and immigrants around NYU’s main campus. Each site was home to either a prominent individual or movement from historically marginalized communities: LGBTQ+, Women, African-American, Native American, Latinx and Chinese-American and other immigrant communities. To accompany the tour, participants will be given a small booklet, that includes a map along with short descriptions about the prominence of each location. The booklet also serves as a self guided tour and is interactive– asking participants to respond to questions that reflect on their knowledge of locations in the area and why they think learning about hidden histories is relevant.
In our research on Freshman orientation at NYU, we learnt that there are 500 events for Freshman to choose from during orientation week and not one of them focuses on the rich history of resistance and resilience surrounding the NYU campus. We wanted to change this not only for Freshman orientation but Graduate student orientation as well. We explored the topic of hidden histories as a collaborative activist art project and our class became an art collective for the entire semester in spring 2018.
Graduate student orientation, Walking Tour, 2018
