“Sociologists who study organizations sometimes use the term ‘field’ to describe a set of organizations linked together as competitors and collaborators within a social space devoted to a particular type of action — such as a market for certain products, the pursuit of urban development, or the realm of electoral politics. Agreements struck among the organizations that compose a field set the bounds on what kinds of organizational and individual action are possible.” – sociologist Nicole Marwell’s Bargaining for Brooklyn: Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City
My Urban Practice Fellowship site is City Lore, a folklore and cultural preservation organization. The organization’s mission is to “document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. We [City Lore] work in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions.” Their fields consist of history, art history, anthropology, urban studies, and sociology. I view cultural preservation work as important because it recognizes cultures outside of the mainstream westernized American history narrative. As we know, this narrative marginalizes the histories of black and brown communities. As I have studied African American history through the lens of American history, I have noticed how it has been viewed as the supporting role and not existing outside of the white American narrative. While this is somewhat true, black and white are co-dependent on each other to have meaning, it is disheartening to be a black individual in America and be socialized to view my history as not existing outside of white terms. It is complicated; blackness is dependent on whiteness but blackness also has meaning and value that is not solely dependent on whiteness.
While City Lore is not a racial justice organization, they do work towards advocacy in regards to preservation of marginalized cultures. Entering this fellowship, I read about Molly’s work on the casitas, a community development space created by Puerto Rican residents of the Bronx. Molly was advocating for the casitas to be seen as traditional cultural property, a label that would assist in the preservation of the casitas. The fight for the casitas to been viewed as property with cultural and historic value by the National Registers is an example of why I am interested in cultural preservation work. In a way, cultural preservation work is advocacy and activism efforts in a world that was centered on westernized white ideals of what history and culture are.
In the field of cultural preservation organizations, there are many across the country; it’s not a small field but rather it’s a part of local community’s framework. Since cultural preservation is heavily linked to history, regional historic preservation societies also could count as cultural preservation organizations. There are local historic societies that are representative of cities to boroughs; two examples are the Brooklyn Historical Society and the New York Historical Society. Due to the history element of these organizations, they also function as museums or galleries to educate the public. In this respect, City Lore has a community art gallery. Generally, cultural preservation organizations are multipurpose spaces that build and highlight local communities while also educating the larger public. This larger public includes people who are external of the community being highlighted in the exhibit or program.
Regarding Marwell’s statement, “Agreements struck among the organizations that compose a field set the bounds on what kinds of organizational and individual action are possible,” City Lore encompasses this idea in their mission statement. It is within City Lore’s work to view themselves as collaborators of the folklore artists and performers who come to share their histories and culture with the organization. While they do not say this specifically, I view their self-positioning as collaborators, as a re-distribution of the power back to the marginalized artists and performers who share their experiences. Since City Lore is a nonprofit, they are not profiting off of the exhibits and programs that they host. The staff are people who are culture and history lovers, enthusiasts, and scholars who give back while doing what they love.
Work Cited
Garfinkel, Molly. “January 2014. Vol. 18, No. 1. – Preserving a Hometown Corner for Posterity: Casita Rincón Criollo as a Traditional Cultural Property – Molly Garfinkel.” CultureWork. Center for Community Arts and Cultural Policy, 29 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.
“Our Vision.” City Lore. City Lore, 11 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 July 2017.
It can be really difficult to pinpoint the field in which City Lore functions, first because it’s quite different from the kind of social organizations Marwell is describing and, second, because it works to fill in gaps in folk culture that are identified by the “folk” themselves. In this way, they are really unlike any other organization. On the other hand, they do have a lot in common with museums and historical societies, as well as arts non-profits, galleries, and even media production companies. I think you’re right that what orients them is their mission statement, more than the physical space they occupy or the activities in which they are involved. This seems to make City Lore a really flexible and responsive organization in a way that keeps them non-institutional and, at the same time, a bit precarious.