We Still Here: A Neighborhood Portraiture Series
Community members are invited to drop by the site to have their photograph taken by Tieshka Smith for the portrait series entitled “We Still Here.” A stunning textile quilt constructed by textile/fiber/quilt/mixed media artist and fellow collaborator Betty Leacraft, featuring found and archival images of the Kensington community, will serve as the backdrop for the portraits. “We Still Here” will be be a photographic response to an important question raised by the images in Leacraft’s quilt: “How has Kensington changed?” It will make visible all who choose to make a home here, and stand as a testament to their resilience, determination, hopes and dreams for a just neighborhood. The series will be displayed at a closing event to be held on-site in July.

Blueprint for a Just Neighborhood
Addressing gentrification and displacement within a changing Philadelphia, this site offers a dynamic presentation space with a wooden framework built to resemble the first floor of an affordable house. From now through July, the site will host installations and programs that layer personal narratives with housing market statistics in order to form a collective understanding of what it means to be a “just neighbor.”