This studio project focused on the historic harm and injustices inflicted upon the historic 15th ward in Syracuse, NY throughout the early and mid 1900's . Through discriminatory housing practices, workplace practices, and many more spoken and unspoken racialized policies and practices, immigrants, Jews, and African Americans were relegated to some of the worst living and working conditions within Syracuse. Often displaced and uprooted when a new city project was underway or when the interstate highways were built. These communities were the first to lose their homes, their businesses and their dense and vibrant neighborhood fabric.

 

Our task was to reimagine how black joy, and social, economic and public health outcomes could be improved and prioritized for the neighborhoods in or close by to the historic 15th ward boundaries. As well as how the powerful institutions now capitalizing on the land that was once the 15th ward, Upstate Medical, Syracuse University, and SUNY ESF, could choose to become community partners in this kind of reparations effort, working towards building a brighter and more just and equal future for historically marginalized Syracuse residents moving forward.