Connect Savannah writer Jessica Lebos has written a feature on our Block by Block program and the upcoming East Side block party. A taste:
“The place we started from was looking at how the community they live in affects the person they are becoming,” explains Keith Miller, director of Block by Block.
“Now we’re seeing how this model can be used to create successful community engagement projects and give a platform to voices that have historically been overlooked and unheard.”
For the most part, that means challenging perceptions of places not included in Savannah’s mainstream narrative. Last year’s group focused on the city’s West Side, inspiring poems and prose based on their explorations of places like Wells Park and the Garden City Gym.
This year, the blocks of the East Side have yielded rich stories about under-sung Civil Rights Movement leader Benjamin Van Clark and memories of Tin City, the off-the-grid African American community that had its own gardens and commercial district in the early 20th century.
Read the full article here.