Meet the Educators
& Advisors

[What identities are central to you?]
I am a queer, trans and disabled storyteller. My heritage Kuwaiti bedu and European.

[What does home look, feel, smell, etc. to you?] Home is often a place I find in moments or people rather than in a house or building. Home is connection for me, and the feeling of being held.

[Relationship to Public Housing?] I have lived in subsidized housing as well as lived while being housing insecure. Government assistance and programs have been part of my life for many years.

[What identities are central to you?]
I really value my identity as an immigrant, a Black woman, a person driven by curiosity, a desire to connect with others, and most recently, a new mom.

[What does home look, feel, smell, etc. to you?] Home smells like soup on the stove when coming in from a cold winter’s day.

[Relationship to Public Housing & why NPHM?] As new immigrants to Canada, my family lived in public housing for the first few years of our arrival. Without it, we would never have made the Canadian Dream possible. I’m involved with NPHM because I was in public housing when I was young, and I believe in its importance. I also love NPHM’s mission and programs. They treat community members as participants, not artifacts. They are doing the museum thing right.

[What identities are central to you?]
Black; Puerto Rican; Woman; New Yorker

[What do you do when you need to reconnect to your heart?] When I need to reconnect with my heart I find an ocean and swim.

[Relationship to Public Housing?] Former Resident; Family lived and lives in public housing

[What identities are central to you?] Artist, writer, book-lover, information-sharer, researcher, listener, cheerleader of science, friend.

[Share one of your dreams] I dream of a world where housing is a human right and there are reparations for past and present discrimination.

[What is your relationship to public housing & why NPHM?] I have been a neighbor of public housing.

I am involved with the Oral History programs to help facilitate the behind-the-scenes archival preservation of these stories so they can be heard.

[What identities are central to you?]
queer, Black, biracial, middle-class, disabled, lover of Star Trek, storyteller, filmmaker, multimedia educator, lifelong learner

[What does home look, feel, smell, etc. to you?] Home, to me, is well-heated and well-cooled. I can breathe deeply and feel comfortable and safe in my home. My nervous system can relax. My home is covered in artwork from my family, friends, and inspirations. It smells like woody/botanical candles or the smell of a home-cooked meal. My loved one’s and I enjoy meals, board games, films, discussions, and tea in my home.

[Relationship to Public Housing & why NPHM?] I currently work for the Invisible Institute, which started out of grassroots work in public housing in the late 1990s.

I became involved with NPHM by being reached out to to teach audio recording and editing skills to the BTA cohort and jumped at the opportunity because I think BTA is awesome!

[What identities are central to you?]
I am a first-generation Ecuadorian American born and raised in NYC. As an artist, activist-scholar, filmmaker and oral historian, I’m passionate about creating participatory stories documenting social change. Other obsessions include running, traveling and cooking with my daughter for family and friends.

[What does home look, feel, smell, etc. to you?] Home is the way I reconnect to my heart, to return to a place where I know I belong and feel safe. And my neighbors and community are a tremendous part of that. I’m grateful to have a place that welcomes me and looks out for me during all the ups and downs. We are all worthy of this and it’s worth fighting for.

[Relationship to Public Housing?] My storytelling and socially engaged art-making was born through self-identity: as a first generation daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, where I’ve had to advocate for my parent’s rights as well as my own in this country, as a single mother who sought a college education to propel myself out of poverty, as a longtime Bushwick resident fighting against displacement due to gentrification, as an oral historian and educator who wants to see her students get better access to the resources they need to succeed, and as an activist-scholar who recognizes that academia perpetuates inequality. This has directed me towards stories that provide opportunities for community engagement to address fair and affordable housing issues. I believe that these stories are the foundation for transformative strategies to create more equitable cities.

[Why/how did you get involved with NPHM?] I am proud to be involved with the NPHM Oral History program’s efforts to preserve, archive and share public housing residents powerful stories of home.

[What identities are central to you?]
I am a Black/African American liberated soulutionary memory worker for the people.

[Relationship to Public Housing?] I have vivid, warm, and intimate memories of being in my aunt and cousin’s home in the “Ida Beez” (Ida B. Wells Homes). Playing in the halls at my friend Nia’s family home in one of the two remaining (at the time) buildings around 44th Cottage Grove. We referred to the buildings by the address like 4410 and 4416. Those are probably not the right addresses but that is how we knew who lived where; and which location to give when we were headed that way. I grew up down the street on 44th Vincennes. It was the 80s and our parents let us play throughout the neighborhood until the street lights came on with less supervision than many parents of today. Playing on the playgrounds and in the courtyards was mostly fun during the summer because everyone was outside and no one cared or knew if you lived there or not. When my aunt lived in the “Ida Beez” there was a swimming pool near her apartment, which was in the “walk-ups”. I liked watching people at the pool but was too shy to get in or go near it. There was like a code when it came to discussing “the projects”. No one specified that someone lived in “the projects” when they talked outside from where they lived. For some it held a negative connotation – others a place of pride and belonging – something I didn’t immediately pick up on and or fully understand until I was much older. People negatively focus on the violence related to public housing and overlook the communities that thrived throughout public housing developments across the city. When the buildings were demolished so were integral communities that speak to a community’s existence.

[Why/how did you get involved with NPHM?] I became involved and connected with the good folks at the NPHM as an inaugural NPHM Oral History Archive and Corps member when I accepted an invitation to be in conversation and to break bread with other like-minded social justice comrades upon the request of Lisa Lee. I’m proud to continuously support the ongoing work of this meaningful organization.

[What identities are central to you?]
Black, queer, southern, disabled archivist & memory worker

[What do you do when you need to reconnect to your heart?] When I need to reconnect to my heart I commune and converse with my ancestors and loved ones who know my heart the most.

[Relationship to Public Housing & why NPHM?] While I personally haven’t lived in public housing, I’ve spent lots of time visiting family members and friends who did. I’m involved with the NPHM Oral History Programs because I believe the story of our homes and neighborhoods are a way to access some of the most beautiful memories of who we are, why we are the way we are, and who helped to shape who we are.

[What identities are central to you?]
I am a white, middle-class, queer Jewish parent and an an artist who consciously tries to approach medical complexity and parenting with my queer and artist identities.

[What does home look, feel, smell, etc. to you?] Home feels like multiple people in a space working/playing together and also orbiting around one another while pursuing personal interests/joy

[Relationship to Public Housing?] I work to support housing organizers and residents/former residents advocate for change and identify opportunities to self-represent, specifically using oral history tools to think out loud, solve problems, amplify less public voices, interrupt outsider histories/documentation, and share the wisdom of lived experience

[What identities are central to you?]
I describe myself first as a Human being, a black woman and a cis gendered person of color. I am middle class and highly educated.

[What does home look, feel, smell, etc. to you?] I live in my childhood home and so it has a lot of memories locked inside its walls. That is where my interest in oral history originates. What stories do we tell about ourselves and how can the narrative be complicated by listening to the stories of other people both similar and dissimilar from us?

[Relationship to Public Housing?] I lived in public housing in New York City until I was 7 years old. My parents later bought a house as our primary residence. The neighborhood has been gentrified and I am still reckoning with that change and what it means for me and my community.