With the Marian Check Jackson Center for Saving and Making History and the Community Empowerment Fund
June 8, 6-8pm
Location: IFC Community Room
Join NEXT members for a learn-shop with George Barrett, Yvonne Cleveland, and Diana Koo of the Marian Check Jackson Center for Saving and Making History to dig into abundance-based community development, housing justice strategies, and actions we can take to create a more inclusive community for all. George, Yvonne, and Diana will share a comparison of needs-based vs. abundance-based approaches to community development and engage us in a storytelling activity. Participants in this event will learn about the innovative housing justice work of the Northside Neighborhood Initiative, a collaboration between the Jackson Center, UNC, and the Northside community to preserve Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s historically Black neighborhoods.
Prior to the learn-shop, we invite everyone to join us for a Jackson Center Soundwalk in Northside before NEXT’s First Thursday Happy Hour in June (June 1, 6-8pm). The Soundwalk “is an invitation to listen to everyday history-makers. Featuring the voices of over a dozen community members and narrated by Northside longtime residents, this audio tour is an introduction to some of the stories, struggles, and aspirations of our community.”
We will gather at the Jackson Center (512 W. Rosemary St. Chapel Hill) at 5:15, walk together, and listen to the recorded tour. We’ll finish with informal discussion during happy hour at Northside District (location to be confirmed). If you can’t join on that date, you can listen on your own here: https://jacksoncenter.info/soundwalk/
The Jackson Center’s story began in 2007, when “a visionary pair–Rev. Troy Harrison of St. Joseph CME Church and UNC Professor Della Pollock– began a community partnership rooted in oral histories of people who work, live, worship, play and serve in the many neighborhoods that make up Chapel Hill’s historic ‘Northside.’ Listening drew both the listeners and tellers into relationships that challenged our sense of who we are and our responsibilities for collective action. Through this partnership, historians like Mrs. Jackson shared the powerful history of this place and what was at stake with the rapid displacement of historically Black communities by rising taxes, commercial and student rental development: ‘Without the past, you have no future.’ Soon a coalition emerged of members of St. Joseph C.M.E. Church, local church and community leaders, UNC students and staff, and the many neighbors and friends who so generously offered their stories, concerns, and wisdom. We became a team dedicated to building a vibrant organization from the ground up, one as responsive to the untold abundance as to the needs expressed and visions shared. And one dedicated to preserving the future of Chapel Hill’s historically Black communities through creative community-first development.” Learn more: https://jacksoncenter.info/
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