Ashton Design’s Post

Black History in Vancouver, British Columbia | Hogan's Alley Black settlement dates back to 1858 when Governor James Douglas introduced a policy welcoming Black Californians to British Columbia. Nearly 800 free Black people left the oppressive racial conditions of San Francisco for a new life on Vancouver Island. These pioneers enriched the socio-economic life in their community, overcoming intense discrimination and adversity. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Vancouver’s Black Community clustered in the East End, with its nucleus at a site known as Hogan’s Alley, and became a thriving Black community and cultural hub. At one point, Hogan's Alley was home to more than 800 Black community members and featured the African Methodist Episcopal Chapel, a residence for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the legendary Vie's Chicken and Steak House. With this hotspot, Jimi Hendrix's grandmother Nora, a vaudevillian performer and choir singer, worked as a cook. The Great Northern Railway station nearby also meant many Black porters chose Hogan's Alley as a home in the 1920s. City planning in the early '70s led to the displacement and erasure of Hogan's Alley. In 2021, the City of Vancouver announced it would provide a community land trust to the Hogan's Alley Society to deliver housing, public benefits, and amenities. Hogan’s Alley Society (HAS) is a non-profit organization committed to daylighting the presence of Black history in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia. Images from the City of Vancouver Archives. Image 1: 832 Main Street in Hogan's Alley, 1969, Vancouver, B.C. Image 2: 224 Union Street, a street in Hogan's Alley, 1968, in Vancouver B.C. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ea8XTydK and https://lnkd.in/gxejVmz9 Watch: https://lnkd.in/gaAbVhwN #DidYouKnow #BlackHistoryInVancouver #CABL2024 #HogansAlley #BlackHistory .

Mount Calvary Christian Center in Seattle's Central District will be demolished in early February to make way for an eight-story mixed-income housing building called the Sarah Queen. Jaebadiah Gardner, the founder and CEO of GardnerGlobal, Inc., says the building will honor the legacy of black women and entrepreneurship and that a significant portion of the units will be affordable. Read More: https://lnkd.in/gjipKNRT

𝐌𝐲 20,000 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Last Saturday, despite the cold, I took nearly 20,000 steps, but this walk was about more than just fitness, it was a journey through history, community, and connection. As part of the Queens Walking Group, in collaboration with Lewisham Homes, I joined an incredible Black History 365 walk through Deptford, South East London. With over 70 people in attendance, we walked not just to cover distance, but to uncover historical moments, some painful, others inspiring that have shaped so many lives, including mine. Thank you to Steve Martin for the incredible insight and detailed information as you guided us through the tour. Also thank you to the incredible young photographer Keviz_photography and the others who shared amazing pictures. Why Preserving History Matters To Me 🔸 Understanding Our Roots – Deptford’s deep ties to maritime history, migration, and Black contributions helped me appreciate the journey. 🔸 Honouring Those Before Me – From enslaved individuals brought through its docks to the Windrush generation, these stories must never be forgotten. 🔸 Building a Legacy – If history isn’t preserved, it risks being erased. Keeping these narratives alive ensures future generations understand their foundations. Community: The Heart of It All What also stood out for me was how micro-communities came together for a shared purpose. With over 70 people in attendance, we weren’t just walking, we were learning, connecting, and building bonds. Each of us came with different motivations, yet, in that moment, we became one community in motion, creating memories that will last a lifetime. This walk reinforced a powerful truth: community isn’t just about where we come from, but what we build together. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 How has history shaped your view of community? Have you experienced a gathering where different motivations united people? What does preserving history mean to you? Let’s keep the conversation going, share your reflections below #PowerOfCommunity #BlackHistory365 #DeptfordHistory #QueensWalkingGroup #LewishamHomes #PreservingOurPast #WalkingTogether #LegacyAndHeritage

Talib Graves-Manns & Carmen Cauthen, mindful of Dr. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Habit_2, #Begin_With_The_End_In_Mind. How would you like to see community move from reactive to proactive? Here's a good conversation compliments of GARY JONES, MBA. #Iron_Sharpens_Iron @ #Get_With_The_Program, #BuyFixUpReBuildTheBlock. Your thoughts? https://lnkd.in/eWdPfqX9

Residents have until Monday, Dec. 30, to review and provide feedback for a draft of the Fayetteville Arts and Culture Plan, which has been posted on the City’s website. More than 1,250 community members contributed to the Arts and Culture Plan draft. The finalized plan will provide strategic direction and reinforce Fayetteville’s identity as a hub of cultural richness and artistic innovation. To learn more and review the drafted plan, go to: https://lnkd.in/griBiNnj

🏠 Reclaiming Our Legacy, Building Our Future 🏠 At the heart of BCIA is the mission to reclaim the spaces and places that have shaped our history. We’re not just about land and buildings—we’re about preserving community, culture, and Black excellence. With the unwavering support of local businesses, organizations, and individuals like you, we’re making strides toward a brighter, more hopeful future. Together, we’re proving that change is possible and that Black neighborhoods in Seattle can thrive once again. Let’s continue to “buy the blocks Black” and build a legacy that will last for generations. ✨ @fameequityallianceofwashington, @africatownlandtrust, @tubmanhealth, @outsidethinc, @seattleu, @blackdotunion, @ccsww, @curtisscalhouncc, @africatownsea #SeattleCentralDistrict #SeattleCommunity #BlackSeattle #BlackBusinesses #BuyTheBlocksBlack #BlackExcellence

What do you think about the Red Hat Amphitheatre moving a block south (further into what was 4th Ward - a Black community destroyed between 1968-1971 to build the Dawson-McDowell Connector in a process called Urban Renewal) and closing a block of South Street, one of the original boundaries of the city of Raleigh? Do you even realize that this is happening? There is a community meeting this coming Monday at the Memorial Auditorium to share more information and to ask questions. https://lnkd.in/eBWpFxvy Sorriest job of community engagement that I have ever seen - and that's not on the Office of Community Engagement but on the folks who thought that this didn't need to be addressed by ALL of the people in the city, not just those who inhabit the "downtown" area. Here is more information about the meeting. Show up. Ask questions. https://lnkd.in/ensgRanm Have they considered that with all of the new development and planned development what closing the street off will mean for all of those people - because they won't all be walking! As we are continually asking for recognition of 4th Ward - is the only recognition going to be a mural painted on a wall that people drive past? And why must the Black community continue to bear the brunt of the development in this city? This is not what Opportunity Zones were supposed to be about - they were for the building up of the community not the continued making money for gentrifing developers. Does any of this mean that I am against downtown businesses? No. I just hate shoddy and haphazardly put together engagement and this is that. Will Shaw University be affected by this in a positive way or will they be left out in the re-routing? According to what I read on the City's website, now the strollway will access Lenoir street, bypassing Shaw University on the way from Chavis to Dix. That seems odd. https://lnkd.in/egc-4AuZ

https://lnkd.in/eCNbjHVK Grant opportunity for historically black settlements: ELIGIBILITY. Out(sider) Preservation Initiative (OPI) Grants are open to descendant-led projects that lead to diasporic return and increased public interest in historically Black settlements. PROJECTS. Successful proposals may include creative storytelling, commemorative events, and educating the public about historic Black Settlements in ways that leverage the arts or technology (digital exhibitions, curation, mapping). Grant funds support descendants of community members with ancestral roots, residency, or kinship to founders of historic Black settlements and their anchor institutions (churches, schools, lodges, community centers, small businesses, and landowners). LOCATIONS. Our initiative prioritizes supporting grantees inspired by their memories, stories, and place histories to create artistic work about freedom-seeking, designing and building communities, and migration occurring in and between Texas, Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Louisiana, California, and Nova Scotia. Eligible projects should happen in these states within settlements or where there is a concentration of settlements, even if the applicant lives elsewhere.

So excited to finally share the product of mine and Shemika Curvey's work this year. Spatializing Black Stories: Geographies of Community in Loudoun County, Virginia tells the stories of two historically Black enclaves in Loudoun called Willard and St. Louis. Spatializing for our purposes then means two things: 1) reconstructing the space of the town, especially as Willard was destroyed (Dulles Airport) 2) investigating how residents were and still are engaged in placemaking. We define placemaking as giving meaning or context to space, that when you buy a plot of land and put a home on it which you pass down to your children, you have transformed that space in to an heirloom and generational wealth. We are interested in space, but truly the people that did and still do exist in the space. In this project you will hear voices recorded in oral histories, learn about how we have identified unnamed people in the archives, see the faces of many more who still remain nameless, re-learn the history of the national airport's construction, and even see Kennedy family home movies and photographs! And there's so. much. more. We were able to do this work and this history because of the generosity of community members who have been keeping and telling their own histories for generations and were generous in willing to collaborate. Their full attributions are included in this StoryMap. This project is also officially live on the Center for Mason Legacies project page which you can find here: https://lnkd.in/eWmgiKbw https://lnkd.in/euDMj_2m

"The erasure of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley — thriving Black communities rich with culture and entrepreneurship — remains one of Detroit’s deepest historical wounds," Kresge Detroit Program Manager Wendy Lewis Jackson writes in a commentary. When I-75 and I-375 carved through these neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s, they didn’t just displace residents without compensation; they shattered the fabric of vital communities, severed generations of connections, and inflicted lasting trauma that still reverberates through Detroit today. With the replacement of the aging I-375 on the horizon, Kresge has supported bringing expertise and community input into the planning process to avoid “re-setting in concrete the missteps of the past for generations to come.” The Downtown Detroit Partnership’s I-375 Peer Review Report, released last week, was supported by Kresge’s Detroit Program and points to a future different from the past. https://lnkd.in/eBxtnNc8