Fox Point Community History Project
In the spring of 2008, students enrolled in AMCV1903G: Oral History and Community Memory, embarked on a project to document the history of Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood. Fox Point, an area that borders the Brown University campus, currently serves as a home to students and staff from the nearby universities, numerous restaurants and upscale shops, and India Point Park, now a destination for boaters, soccer players, walkers, and joggers. Before the 1960s, however, Fox Point’s residents – primarily first and second-generation immigrant families from Portugal and Cape Verde – labored on the waterfront, worked in industries, worshipped at the neighborhood’s churches – Holy Rosary, Sheldon Street, and St. Joseph’s – and managed the corner markets and ethnic bars that dotted the area. The rerouting of highway I-195, now under construction, promises even further transformations in Fox Point.
In order to understand the causes and the impact of these changes, students in the class, under the direction of Anne Valk, associate director for programs at the JNBC, set out to record life history interviews with current and former residents, business owners, and others with a stake in the area. The students collected approximately 35 interviews that will become available through Brown University’s digital library and, in their original form, at the John Hay Library. Using their interviews, along with photographs generously provided by Mr. Lou Costa, the class created a children’s book and audio documentaries, and a Web site, where further information will be made available, is under development.
In winter 2008, three JNBC students, Rachael Binning, Elizabeth Manekin, and Aliza Schiff curated an exhibit called "Faces of Fox Point" and installed it in the hallways of Vartan Gregorian Elementary School at Fox Point. The exhibit features nearly 30 historic photographs of the Fox Point neighborhood chosen from local historian Lou Costa’s collection. The photographs are paired with memories of life in the neighborhood drawn from oral history interviews done by students the Oral History and Community Memory course. The exhibit explores the topics of immigration, neighborhood life, and childhood and will be on display at the elementary school until June 2009.
Rachael, Elizabeth, and Aliza will also use "Faces of Fox Point" as the foundation for an oral history and photography workshop that they will lead for Gregorian’s sixth graders. Six graders will learn about oral history and photography as documentary sources and take and caption their own photographs to add to the exhibit. Once the six graders’ work has been added to the exhibit, they will act as docents, leading tours of Faces of Fox Point for Gregorian’s younger students, parents, and community members.
Rachael, Elizabeth, and Aliza developed this project under the direction of Anne Valk and in collaboration with Vartan Gregorian’s principal, teachers, and Parent Teacher Organization. They will also be assisting in Gregorian’s classrooms during the school’s ongoing Oral History Intergenerational Theater Project "I WAS THERE."
Vartan Gregorian Elementary School will have an open house to celebrate the opening of the "Faces of Fox Point" exhibition on Wednesday, February 25, from 5:00-6:15 p.m. The school's sixth graders will offer tours of the exhibition for the first half hour, and a reception will follow. Vartan Gregorian Elementary School is located at 455 Wickenden Street in Providence. All are welcome to attend.
boys at the east street recreation center
35 interviews with current and former Fox Pointers will soon become available through Brown University’s digital library.
Faces of fox point
An open house on February 25 will mark the opening of the "Faces of Fox Point" exhibition at Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. All are welcome to attend.