{"id":485,"date":"2020-03-05T19:45:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T00:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=485"},"modified":"2020-03-05T19:45:17","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T00:45:17","slug":"neighborhood-matters-an-outreach-and-advocacy-project-by-northeastern-university-archives-and-special-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=485","title":{"rendered":"Neighborhood Matters: An Outreach and Advocacy Project by Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Angela Lee<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d is an outreach and advocacy project hosted by Northeastern University Libraries\u2019 Archives and Special Collections (ASC). This lunch time series aims at promoting diversity and inclusion by organizing a free public event; its goal\u00a0 includes bridging campus and community. \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d first began in 2014 and is held at Snell Library on the Northeastern University (NEU) campus two to three times a semester. The project was proposed and led by the head of NEU\u2019s Archives and Special Collections, Giordana Mecagni. \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d started out as the simple format of a Boston-specific documentary screening event; it has\u00a0 grown into a more interaction-driven forum that encourages thought-provoking communication over the past six years.<\/p>\n

The scope of this community-based initiative is confined to the city of Boston.\u00a0 Within this geographical boundary, \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d sheds light on local history that is largely underrepresented through unique stories narrated by our neighbors. The project is an embodiment of NEU\u2019s ASC, aligned with their collection policy to curate diverse historical records to preserve the history of Boston\u2019s social movements. The individual voices captured by \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d bring insight and new perspectives to seemingly mundane places in Boston.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s target audience includes local communities, as well as NEU members, but events are open to anyone who is interested in how actual neighbors have shaped and been shaped by Boston’s distinct neighborhoods. Not only does \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d encourage community members to appreciate their neighborhood more, but it also offers an opportunity to network. As a result, NEU\u2019s ASC becomes a nexus of rekindled community spirit and identity.<\/p>\n

According to NEU\u2019s archivist, Molly Brown, the topic of each event is curated in response to current and socially significant issues that are worthy of public attention. Due to this adaptability, an event is planned a few months ahead of time, rather than on a yearly basis. Sometimes socially active figures reach out to NEU\u2019s ASC and propose an idea for an event. For instance, Alison Barnet, who is a local author and a long time committed attendee of the \u201cNeighborhood Matters,\u201d suggested the recent event entitled \u201cOnce Upon a Neighborhood: A History of the South End from Alison Barnet.\u201d<\/p>\n

This author talk was held on February 11, 2020, and featured Alison Barnet as a special guest. Originally from New York, but now a resident of the South End since the 1960s when she was a transfer student at Boston University, Barnet has witnessed the ceaselessly changing landscape of Boston over the past half century.<\/p>\n

\"\" This South End history writer shared her version of the Bostonian chronicle, which traces Boston\u2019s legacy all the way back to the 1600s, based on her newest book Once Upon a Neighborhood: A Timeline and Anecdotal History of the South End of Boston<\/em>. The event had a great turn out and a large number of elderly attendees, due to Barnet\u2019s many personal allies who showed up to support her. While she recounted snippets of South End history, the audience reacted with fervent nodding or occasional sighs as a sign of empathy.<\/p>\n

Following Barnet\u2019s jovial reminiscing through her long-term residency in the South End, she presented video footage of her 1980s appearance on network TV. Barnet\u2019s satirical performance in the skit addressed a looming threat of gentrification and displacement in Boston. Since the gentrified neighborhoods are still an ongoing battle faced by the city of Boston, her story is not limited to the past but resonates with all of us in the here and now. As the series\u2019 self-explicit title suggests, neighborhood does <\/em>matter. However, \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d asks us to consider why it matters, how a sense of neighborhood can be cultivated, and why it is important to stay connected with the people who live around us. The belief behind this outreach and advocacy project is that posing these questions makes a difference in our everyday life, while also demonstrating the tangible value of NEU\u2019s ASC.<\/p>\n

This grassroots empowerment is what has driven the \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d forward, resulting in enhanced social recognition of NEU\u2019s ASC. Brown, NEU\u2019s archivist, attributed the continuous positive feedback and growing number of loyal attendees as an indicator of the efficacy of \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d since its initiation. This gradual but steady effort contributes to increased community awareness, and its impact reverberates beyond NEU\u2019s neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Nagarajah, an attendee who is a Class of 1990 NEU alumna, described \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d as an invitation to all to reflect upon their society\u2019s interconnectedness. As a Roxbury resident for nearly 40 years, Nagarajah is frustrated by the frequent marginalization of the Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park neighborhoods in the media. In her eyes, Roxbury is \u201ca neighborhood full of families and people who care and love the area,\u201d even though the neighborhood is \u201cdepicted as a crime infested area full of brokenness.\u201d Nagarajah stressed the importance of people seeing more of these marginalized neighborhoods than what the local news displays, with the help of projects like \u201cNeighborhood Matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of NEU\u2019s ASC\u2019s achievement lies their proactive redefinition of their role as a social activist, as opposed to a simple institutional library and archives. NEU\u2019s ASC has embraced their socio-geographical context as a means of garnering public support and earning advocacy. The more people realize the influence of their neighborhood through \u201cNeighborhood Matters,\u201d the more people commit to building a more inclusive community, supported by NEU\u2019s ASC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Angela Lee \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d is an outreach and advocacy project hosted by Northeastern University Libraries\u2019 Archives and Special Collections (ASC). This lunch time series aims at promoting diversity and inclusion by organizing a free public event; its goal\u00a0 includes bridging campus and community. \u201cNeighborhood Matters\u201d first began in 2014 and is held at Snell … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Neighborhood Matters: An Outreach and Advocacy Project by Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[30360,30334,234,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-archives","category-academic-archives-special-collections","category-academic-libraries","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}