Local Initiatives Support Corp

Village of Arts & Humanities: The Living Room Series is a popular-education workshop hosted in the neighborhood homes of adult residents in a disinvested neighborhood in North Philadelphia.   In collaboration with Village staff and the Village’s Leaders and Builders Advisory Committee, Corajus visiting artist-organizers Michaela Pommells and Hiram Rivera re-surface and listen to community stories while also investigating urgent questions about impending redevelopment in the neighborhood—who will decide, who will pay, and who will benefit. This participatory Series, which consists of ten two and a half hour gatherings, has engaged more than 200 community members in over 15 neighborhood homes. These gatherings generate personal narratives rooted in space, illuminate possibilities for future ethical and unethical redevelopment, and reknit a community collective that can inform and write the next chapter in this neighborhood’s history.