Public Street
Public Street between Elmwood Avenue and the industrial waterfront was once a thriving saltmarsh. Walking to the eastern edge of Public Street is a reminder that the tidal shifts and brackish water of the river still host a biologically rich and culturally diverse ecosystem. Click here for information about proposed designs advanced by the Office of Sustainability for the area between Allens Ave. and the Providence River.
Edwige Charlot & k. funmilayo - The South Providence People’s Archive (SPPA)
The South Providence People’s Archive (SPPA) is a physical and digital collection of recorded memories and dreams commemorating the Black and Native American residents of the Public Street area – past and present. The archive will include — but will not be limited to — cultural art, family photos, community print-works, digital scans, and audio recording that document the people, places, and ways of life that animate the neighborhoods surrounding Public Street.
The purpose of SPPA is to contribute intimate accounts of Black and Native American life to the public record. With these intimate accounts, the archive’s hope is to offer a deeper reflection of the Black and Native American history, culture, and vision of the South Side. SPPA is designed to be community-determined and ongoing, sharing agency with residents on how their stories are told and held. The project is based on building authentic relationships, necessitating embodied practices of trust, honesty, and kinship.
In addition to hosting community gatherings, SPPA will continue offering free services and resources such as high-quality scanning, printing, recording, art making and photography to support residents with digitizing and sharing their memories and dreams for the area surrounding Public Street.
For more information about past and future programs of the SPPA, see Edwige Charlot’s personal website.
Dana Heng and Moy Chuong - Planters for Public
“Planters for Public” is a community intervention conceived by artists Dana Heng & Moy Chuong whose work engages with personal, family and community memories and archives, specifically in the context of immigrant experiences. Engage with the Southeast Asian diaspora in South Providence and the Public Street area, their project interrogates, celebrates and commemorates foodways in these communities, thinking about groceries, gardening and the movement of produce. Taking visual inspiration from mundane, everyday objects like produce boxes or 5-gallon buckets, they are turning them into ceramic planters which will then be delivered back to members of the community to be used in their own homes, stores and other spaces, feeding back into their everyday lives. Through this project, they are interrogating the idea of commemorating objects that may appear unremarkable upon first glance, but nevertheless form the fabric of the lives of people in the community.
In the process, Dana and Moy have been in the process of organizing related community interventions such as seed starting events to provide plants to the community. They will also be conducting interviews, documenting community stories related to food and gardening, and will lead a community workshop for decorating the planters they create.
Eli Nixon - Shade Structure
At the watering end of Public Street, Eli Nixon (and a team led by Fatema Maswood) are installing a thatched shade structure. The structure will provide desperately needed shade; a respite for anyone navigating the hot and hazy pavement off Allen’s Ave. The Big Blue Bug gazes out on the humble structure, maybe encouragaing those steaming in 95 traffic to follow their pixilated eyes out to the blue slice of water sparkling between the salt mountain and the rust heap. The structure commemorates the humanity and survival of current neighborhood residents, and their ongoing efforts for public acess to the shoreline. It commemorates the plants, birds and human communities that once thrived in that area before it was zoned for lust and L.U.S.T. (leaking underground storage tanks). We invite you to this spot to gather or rest. May this shelter made of trees, bamboo, reeds, and the labor of friends honor the ancient organisms that existed here before the petrochemical and scrap metal takeover of our urban coastline. May it celebrate and amplify the legacy of all the people who continue to need, and to fight for, safe public right of ways to the Bay.
Artists at this site:
+ Edwige Charlot & k. funmilayo
+ Dana Heng & Moy Chuong
+ Eli Nixon
Writer at this site:
+ Chrysanthemum
Learn More
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