Poverty and Housing Project
In 2016, the Barnard Center for Research on Women initiated the Housing and Poverty Project under the leadership of Pamela Phillips, BCRW Senior Program Assistant. The project aims to counter dominant narratives surrounding the housing experiences of low-income residents and communities of color, and to challenge discriminatory practices and policies that foster housing insecurity, homelessness, and poverty. Resident-centered workshops with residents at Marble Hill Houses, Lincoln Center and Amsterdam Houses, and Manhattanville Houses guides the project’s research, knowledge production, and public programming.
Knowledge Production
Working with researchers, artists, activists, and residents, the project develops materials to preserve history, deepen analysis, and change policy and material conditions.
Changing the Narrative is a digital timeline and storytelling project that documents the history and context of public housing as well as present residents’ experiences and analyses.
“PURPLE” is a dance performance and multi-layered project developed by dancer, choreographer, Community Fellow at Lincoln Center, and Barnard alum Sydnie L. Mosley through a collaboration with the Public Housing Project. Mosley and Phillips conducted a daylong workshop at Lincoln Center with residents of Amsterdam Houses, built when the construction of Lincoln Center displaced people in the neighborhood. The material from these workshops developed into the dance performance called “PURPLE” and lives on in the “PURPLE” project. It has been performed at Lincoln Center and was performed on the opening night of the 48th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference, Housing Justice / Housing Futures, which took place on February 24-25, 2023.
“Housing Justice” is a forthcoming issue of The Scholar and Feminist Online, which will include a video from a dance collaboration with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and the Poverty and Housing Project, as well as new versions of participants’ contributions to the 48th Scholar and Feminist Conference, Housing Justice / Housing Futures.
Public Programming and Video
The project also produced several public programs over the last eight years in which scholars, activists, and community members came together to deepen the conversation. Some of these programs were recorded and can be viewed below.
- Homes for All, Cages for None: Housing Justice in an Age of Abolition (October 10, 2017)
- Learning from Queensbridge: The Gardiner-Shenker Scholars Program, a workshop at the 44th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference, The Politics and Ethics of the Archive (February 8-9, 2019)
- We Keep Us Safe: Collective Care and Resilience in New York City Public Housing (October 27, 2021)
- Housing Justice, Housing Futures, the 48th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference (February 24-25, 2023)
The project also collaborated with Undesign the Redline @ Barnard and a two-day symposium in which participants engaged an interactive exhibition combining history, art, and storytelling with community outreach and collaboration to reckon with systemic racism and the legacy of redlining in the neighborhoods occupied by Barnard College and Columbia University.
From the 48th Scholar and Feminist Conference: Housing Justice / Housing Futures
The Poverty and Housing Project uses an anti-oppressive, resident-centered framework to engage and amplify the voices of residents who have been most marginalized by the housing system, with a primary focus on public housing communities. Through collaborative workshops and research, participants examine social and economic policies, the material living conditions that residents navigate, and their impacts on resident’s mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. The project cultivates intentional spaces for residents to reclaim their own stories, foster connections, and explore the ways that housing policy has shaped their lives and communities.