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Tag: heritage conservation

May 13, 2021
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Season 1, Episode 15

Posted in Episodes, and Season 1

These Walls CAN Talk: Heritage and Hope at the Mafundi Building in Watts

As L.A.’s Watts neighborhood reeled from the 1965 Rebellion against systemic injustice, Black architects and civil rights activists Art Silvers and Robert Kennard designed a place of healing and hope. The Watts Happening Cultural Center opened in 1970 as the home of the Mafundi Institute (“mafundi” is Swahili for artisans or craftspeople), which provided a vital creative outlet for self-expression and Black empowerment. Now widely known as the Mafundi building, this Late Modern gem is a rare symbol of art and culture with an uncertain future.

USC’s Materials Conservation class studied the building this term, using pandemic workarounds to assess everything from the windows to the coffee shop’s collection. Join us for a humdinger of a season finale about the Mafundi building’s history, significance, condition, and precarious situation. Learn about the class project from instructor Peyton Hall, FAIA and students Arabella Delgado, Emi Takahara, and Melissa Miller. And hear from alumna Rita Cofield, a lifelong community member and part of the grassroots preservation effort, about what this place means to the people of Watts and how you can help.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Jerome Robinson – scholar, MHC alumnus, and friend – pictured at Disneyland Paris in 2017 with Save As co-host Trudi Sandmeier. Jerome Robinson and Trudi Sandmeier at Disneyland Paris

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April 29, 2021
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Season 1, Episode 14

Posted in Episodes, and Season 1

Bunker Hill Refrain: Resurrecting a Lost Community

Bunker Hill looms large in the collective memory of Los Angeles. Once a tony enclave of Victorian homes, the downtown neighborhood became a vibrant and diverse community before being razed in the urban renewal/removal of the 1950s. Much has been made of the architectural loss. But who were, and what came of, the thousands and thousands of people displaced? A very cool USC project called Bunker Hill Refrain seeks to find out. High tech meets low tech in a vast effort to capture, map, and analyze data from a trove of 1930s WPA census cards. Coupled with oral histories, the data can help illuminate the social cost of urban renewal, inform more thoughtful planning going forward, perhaps even reconnect the community. Hear from students, faculty, and staff about how the project came about, how it works, and how you can get involved.

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March 4, 2021
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Season 1, Episode 10

Posted in Episodes, and Season 1

After the War: Using Heritage to Rebuild

The decade-long civil war in Syria has decimated the country’s infrastructure, killed more than 400,000 Syrians, and created the world’s largest displaced population of around 13 million. Heritage sites play a big role in war as targets of destruction and are typically an early focus of rebuilding efforts.

With an optimistic take on a devastating situation, alumna Dalia Mokayed talks about the effects of war on heritage and identity, and how heritage conservation can help cities and communities rebuild. The Aleppo native specifically addresses the Old City of Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the case study in her thesis, Heritage Conservation to Rebuild Cities After Crisis.

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February 18, 2021
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Season 1, Episode 9

Posted in Episodes, and Season 1

Hometown Heritage in Compton

What comes to mind when you think of Compton? If it’s gangs and rap, think again. This small city is one of the oldest in L.A. County, with a history of agriculture, self-reliance, and resilience. It has a farm, a space-age civic center, the tennis court where Venus and Serena learned to play, and more (including, yes, cowboys). Compton’s history mirrors that of many cities across the U.S.; it just gained more notoriety thanks to groups like NWA.

In this episode, get the real scoop on Compton from one who knows: alum Camille Ora-Nicole, who grew up there and wrote her master’s thesis on it. Hear what Camille learned about her hometown, and how she thinks small cities should approach conservation, as we chat about her thesis, Conserving Compton: Identifying Potential Landmarks and Recommendations for Conservation.

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January 21, 2021
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Season 1, Episode 7

Posted in Episodes, and Season 1

Sisterhood Is Beautiful

In 1974, Brenda Weathers came across a century-old home in Pico-Union, an early Los Angeles neighborhood that had seen better days. She decided to use the rundown residence to help people like her: lesbians with alcoholism. Ever since, the Alcoholism Center for Women has served as a treatment center for women in recovery–most of them lesbian; many of them women of color, living in poverty and/or formerly unhoused. This sisterhood has faced more than the obvious challenges along the way, including an old-fashioned demolition threat with an eye-rolling resolution. In this episode, grad student Lindsay Mulcahy talks with co-host Trudi Sandmeier about the many facets of this fascinating story.

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University of Southern California