On February 2, after a tour of the city with local and Widener historians, Laura gave a community talk entitled “Insurgent Scholarship and Radical Tourism: The Making of ‘A People’s Guide.’” Her co-authored book, “A People’s Guide to Los Angeles,” which she discussed, offers alternative representations of typical L.A. tourist destinations, and gives light to lesser-known sites throughout the city where struggles related to race, class, gender, and sexuality have occurred.
As part of the program, Project Manager Ulysses “Butch” Slaughter facilitated a live Facebook Q&A session. View it here.
Saturday’s hands-on workshop titled ”Re-mapping Chester: Spaces of Struggle, Resistance, and Solidarity” included more in-depth discussions about power and place and opportunities to learn the steps to create our own People’s Guide.
Participants examined current representations of the City of Chester on maps, new and old, and brainstormed meaningful places that are missing and why they might not be represented in this forum.
We also decided as a group our next steps in our research journey—to focus on the history of justice at the city’s 1724 Court House as part of a follow-up workshop on February 24, 2018. Goals of this gathering were to expand on learnings from Laura’s workshop and explore one specific example, the Court House, to illuminate an alternative approach to unconventional history.
Photo credit: Greg Irvin