The Fayetteville Street Corridor (FSC) Fellows Project was designed to implement the replicable equitable engagement model by activating the creative genius of our neighbors who find ways to survive, thrive, and engage even when access to information or opportunity is limited. The barriers they face, however, still leave gaps in access, information, and opportunity.
These barriers, however still leave gaps in access, information, and opportunity. Be Connected Durham, centered in abolition, anti-racism, and equity, provides curatorial and communication services that connect disparate audiences for social benefit; bridging access gaps using the arts, culture, music, and political advocacy as the vehicle for real, lasting change.
We use storytelling to collect feedback about the problems within the neighborhood. This qualitative data is aggregated to recommend more authentic quantitative data and measurable goals to the City of Durham Departments of Neighborhood Improvement Services, Transportation, Community Development, Community Safety, and Planning.
adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy
These 5 sites were activated as arts access points throughout the Third Friday Implementation series in historic Hayti, Durham North Carolina.
Hayti Heritage Center
Old Fayetteville St
Phoenix Square
Phoenix Square Crossing
Lincoln Nursing School Memorial
Community Health Center
North Carolina Central University
Where Zora Neale Hurston came to teach
Eagleland
McLaughlin Pharmacy
The Know Bookstore
Hillside High
The Chicken Hut
Where Zora Neale Hurston came to teach
3rd Fridays at Site One, the Hayti Heritage Center, is the pathway to each 3rd Friday event which involves FSC Fellows:
An ongoing feedback loop between residents on Fayetteville Street Corridor and the City of Durham have resulted in:
Established in 1936 by Victor H. Green, the Negro Motorist Green Book was “badly needed” among Black Americans who realized “the only way to know where and how to reach safe havens and ‘pleasure resorts’ was in a way of speaking, by word of mouth” due to inequitable systems that excluded and discriminated against them.
In the spirit of the Greenbook, this print and digital publication, set for its first edition in April 2022 is a compilation of contacts and data for neighbors, businesses, and organizations to access and to build strong and enduring connections to one another.
When a neighborhood is perceived to be unsafe and difficult to navigate because of root causes of violence, that is, the never-ending, self-similar patterns repeating inequity, exclusion, and displacement in an ongoing feedback loop, there is an enduring emotional, psychological, and spiritual impact on residents as well as on people who visit the area– visitors are more likely to shop or operate elsewhere. Shopping and operating on the Corridor, however, is likely an only option for most of our neighbors, especially those residing in low-income or affordable housing and zero-vehicle households.
We connect residents to food sovereignty resources both outside of the neighborhood and with a specific focus on food security initiatives already existing in the neighborhood; raising awareness about community gardens and fresh markets within a 2-mile radius of the bus stops along the Corridor.