Anth 159a

In November and December 2005, students in Dr. Auslander’s course “Museums and Public Memory” (Anth 159a) at Brandeis University conducted interviews with members of the Afro-American c ommunity of West Medford, Massachusetts. These interviews were arranged in collaboration with the West Medford Afro American Remembrance Project committee, directed by Mr. Wallace Kountze. We are all deeply grateful to Mr. Kountze and the other members of the WMAARP committee, as well as to the Medford Historical Society and Professor Rosalind Shaw (Anthropology, Tufts University), our collaborators in this project. Special thanks to the members of West Medford’s community, who have generously shared their memories and stories with us.

The following edited audio segments cover a number of topics, including remembrances of Old Shiloh Baptist Church, residential segregation and desegregation, memories of war, childraising in the community, and special locations in the neighborhood, including the Little Store, the riding stables, Dugger Park, the West Medford Community Center and locations of “fellowship.” These segments may be “podcast” into an ipod or MP3 players and played back on a walking tour of the neighborhood, or they may be accessed directly on this web log. Please take a look at the photographs and documents posted through links on the side of this page, to get a sense of this wonderful and historic community.

Mark Auslander and the students in Anth 159a (Fall 2005)

This entry was posted on Friday, December 9th, 2005 at 4:18 pm and is filed under West Medford Walking Tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.