On the day of the Bamberg Design Workshop, we (the students and professors) drove around town, took pictures, videos and talked to some residents. Below is a SHORT video of some footage from the video taken while driving around town. I guess the one shot that is most telling is the final scene. Turn the sound on.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Bamberg Design Workshop
First, I have to thank Jessica from Bamberg-Erhardt High School for coming to the design workshop. Although she was the only student I spoke to that made the workshop, she made it. Can we get her a certificate or something to thank her and show her it was worth the trip to share her thoughts with us?
Secondly, while I know there were a ton of stories to tell, I really only got to talk to Mr. Maynard and Mr. Haye in depth. If you caught any of our conversations, I am sure you learned a lot too. Mr. Maynard served in the Normandy invasion under General Patton. The significance of that is that Mr. Maynard is black, my grandfather is white and General Patton is the great-grandfather of my roommate and long time friend from boarding school, Bea. Kind of an interesting coincidence.
So, what was the big deal about one guy being white and one being black? Mr. Maynard worked in a segregated support unit in munitions. (He has an interesting story about how they got the weapons and ammunition to soldiers that involves water, crates and the current). My grandfather, a lifelong bigot, served on an advance team that was given the task of breaking the German supply lines. These men relied on each other but because of racism and sheer stupidity were kept from actively benefitting from the other's skills and knowledge. The mind wobbles at how shortsighted and narrowminded people can be at the wrong time.
Mr. Haye came to Bamberg from Jamaica in 1951 to work for Stokely. He met his wife in 1953 and married in 1954. They spent some time in Philadephia where they raised a family. I never got to find out why they came back to Bamberg, but only one daughter lives in South Carolina (in Orangeburg). Sad to see family is so far away from the Hayes.
You would have thought I went down to Bamberg to visit, jawjack and meet new people. Ok, I did go for that, but I also went to document the discussions and opinions of the town residents and officials. I am not sure how to edit the video footage I have, but I want to make a piece that will make the town proud. The trick will be to do it with my limited skills without making it cheesy.
I am not sure what our design task for the town will be. Right now, talk is centered around a corridor study and recommendations. SCDOT, in their infinite wisdom, saw fit to close off the town's historical roads to create a highway throught the center of town. No outsiders stop and now residents literally have to take "back" roads to access their homes and businesses that can't be reached from the front.
I will have to post some town footage to this site so you can see what I am talking about.
Talk atcha' later.
Secondly, while I know there were a ton of stories to tell, I really only got to talk to Mr. Maynard and Mr. Haye in depth. If you caught any of our conversations, I am sure you learned a lot too. Mr. Maynard served in the Normandy invasion under General Patton. The significance of that is that Mr. Maynard is black, my grandfather is white and General Patton is the great-grandfather of my roommate and long time friend from boarding school, Bea. Kind of an interesting coincidence.
So, what was the big deal about one guy being white and one being black? Mr. Maynard worked in a segregated support unit in munitions. (He has an interesting story about how they got the weapons and ammunition to soldiers that involves water, crates and the current). My grandfather, a lifelong bigot, served on an advance team that was given the task of breaking the German supply lines. These men relied on each other but because of racism and sheer stupidity were kept from actively benefitting from the other's skills and knowledge. The mind wobbles at how shortsighted and narrowminded people can be at the wrong time.
Mr. Haye came to Bamberg from Jamaica in 1951 to work for Stokely. He met his wife in 1953 and married in 1954. They spent some time in Philadephia where they raised a family. I never got to find out why they came back to Bamberg, but only one daughter lives in South Carolina (in Orangeburg). Sad to see family is so far away from the Hayes.
You would have thought I went down to Bamberg to visit, jawjack and meet new people. Ok, I did go for that, but I also went to document the discussions and opinions of the town residents and officials. I am not sure how to edit the video footage I have, but I want to make a piece that will make the town proud. The trick will be to do it with my limited skills without making it cheesy.
I am not sure what our design task for the town will be. Right now, talk is centered around a corridor study and recommendations. SCDOT, in their infinite wisdom, saw fit to close off the town's historical roads to create a highway throught the center of town. No outsiders stop and now residents literally have to take "back" roads to access their homes and businesses that can't be reached from the front.
I will have to post some town footage to this site so you can see what I am talking about.
Talk atcha' later.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Flowers in a Vacant Lot
I finally got to go down to Bamberg yesterday, to meet with Student Council and Junior Leadership members of Bamberg-Erhardt High School. I had heard about the extreme poverty from a lot of students and faculty. Once I got off of I-26 in and got past Orangeburg, the terrain suddenly looked very familiar and I realized I felt at home because the sandy soil, cotton fields and pine trees reminded me of the roads I drive through Flomaton, AL when I visit my Nana in Pensacola, FL.
So I immediately felt at home and understood the poverty. But, Bamberg isn't Flomaton. Honest to goodness, the town is all but dead, and they don't know it. But ignorance is bliss and the kids at the high school, and the townsfolk working with the Mayor's Institute to come up with a design solution to encourage economic growth, are like the proverbial flower in a vacant lot. Things go to die in vacant lots- broken bottles, dead animals, sometimes human bodies, cars- they all die in vacant lots, and in turn those lots choke neighborhoods. But there is ALWAYS a flower that thrives in those lots, no matter how much trash there is around the lot. The kids are like that flower. They were bright, intelligent and excited to see something down in Bamberg.
I met with the students for about 1/2 hour. My goal was to talk about the Bamberg design workshop and its purpose. I HOPE that at least a couple of the students will be able to make the Bamberg town design workshop October 18, 2008.
In all honesty, some students used the meeting time as a means to get out of class. But I think there was some genuine interest. I laid out a map of the area around their high school and put some trace paper over that. The students had the markers and with some prompting, they laid out what was in their town, where they hung out and what they wanted for their town. Obviously much of what they put down had to do with what they wanted and didn't necessarily consider the rest of the population, but that was ok too because it was about them at this point.
When I started the meeting, I asked how many wanted to stay in town after they graduated and there wasn't one single person who wanted to stay. They listed jobs and the lack of places for them to hang out as the biggest reasons for wanting to leave. While I can't do a thing about that, I did encourage them to think about the design workshop as a way to communicate to the older residents what might keep them. Bamberg's population is falling dramatically (I will post some charts at a later date) and if the town doesn't find a way to keep these kids and the ones that follow, the town as they know it, will cease to exist.
So I immediately felt at home and understood the poverty. But, Bamberg isn't Flomaton. Honest to goodness, the town is all but dead, and they don't know it. But ignorance is bliss and the kids at the high school, and the townsfolk working with the Mayor's Institute to come up with a design solution to encourage economic growth, are like the proverbial flower in a vacant lot. Things go to die in vacant lots- broken bottles, dead animals, sometimes human bodies, cars- they all die in vacant lots, and in turn those lots choke neighborhoods. But there is ALWAYS a flower that thrives in those lots, no matter how much trash there is around the lot. The kids are like that flower. They were bright, intelligent and excited to see something down in Bamberg.
I met with the students for about 1/2 hour. My goal was to talk about the Bamberg design workshop and its purpose. I HOPE that at least a couple of the students will be able to make the Bamberg town design workshop October 18, 2008.
In all honesty, some students used the meeting time as a means to get out of class. But I think there was some genuine interest. I laid out a map of the area around their high school and put some trace paper over that. The students had the markers and with some prompting, they laid out what was in their town, where they hung out and what they wanted for their town. Obviously much of what they put down had to do with what they wanted and didn't necessarily consider the rest of the population, but that was ok too because it was about them at this point.
When I started the meeting, I asked how many wanted to stay in town after they graduated and there wasn't one single person who wanted to stay. They listed jobs and the lack of places for them to hang out as the biggest reasons for wanting to leave. While I can't do a thing about that, I did encourage them to think about the design workshop as a way to communicate to the older residents what might keep them. Bamberg's population is falling dramatically (I will post some charts at a later date) and if the town doesn't find a way to keep these kids and the ones that follow, the town as they know it, will cease to exist.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)