Barry Farms and Hillsdale community is one of Washington, DC’s most historic black communities. Originally founded after emancipation by the Freedmen’s Bureau, the legacy of this community included the development of public housing. Designated as a historic landmark, an advisory committee was formed to integrate the original architecture and preserve residents’ stories. In this episode, Sabiyha Prince (a visual artist, cultural anthropologist and founding director of AnthroDocs) and Sarah Jane Shoenfeld (co-founder of the digital public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC) talks about the upcoming documentary and history of this community.
Sabiyha Prince is a visual artist and cultural anthropologist whose researches and writes about African American life and culture. She is also founding director of AnthroDocs a qualitative research firm. Prince’s artistic production is interwoven with her identity as an social scientist resulting in uniquely colorful works that explore intense themes related to human interaction and societal conditions. Her work has been exhibited at 11Eleven Gallery, The Anacostia Arts Center, The Hill Center, Zenith Gallery, and through Black Girls Who Paint and The Petworth Artist’s Collaborative. Prince’s media appearances include MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera English, Sirius XM, WHUR, WOL, WPFW, and WYPR. Her IG page: anthro_artz Her book: African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.Race, Class and Social Justice in the Nation’s Capital
Sarah Jane Shoenfeld is a co-founder of the digital public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC, which is documenting the former extent of racially restricted housing in the nation's capital along with other historic mechanisms of segregation and serial displacement. The project won a 2019 Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation and continues to garner local and national attention from scholars, activists, educators and others interested in how systemically racist housing policies have shaped the cities we live in today. For her company Prologue DC, Sarah engages in a variety of public history projects, including research for exhibitions and films, historic landmark and district nominations, oral histories, and walking tours. Recent projects include consultation on a permanent exhibit for DC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library; landmark nominations and a National Register multiple property study on sites related to DC’s Black civil rights history and the history of public housing; the 20th Century African American Civil Rights Tour for DC’s Historic Preservation Office, and a successful nomination for the Bloomingdale Historic District, based, in part, on the neighborhood’s role as a national epicenter of legal challenges to racial covenants.
Sarah was the lead historian for several DC Neighborhood Heritage Trails and has produced historical essays and other content for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, American Experience (PBS), WGBH-TV, and Blackside, among others. Sarah received an M.A. in History and a Certificate in Public History from Northeastern University. She grew up and lives in DC.