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A SPECULATION ON THIRD SPACE: Situated In South Atlanta, the “Bottom Biennale”, Becomes A Celebration of the Dirty South, By Lifting the Veil, With Love and Care, We Pave Forward
RAYSHAD DORSEY
Rayshad Dorsey is a full-time lecturer at Clemson University school of Architecture and an architectural designer based in South Carolina. He is the founding partner of Studio Rayshad Dorsey and co-founding partner of the design collective Partners of Place. He holds a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University. His research interest lies in the intersection of architecture, critical conservation, culture, community, and spatial planning, exploring how these intersections can inform the built environment.
ABSTRACT
The following article presents a speculative proposal centered around the ideology of Third Space as a potential strategy to address gentrification in the South Atlanta community. Using ideas of Third Space, this project speculates a middle ground that looks at a space for social inclusion, a space for both existing community members and newcomers. This space is about creating something different, a space negotiating both parties but embedding within it a space that houses and preserves the cultural fabric of South Atlanta. Situated on a 4.7-acre site in South Atlanta, this speculative project aims to bring art and architecture by proposing a “Bottom Biennale” for South Atlanta.
DISCLAIMER
This proposal grounds itself on conceptual and speculative ideas with a theoretical framework, and it has yet to undergo empirical testing or community consultation. The views, opinions, and suggestions presented in this journal entry are solely those of the author and do not represent an official or endorsed plan. Readers are encouraged to approach the content critically, recognizing the complexities and nuances associated with gentrification, community development, and cultural interventions. Before implementing any strategies or initiatives, comprehensive research, community engagement, and collaboration with relevant stakeholders is critical (ChatGPT, prompt “”write a disclaimer for a journal entry that looks at speculative proposal of third space Biennale to combat gentrification in the community of South Atlanta.”, February 22, 2024, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com). This speculative project began as a studio prompt at Harvard University Graduate School of Design taught by Professor Cory Henry, Creator and Founder of Atelier Cory Henry design studio, in collaboration with the South Atlanta-based non-profit organization Project South.
Situated in South Atlanta… The “Bottom Biennale… Becomes a Celebration of the Dirty South… By Lifting the Veil… With Love and Care… We Pave Forward.
In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from their roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, there was once a neighborhood. It stood in the hills above the valley town of Medallion and spread all the way to the river. It is called the suburbs now, but when black people lived there it was called the Bottom.
-Toni Morrison, Sula (1998)
INTRODUCTION
The Bottom is composed of neighborhoods designed by and for Black Americans. “At its core,” Ujijji Davis Williams writes, “the Bottom is a neighborhood with neighborhood things, like homes, shops, families, schools, churches” (2018). The Bottom, in its definition, has no one specific geographical location and no origination date. Its make-up varies across the country, but the Bottom is considered the first Black American urban landscape. Out of the Bottom came many “Black Firsts,” such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, dentists, small manufacturers, politicians, and community leaders. Often, these communities are considered disadvantaged, impoverished, dirty, unsafe, deteriorating, uneducated and situated in areas that are deserts of all essential needs. These Black Urban American landscapes have been constantly under attack throughout the country, particularly in the South, from race riots, Jim Crow laws, and urban renewal, to current day urban gentrification.
SITUATED IN SOUTH ATLANTA
For me this space of radical openness is a margin—a profound edge. Locating oneself there is difficult yet necessary. It is not a ‘safe’ place. One is always at risk. One needs a community of resistance.
-bell hooks (Soja, 1996)
One of those communities in a constant battle with the inevitable plague of gentrification is South Atlanta, a land grant community where formerly enslaved African Americans settled after the Civil War. This Bottom neighborhood was and still is a prominent urban Black community, once home to Clark & Gammon Theological Seminary and cultural event spaces such as a movie theatre, and musical venues. Embedded in the urban fabric of South Atlanta is a cultural history subject to overt prejudicial tactics and discriminatory practices. South Atlanta was one of the grounds for the 1906 race riots, resulting in the death of twenty-five to forty African Americans (Kuhn & Mixon, 2022). South Atlanta played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, contributing to the broader struggles for equality and justice.
Today, South Atlanta is rapidly changing due to gentrification, resulting in a demographic shift, cultural and political displacement, and new urban socio-spatial segregation between newcomers and the existing community members. Projections of the $4.8 Billion Atlanta Beltline slated to be constructed through South Atlanta will only inflate these shifts. The Beltline is a 6,500-acre project funded by tax increment financing bonds that was launched in 2006 and is projected to be completed by 2030 (Immergluck, 2009). The project involves the redevelopment of an abandoned rail line that encircles the central area of metro Atlanta and includes the development of light rail, greenspace, and real estate. It has continued to be a catalyst of growing concerns regarding gentrification, racial inequities, and government spending (Merriman, 2019).
South Atlanta is just one of the neighborhoods in the path of the Beltline that will face concerns about gentrification and racial inequities. With a median household income of $21,804, an unemployment rate of 12%, and 28.8% of its residents living below the poverty line, this community urgently needs strategies to equip its residents with the necessary tools to contest gentrification (https://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.html, n.d.). According to the Urban Displacement Project, South Atlanta is considered an “Advance Gentrification” community with its median home value from 2000 to 2018 having a 28.1% increase. The spatial relationship between gentrification and the Beltline is becoming extremely evident in nine Census Tracts along the eastern portion of the Beltline. These tracts have traditionally housed majority low-income, Black, and Latinx communities but are experiencing increasing housing costs, and changing neighborhood character that have led to displacement (https:// www.city-data.com/neighborhood/ South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.html, n.d.). For South Atlanta it is essential to strategize approaches to fight against displacement and capitalize on the anticipated gentrification projected in this community.
THE “BOTTOM” BIENNALE…
As a response, this proposal aims to speculate on an event to help preserve and celebrate the existing fabric of South Atlanta using the ideology of a Third Space to create a middle ground for social inclusion, a space for the cohabitation of both existing community members and newcomers. This space is about creating something different, negotiating room for both parties but embedding within that space the cultural and historical roots of South Atlanta while also becoming a space of welcoming. A community that focuses on the integration of newcomers instead of being gentrified by newcomers.
Situated on a 4.7-acre site in South Atlanta, this speculative project aims to bring together all the arts by proposing a “Bottom Biennale” for the area. A biennale is a large-scale event typically focusing on art, architecture, design, music, or other creative fields. It takes place every two years in a specific location. These events are often organized by institutions, cities, or countries and serve as a platform for showcasing creative fields to help foster cultural exchange, dialogue, and collaboration for creatives globally.
The center site of this speculative biennale is home to “Project South,” which is an organization that has positioned itself in the South Atlanta neighborhood as a defense against the effects of gentrification, structural racism, and other forms of oppression. They cultivate resident and youth power to transform the South Atlanta neighborhood towards their vision of economic and racial justice (About Us, n.d.). Borrowing from their mission, the biennale would take a grassroots approach that nurtures community empowerment; creating spaces for economic opportunity, collaboration, creativity, innovation, justice, and inclusivity. To realize this grassroots vision, the biennale would have to transcend a single location, extending its reach across the entire community of South Atlanta. Collaborations between artists and residents would help to enable installations and exhibits to emerge in diverse spaces, from private yards and homes to vacant lots, local businesses, parks, and other spaces. As a result, visitors are encouraged to venture throughout the South Atlanta community, fostering meaningful interaction with its inhabitants.
BECOMES A CELEBRATION OF THE DIRTY SOUTH…
“…But it’s like this though: I’m tired of folks, — them closed-minded folks. It’s like we got a demo tape and don’t nobody wanna hear it. But it’s like this, the South got somethin’ to say. That’s all I got to say.”
- André 3000 (Outkast, 2019)
Once the existing community of South Atlanta becomes empowered with the necessary tools to capitalize on gentrification and preserve the fabric of South Atlanta through the “Bottom Biennale,” it becomes essential to evolve the Biennale to attract a larger audience. With South Atlanta now serving as a blueprint for other Black and Latinx communities in low-income areas facing gentrification, the focus of the Biennale would transition from one solely focused on the local community to one that celebrates the entire region and communities like South Atlanta. The Biennale becomes a celebration of “the Dirty South,” showcasing the vibrant arts and cultural scene not only of the community of South Atlanta but also of similar communities that make up the entire Dirty South region.
The Dirty South movement that emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a significant cultural and musical spectacle within the South. It was embraced in cities like Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis, this movement was rooted in the region’s rich history and diverse cultural influences. The Dirty South movement challenged traditional hip-hop norms and introduced a distinctive, raw, and gritty sound integrated with heavy-bass and soulful melodies. Artists like OutKast, UGK, and Three 6 Mafia played a pivotal role in shaping this unique musical landscape in the South that resonated and became a reflection of Southern Black Culture (Miller, 2008). The movement gave marginalized communities a voice to bring attention to the social and political issues that Blacks in the South faced. Through truthful authenticity, innovative mixing, and an unapologetic embrace of Black Southern Heritage; the Dirty South movement reaffirmed the region’s cultural significance on the global stage by revitalizing and revolutionizing hip-hop (ChatGPT, prompt “write a paragraph that talks about the dirty south movement and how it came about”, February 22, 2024, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com).
Bringing the cultural significance of the Dirty South to South Atlanta and the Biennale would celebrate the region’s Black heritage, creativity, resilience, and community spirit. Centering the Biennale in South Atlanta creates a model for other marginalized communities facing gentrification to learn from. The Biennale would challenge standard conventions, provoke thoughtful conversations, and inspire a dialogue while embracing the raw, gritty, get it by any means, and authentic essence of the Dirty South and the South Atlanta community.
BY LIFTING THE VEIL…
Without knowing the other’s ‘world,’ one does not know the other, and without knowing the other one is really alone in the other’s presence because the other is only dimly present to one.
-Maria Lugones (1987)
In the collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B Du Bois, he states, “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in the American world” (1903). The veil is a term coined by Du Bois explaining the entity that separates Blacks from whites; it is the very thing that establishes the color line. Throughout The Soul of Black Folks, Du Bois weaves negro spirituals within the essays as a way of uplifting the spirits of Black people, connecting them to their ancestorial roots and ultimately expressing to others the joy and pain of the Black experience.
The Biennale, like Du Bois’s essays is a speculation that addresses the contestation of gentrification through integration. By bringing Black art to the forefront, the cultural identity of South Atlanta becomes a layered veil that gets lifted to create spaces for gentrifiers to experience what it means to be from South Atlanta. The Biennale becomes an event that reinvigorates the existing community economically and culturally while becoming a memorialized process that enlightens and integrates newcomers into the community. This speculation seeks to display and recognize the local pride of South Atlanta while also seeking to become the center for Dirty South Art. By lifting the veil in essence, the biennale empowers the South Atlanta community to welcome gentrification and newcomers with open arms. This outcome is possible because South Atlanta’s rich culture, narrative, and voice are preserved through the Biennale creating a defense that is strong enough to adverse some of gentrification’s negative effects and harms.
WITH LOVE AND CARE…
It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
-Audre Lorde, The Audre Lorde Compendium (1984)
The essence of The Dirty South Biennale is positioned on Bell Hooks’s theory of “Love” and “Care,” by creating a space of collectivization, ultimately allowing others in, contributing to the betterment of people and society (1998). This theory is centered on the idea that love is a verb and not a noun. Through the action of “Love” and “Care” we can begin to heal. Through “Love” and “Care” by way of a Biennale of Dirty South, art, architecture, music, and even conversation will create the power to invest within the local and existing community of South Atlanta and embrace the inevitable changes of gentrification. Exposing the gentrifiers to the cultural roots of the place, South Atlanta, will hopefully instore a sense of pride in the existing community. Instead of becoming the “other” the gentrifiers become a part of the fabric which makes up this rich loving community. To subvert the expectation that gentrification destroys the cultureof gentrified communities, it is essential to rethink the paradigm of the gentrifier and the gentrified and expose everyone to the culture, fabric, and soul of existing communities. As a society, we must break down the dichotomies of gentrification and focus on conversations, spaces, places, the “Love” and “Care” that could bring us closer together.
WE PAVE FORWARD.
In a world where change is inevitable, and ideologies of progression are ever present, it is crucial to think about how we empower progression to all classes, races, nationalities, identities, and genders. Planners, designers, and creatives of the built environment must find approaches that employ the inclusion of all. If these professions incorporate ideas of third spaces into all their design practices, it will enable diverse spaces that are accessible, adaptable, and culturally relevant. Third spaces are safe spaces meant to foster dialogue and conversation, ultimately exposing people to the souls of others. Often, third space gets misconstrued as just a public space, but we live in a society that has always designed public space, and often, those spaces have only existed for a select few. We must think beyond the notions of just creating public space and ask the questions of who we are creating space for, how we are promoting inclusivity, how we are fostering dialogue, and how we are preserving and exposing the existing fabric of communities. If we ask these questions, our values as people and as a society will be uplifted. Simply through engagement, dialogue, and conversation we can foster a society that respects, engages, supports, and encourages one another. Resulting in a community, a region, and an urban typology whose state of mind and way of life is preserved and not denied.
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