(4.1) Artist Ryan Mendoza has installed ‘The Rosa Parks House Project’ within the WaterFire Arts Center. If you have yet to visit the cavernous arts center you may not understand how one building would be erected inside another building. As you can see there is room to spare. (A photo of the original Detroit location, below.) Workers were still at work yesterday assembling the house from what must be the Ikea schematic from hell.
Events planned around the installation begin Thursday with a documentary. The big day is Saturday with music and oral histories. Sunday is an open house. The schedule of events is below. Make time for the gift shop which includes a large selection of books stocked by Symposium Books.
The art installation is constructed from the actual house owned by Rosa Parks’ brother Sylvester McCauley and serves to recall the very real poverty and challenges that Rosa Parks faced before and after she became widely celebrated as a civil rights hero.
According to accounts by family members, neighbors, and others, in August 1957, the Parks landed at her brother Sylvester McCauley’s home at 2672 Deacon Street in Detroit and frequented the house over many years. This home, which was scheduled for demolition, is the centerpiece of Mr. Mendoza’s work.
The intention of the project is help the public learn more about the very real challenges and poverty that Rosa Park faced as she and her husband tried to find work in Detroit.
Brown University has withdrawn their support from the project. It’s complicated. (WashPo 3.12.18)
Thursday, March 29, 6pm — Movie screening: ‘The White House‘, 67 min, 2017 a film by Fabia Mendoza with a discussion following with Fabia Mendoza and Ryan Mendoza
Seating for this event is limited to 85 persons.
Saturday, March 31, 3pm to 6:30pm — Celebration Gathering & Concert in tribute to Rosa Parks.
4pm Concert featuring Rose Weaver, Becky Bass, Ramona Bass-Kolobe, Delbert Collins, Elizabeth Ann Keiser, Angela Nash Wade, Raffini, Cathy Clasper-Torch, Kim Trusty, Christopher Johnson, Sidy Maiga, Sylvia Ann Soares and friends. With special guests: Rosa Parks‘ niece Rhea McCauley and artist Ryan Mendoza
Panel & Community Discussions on Saturday, March 31st, in Visitors Center:
11:30am — A House, a Home, a Story: Oral Histories, Family Memories, Narrative Arc and Identity
1:30pm — The House in Art and Memory: History, Narrative, Place and the Act of Remembrance
5:30pm — African American History and its Telling: Still Contested Ground
Sunday, April 1, 11am to 6pm — Open House
WaterFire Arts Center, 475 Valley Street, (directions)
