The Digital Chalk Wall is a space for those living or who lived in the Lower East Side, NYC to share their knowledge of Black history of the Lower East Side. We are creating a living history of Black people and their stories in the Lower East Side.

African American and Black stories and experiences in the Lower East Side are important to highlight, celebrate, and document, especially in a fast-paced city that is ever changing due to gentrification. We created this online space to welcome open dialogue and encourage you to submit your experiences in the Lower East Side through your preferred selection below (recording or writing)! Submissions can also be made anonymously.

Experiences to share can include; a memory from your upbringing, changes you’ve witnessed within the neighborhood, or a moment that has shaped the person you are today.

Submission Guidelines:

• Please use “I-statements”: speak your truth, your perspectives, your experiences.

• If you’d like to keep others in your story anonymous as well, simply describe them through their association to you (Example: charming mother, friend from down the block, the bakery man, my favorite cousin).

• No hate speech, racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, or prejudice and targeting speech to marginalized identities.