What if storytelling could be an engine of design justice? This course aims to find out in a real context with its own bold community vision: West Philadelphian’s proposed New Freedom District. In spring 2023, this Studio+ effort and a Netter Center-sponsored course amplified the design work Dr. Matt Kenyatta began 12 months ago with the New Africa Center and its trusted partners to preserve, reimagine, and make visible the vulnerable yet valuable heritage in The New Freedom District neighborhoods, including Belmont (“the Bottom”), Mill Creek, Mantua, many of whom include the displaced Black Bottom. 

With a unique three-part design methodology, the course guides several team-based work in the broad banner of “living heritage”: Heritage and Archives, Landscape Design, Digital Placemaking, and Cultural and Commercial Policy. By uncovering and curating the powerful overlooked stories that lend themselves to art, design, planning and preservation agendas, teams will practically shape the short-term and long-term spatial tactics such as digital storytelling installations, monument-making, cultural tourism and planning strategies, public space designs on community memory, and public workshops for community members and students in local high schools.