WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Along the ancient path of the Monongahela River, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Braddock, Pennsylvania, sits in the eastern region of Allegheny County, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 approximately nine miles outside of Pittsburgh. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 An industrial suburb, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Braddock is home to Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the Edgar Thomson Works. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Operating since 1875, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is the last functioning steel mill 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the region. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For 12 years, I have produced collaborative portraits, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 still lives, landscapes, and aerial views 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in order to build a visual archive 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to address the intersection 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the steel industry, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the envirnoment, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the health care system's impact 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the bodies of my family and community. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The tradition and grand narrative of Braddock 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is mostly comprised of stories 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of industrialists and trade unions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Currently, the new narrative about Braddock, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a poster child for Rust Belt revitalization, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is a story of urban pioneers 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 discovering a new frontier. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Mass media has omitted the fact 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that Braddock is predominantly black. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Our existence has been co-opted, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 silenced, and erased. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Fourth generation 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in a lineage of women, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was raised under the protection and care 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of Grandma Ruby, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 off 8th Street 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at 805 Washington Avenue. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She worked as a manager for Goodwill. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Mom was a nurse's aid. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She watched the steel mills close 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and white flight to suburban developments. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By the time my generation walked the streets, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 disinvestment at the local, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 state, and federal level 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eroded infrastructure, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the War on Drugs 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 dismantled my family and community. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Grandma Ruby's stepfather Gramps 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was one of a few black men to retire from Carnegie's mill with his pension. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He worked in high temperatures, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 tearing down and rebuilding furnaces, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 cleaning up spilt metal and slag. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The history of a place is written 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the body and the landscape. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Areas of heavy truck traffic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 exposure to benzene and atomized metals, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 risk cancer and lupus. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 123 licensed beds, 652 employees: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rehabilitation programs, decimated. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A housing discrimination lawsuit against Allegheny County 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 removed where the projects [????] towers once stood. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Recent rezoning for more light industry 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has since appeared. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Google Maps and Google Earth pixellations 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 conceal the flammable waste 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 being used to squeeze the Bunn Family off their home and land. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 2013, I chartered a helicopter 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with my cameras to document 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this aggressive dispossession. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In flight, my observation reveals 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thousands of plastic white bundles 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 owned by a conservation industry 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that claims it's eco-friendly 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and recycles millions of tires 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to preserve people's lives 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and to improve people's lives. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My work spirals from the micro 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the macro level, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 excavating hidden histories. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Recently, at the Seattle Art Museum, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Isaac Bunn and I mounted this exhibition, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the exhibition was used as a platform to launch his voice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Through reclamation of our narrative, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we will continue to fight historic erasure 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and socioeconomic inequality. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Applause)