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