Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Workshop #6-Working on our Walks!

We returned from Spring Break motivated to work on the tours and connect with northeasters!

The creators of the tours have walked their routes and are preparing to conduct interviews and collect sounds. They are making connections with people and places on their tour now.
NOW is the TIME to contact ArtShare and the collaborators to be involved in the
Northeast Audio Walking Tours!

The 3 Tour Groups:
#1: E Squared-
Central Avenue (from Broadway to Lowry)
#2: Bottineau Walk-Lowery Bridge, down Marshall, through Bottineau Park, up University and back to the bridge.
#3: Trolley Tour-13th Avenue (from Monroe Street to 2nd Street)

We began our workshop with a writing exercise. Writing exercises allow us to explore the narrative, narration and story-telling. We read them as they were written to delve into narrative further and to have the opportunity to be a listener.

Writing Exercise: Pick a place on your walk with historical relevance. Go back to that time. What would make you curious? Who would you see there? What would you ask? How would that conversation go?

some of the writings/readings......

-
Thoughts on the factory buildings along Quincy - early 1900s (Northrup King built 1917)
Talk to the architects, the builders - how did they envision the building and its place in the
neighborhood? What is special about the building?
Talk to the laborers working on the building - Can they relate to the idea of the building? Do
they live in the area?
Talk to the people working in the building - Do they see any of the vision the architect had?
How do they experience the building, its surroundings? What stories do they have?
Talk to everyone - How do they see this building in the future? Do they imagine themselves
later in life returning here and reminiscing?
What does the area feel like? Does it evoke emotions? Who are these individuals? How have
they imprinted themselves on the space?

-The landmark on our walk would be the Ideal Diner. I have this weird fascination with old-fashioned diners, and this one is just so cute and friendly. I odn't really know when it's prime time was, but it looks very '50/'60's.
I would go in and ask why the owners decided to cram this little diner in with a whole bunch of factories. I would ask how many factory workers came in there and ate. I would ask what people were like in that time. I suppose that people weren't really different, but it seems like in a place like that, people would act differently to each other. I think people would converso with each other and be friendlier. It is such a small place that you would be forced to interact with those around you.
More than that, though, I'd be most interested in sitting down at the counter, eating, and watching what happens. I would get to immerse myself into that world and see what it's like. I would order pancakes, because you can judge the quality of a diner by the quality of their pancakes. I would tell them that.
Before I left, I would want to know what their best/favrite dish is.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Bottineau Walking Tour-Group #2



A Stop on The Bottineau Walking Tour


22nd Ave. Station
A Gentleman's Club?

Some call it 22nd Ave. Station, some call it the Double Deuce or Deuce, Deuce. Some call it a shame and others see it a fulfilling a neighborhood need. What do you see? A strip joint, a family business, a slice of history? Is there a zoning loop-hole that allows a strip joint in a residential neighborhood? Questionable city ordinance?

"Looking to hang out at strip club, but don't have more than five bucks? The 22nd Avenue Station—or the "Deuce Deuce" as it's better known—has cheap cold beers, a chance to win on an awesome peg wheel and coconut-scented strippers who take the stage for singles. And if that sounds a little skeezy, it is. But the Deuce is also a entertaining time for men and women, and is a Northeast institution."

Quote from Metromix http://twincities.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/adult_clubs/22nd-avenue-station-northeast/331723/content

Hmmm? Any thoughts on this?

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Workshop #5

There's a cemetery just off Broadway...at least there was.













Maple Hill Cemetery was located at Broadway & Fillmore NE. Established in 1857 and closed in 1890. In 1935, the area was called Folwell Playground. This area has also been called Maple Hill Park and is currently known as Beltrami Park. Most graves were removed to Lakewood Cemetery or Hillside Cemetery. (italics mine)
*Published information includes "Maple Hill Cemetery (Now Known as Beltrami Park),Minneapolis, Hennepin County," by Alfred J Dahlquist in Minnesota Genealogist 9:4 (12/1978), p 152, and "Maple Hill Cemetery, Hennepin County, Minnesota," by Barbara Sexton and Lauraine Kirchner in Minnesota Genealogist 12:2 (6/1981), p 73-77.

This is one cool tidbit that we talked about at Tuesday's meeting. We spent much of the evening in our three Walking Tour groups defining the area our walks will take, checking in about what each walk might be missing, and filling in specific places on the walks we want to for sure include.
The three areas of the Audio-Guided Walking Tours are pretty much figured out now. We will be walking each route over the next week to see how long they actually are and see what landmarks we might have missed as we've talked about them. We hope for each walk, in it's final form, to last about 30 to 45 minutes.

Another cool thing we did during the meeting was learn the basics of how to record an interview and how to use the recording device and microphones. We will begin to set up interviews with people in the NE community in the next week or two and to research buildings, areas, and stories from our Walk routes so we can have informed interviews, know what kind of questions we have, and what we know already and want to know more about.
The 'Trolley Tour' group was thinking about it as the 5 W's: Who, What, Where, When, and Why? Start to fill in the answers to those questions and you will be left with what info. you still need to get from interviews or more research.

Still snowing? C'mon!

Please leave a comment or question below and thanks for checkin' out the ArtShare blog.
P.S. Reminder that there's no workshop meeting next week (Spring Break - April 7).