CURRENTS: Nicole King

The Dresher Center’s CURRENTS: Humanities Work Now lunchtime series showcases exciting new work in the humanities in a dynamic and inter-disciplinary setting.

“Losing my home is like a death to me.” The Save Our Block Movement, 2004 - 2024

Nicole King, Associate Professor, American Studies; Fall 2024 Residential Faculty Fellow

This talk traces the emergence of the cultural documentation project "A Place Called Poppleton," and it shifts toward using the “radical roots” of public history, historic preservation, and public humanities to fight back against displacement of past and present residents in Poppleton. The story does not end when the Eaddy family wins the battle for their home–it is a much longer and more expansive struggle. This project examines how a collective came together to do what many said could not be done: Fight City Hall and win, turning a defeat into a victory, and rethinking how institutions of higher education and communities can work together for change. The displacement and long-stalled redevelopment of the Poppleton neighborhood presents a case study of both the potential harms of extractive redevelopment and the long history of residents’ resistance to slow violence through narrative investigations. We meet the Eaddy family along with  a host of other actors working with them to bring the displacement and devastation in Poppleton into the court of public opinion for a win that lies within and beyond the structural violence of bureaucracy.

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