Historic Topeka neighborhood lost to time brought to life in film, art project
TOPEKA (KSNT) - Academics from the University of Kansas (KU) are releasing the results of their collaborative effort to shed light on a historic Topeka neighborhood.
KU announced in a publication on April 1 that a new documentary film, "Reclaiming Home: Remembering the Topeka Bottoms" and a multimedia art and oral history project will be released in the coming days in the Capital City. The project is the result of almost three years of labor on the part of F. Maria Velasco, a professor at KU, and others to bring to life the lost Topeka Bottoms neighborhood that was erased in the 1950s and 1960s to make way for I-70.
Velasco partnered with fellow KU faculty Matt Jacobson, Valerie Mendoza and Neill Esquibel-Kennedy to bring these stories into the public eye. Doctoral and master's students at KU's Department of Visual Art and freshmen from the Emerging Scholars Program also helped put the pieces of this project together. The project received financial assistance from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
KU reports that Velasco created more than two dozen tabletop models of homes to help flesh out the Topeka Bottoms, with each structure representing a different person's story. People visiting the art exhibits can even take home postcards to learn more about the area after they leave.
Velasco relied on interviews with people who used to live in the Topeka Bottoms or their descendants to strengthen her project. She also used an old Sanborn fire insurance map to help reconstruct the neighborhood.
“...the only map that exists of the neighborhood... the only thing the residents have where they can still find their home, rekindle memories of those days and everything that was prior to the demolition," Velasco said when speaking about the Sanborn fire insurance map source.
The Topeka Bottoms used to be home to Hispanic immigrants and members of the African-American community, according to KU. Velasco said people can visit her project exhibition and watch her film multiple times.
“This is a tremendous work,” Velasco said. “And remember, it's not just me. I formed a team in the beginning with two historians who know the community really well and the local history of the place... And then, when I realized the tremendous impact the work would have, I invited Matt Jacobson to film the stories and create a documentary... This is very cool. It has so many parts to it. This project hopes to offer some measure of relief to the communities displaced by urban renewal and, at the same time, to celebrate a local neighborhood that was a true model of global diversity and solidarity.”
You can find the art displays associated with Velasco's project at the Arts Connect building at 909 North Kansas Avenue. It will be on display from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. with an artist talk at 6:30 p.m. on April 4. The exhibition will be open through to May 31.
Velasco's film, "Reclaiming Home," will premier at 2:30 p.m. on April 5 at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site located at 1515 Southeast Monroe Street. People who contributed to the project will be recognized at 2:30 p.m. on the day of the premier with the film starting at 3 p.m. followed by a question-and-answer session.
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