Totems

Shelter designs were inspired by stories and experiences of the African-American elders as they struggled and worked together to create a community. The figures are guardians who support and protect each other and the neighborhood.  Totems serve as the emblem of a family or clan, and are a reminder of its ancestry. Bridge inserts represent the diversity of the S. Park community while honoring its historical significance as an African-American neighborhood. The visual inspiration for the trash cans was the cut-out shapes of the guardian figures ˜holding up the bus shelters. Historic tiles tell the history of the neighborhood starting from the early 1930s until the late 1950s and early 1960s. Elders and youth worked side by side to design and fabricate the mosaic panels.