As powerful forces continually reshape cities and uproot communities, there are pockets of resiliency where people continue to pass on traditions, preserve culture, maintain roots, and simultaneously inspire and cultivate youth to create new art and participate in grass roots movements.

The Bayview Hunters-Point neighborhood and Bahama Village in Key West, Florida may seem about as different as two neighborhoods can get. But as we will uncover together, the connection between the two places illuminates the urgent race against time that we see in historically Black communities across the country. The other key similarity is both communities are utilizing the power of intergenerational art strategies to successfully cultivate resiliency and staying power.

This program will examine how arts programs that engage youth and elders create resilient institutions that prevail even as neighborhood dynamics change. We will highlight the important and innovative work of two organizations, the Bahama Village Music Program and the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center, in sustaining places where generations come home – and ask can these models be replicated elsewhere and what would it take?

Full program featuring artist William Rhodes and the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center community in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunters Point: