A standing room only crowd turned out at 9 AM, July 6 on the lawn of N.W. Harllee Elementary School to witness and participate in the much-anticipated reveal of Vicki Meek’s newest Dallas project. This endeavor is part of Nasher Public, an initiative to provide more artist-driven public art in Dallas. And Meek is in the thick of it.
Artist Vicki Meek Adresses the Crowd
Lead Artist of Phase 1, Meek explained, “The first phase of the Urban Historical Reclamation and Recognition (UHRR) Project focuses on the Tenth Street Historic District, one of the last Freedman’s Towns in America. [Meek’s] project installed five makers in culturally significant locations throughout the District.”
Meek continued, “Phase 2 will identify a disappearing Mexican American community to center the project. [The role of] Lead Artist will transfer to UHRR cohort artist Angel Faz.
Working closely with the Tenth Street community, especially the elders, the sites to focus upon were identified; sites that, for the most part, are now bereft of that which made them significant to the community. The culturally significant locations in Phase 1 are identified by QR codes posted on signs about the height of a parking meter, and include Eloise Lundy Park, named for the first African American to serve on the Dallas Park Board; the former site of Dr. Nathaniel Watts’s home and office, an African American physician who cared for the Tenth Street community for decades; the former site of Sunshine Elizabeth Chapel CME church; the former site of the Tenth Street business community and Simpson Pharmacy; and the site of Black Dallas Remembered founder Mamie McKnight’s former home.
To access the QR code content, first get the free Kinfolk app from your app store. The first QR code is near the corner of Anthony and E. 8th Streets.
Check it out. Walk around the Tenth Street Historic District and learn about the Freedman’s Town in Oak Cliff. It will open your eyes! Vicki Meek has, indeed, done it again.
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Speaking freely 