In the 1930s-1950s, Filipino immigrants created community at a row house on K St NW in Washington DC, while in a form of exile.
I re-embody memory of their presence through graphite rubbings of the original floorboards.
View from the top of the row house’s original staircase
Acton, a Montessori school for elementary and middle school students, now inhabits what once was Manila House in Washington DC. I invited the entire community of children and their teachers to learn about the history of their school building with me. We shared our own important memories connected to a specific place, and made floor rubbings together.
Lore has it that onlookers stood 3 people deep to watch gambling card players gaming at a round table here.
I invited the Corcoran MFA cohort to help me make a continuous rubbing of the side of the original building on the alley. A gate, now gone, would have kept the alley secure from the public when there were race riots against Filipinos during the 1930s.
Archival photos of Manila House in the 1930s from the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland.