Philadelphia Public Art @philart.net

Black Bottom Memorial Wall

Black Bottom Memorial Wall
Andrea Zemel, 1999
* map, heart and hands symbol, standing people, sitting person, bulldozer, houses, weapons, flag
* a collaborative project with Penn and University City High School students, it was located on the West side of 36th, North of Filbert, on the Southeast corner of the High School, which was torn down in 2015
* inscription:
The Black Bottom was a predominately African American community that once existed between 32nd Street and 40th Street and between Walnut Street and Lancaster Avenue. Within these boundaries was a community based on loyalty, trust, and respect. It was born of economic adversity but based on love. Their love was for their community and its members and they cared for each other as family. Everyone was helpful to one another. The children were raised together. With pride in their hearts and pride for their community prejudice was a stranger to the people of the Black Bottom. The walls of the community were torn down to make way for "Urban Renewal." However the sense of community was planted in the hearts of the members proving that a community can thrive even in a field of barren ground. Resistance did not prevent their neighborhood from being physically destroyed but resistance preserved it in their memories even today. The community still meets every year on the last Sunday in August for the Black Bottom Reunion at Fairmount Park. It is the largest neighborhood gathering in the history of Philadelphia.
We were like a big family, close together until the bulldozers of urban renewal came around. They tore down our neighborhood - but not our spirits! The Black Bottom still is home in our hearts.
We fought to protect our neighborhood and our country.
* Wall art.
* 39.957425,-75.194200 [map] [nearby]
* Exhibits: Missing, War, Black Lives, Mosaic
* See also:
+iliad.nyc's Andrea Zemel page