Many neighborhoods across America, still wear the scars of past civil unrest. It’s no different in the neighborhood of Garfield Park Chicago where, according to a 2020 ProPublica investigation, systemic divestment marks the streets and taints how the neighborhood is perceived.

Recognizing that the West side of Chicago is often viewed through the lens of what’s been lost,  Samantha Cabrera Friend collaborated as a CatchLight Local Chicago Fellow with ProPublica to visually commemorate those who remain and their histories.

To do this, Cabrera Friend worked with residents in East and West Garfield Park to collect oral histories and build a citizen archive, scanning and organizing photographs from their family scrapbooks, church pamphlets and household picture frames. The resulting body of images links past and present representations of multiple generations, families and communities, and offers a reflection of them that span decades. View the full ProPublica piece here.

The work culminated in a public community collaboration and art installation entitled "Meeting History: A Garfield Park Citizen Archive" on display at Legler Regional Library of Chicago. The following photos reflect the installation, contemporary portraits of subjects of the work, and photos from the Garfield Park Citizen archive itself.

Project and Archive Organized by Samantha Cabrera Friend 

Contemporary photos by Samantha Cabrera Friend

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