Humanities Truck Community Archive

Collection Title: Humanities Truck Community Archive

Description: The Humanities Truck is a fully customized delivery truck that serves as an experimental mobile platform for collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and expanding dialogue around the humanities. Using the truck, we seek to mobilize the humanities and democratize the sharing and production of knowledge by bringing together scholars at American University with community residents across Washington, D.C. Together we can collect, create, interpret, and curate stories that can return to the communities they originated from and circulate throughout the metropolitan region. The truck’s custom-design creates a unique space for facilitating participatory, cultural, and educational experiences in the humanities. It has the capacity to function as a recording studio, workshop and maker space, and exhibit and performance venue. People can engage with the truck’s interior and exterior spaces. The exterior features powerful speakers, an all-weather flat screen television, and brackets for attaching a 120” roll-down movie screen for film showings. The magnetized exterior wall of the truck can serve as an exhibition space or also be used to facilitate workshops. The interior of the truck is sound-insulated, equipped with air-conditioning, a second flat screen tv, and ceiling speakers. It is modular and flexible as tables and shelving can be easily added and moved. The space can function as a recording studio for doing oral histories, a digitization station, a workshop space, or a pop-up exhibit gallery. The Humanities Truck is made possible through funding from the Henry Luce Foundation along with additional support from American University. How do we mobilize the humanities? The Humanities Truck working group seeks to establish an experimental mobile platform for collecting and preserving materials, and inspiring dialog around the humanities. The truck will provide resources and equipment for projects that document experiences, start conversations, and share the stories of diverse and underserved communities in the Washington, DC Metropolitan region. It will function as a mobile workshop, recording studio, and exhibit space that can be driven across the region to work with specific micro-communities across the city in the spaces they already gather.

: American University 1968-1969: Year of Protest, Year of Reform; Student journalists for The Eagle named the American University academic year 1968-1969 a year of protest and reform. Campus drinking laws loosened. Students created a new experimental, interdisciplinary course called University and Revolution. AU’s ninth president, George Williams, was inaugurated. Members of AU’s campus fought for university reform through the Tripartite committee and student-led groups such as OASATAU, a New AU, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Throughout the year, AU students took an increasing interest in local, national, and international events. Beginning with Orientation and Registration and ending with Commencement, the exhibit highlights campus life and major events during the academic year. The Humanities Truck interviewed alumni coming back to campus for the Class of 1969 50 year reunion. This collection contains photos and interviews from the Class of 1969 50 year reunion and exhibit.

: AU Scholars Exhibition; On April 13, 2019 on the American University Quad, two classes from the AU Scholars Program presented the culmination of their semester-long research projects. Displayed inside the truck, students in Dan Kerr's class put together an exhibit about the history of the Community for Creative Nonviolence in DC. On the outside the truck, students from Martyn Oliver's class presented their exhibit on religious minorities in DC.

: DC History Conference 2019; The annual D.C. History Conference provides a dynamic, friendly, and rigorous forum for discussing and promoting original research about the history and culture of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The Humanities Truck took part in the 2019 Conference on Friday, November 22nd, presenting the exhibit “Downtown Displaced: A Case Study of Gentrification in Mount Vernon Square 1840-Present.” The exhibit emerged from a four month collaboration with Street Sense artists, and it explores the social costs of neighborhood change in a long temporal context. On Saturday, November 23rd, the Truck returned for a “performance” that included Street Sense artists Reggie Black, Angie Whitehurst, and DC filmmaker Bryan Bello. The artists/vendors provided their own interpretation of the neighborhood change and the meaning of Apple moving into Mt. Vernon Square. Also on Saturday, AU Public History students shared about their experiences collaborating with DC community partners for this project at the “Collaborating for a Community History” conference panel. This exhibit contains photos from the event.

: Homeless Memorial Vigil 2018; The People for Fairness Coalition hosted its 6th annual Homeless Persons Memorial Vigil from evening on December 20, 2018 to midday on December 21, 2018. The event honors those who have died while homeless in the nation’s capital and elsewhere. The Humanities Truck attended the vigil, presenting an exhibit on the history of the CCNV shelter.

: Homeless Memorial Vigil 2019; The People for Fairness Coalition hosted its 7th annual Homeless Persons Memorial Vigil took place overnight between December 19 and 20, 2019. The event honors those who have died while homeless in the nation’s capital and elsewhere. The Humanities Truck attended the vigil, presenting an exhibit titled Downtown Displaced, about gentrification in Mount Vernon Square.

: Staughton and Alice Lynd; A collection of photos and interviews with Staughton and Alice Lynd