A Message from Lily Yeh | Lily Yeh Biography

Community Remembrance Project
It was a great honor to be a Distinguished Artist in Residence at the University of Delaware for the Art as Social Activism project. This project was aimed at engaging faculty, students, and the African American community in Newark, Delaware in the development of a collaborative public arts program that would raise awareness of social barriers and diversity issues and create connection and mutual understanding between the University and the local African American community. We set ourselves the task of making public art to honor and preserve the memory of the African American community located just north of the University's main campus.

In June 2004, I was invited to attend a community dinner at the Elks Lodge on West Cleveland Avenue. Many people from the community, especially the elders, attended. It was magical. Eager to share their stories, people were excited about the project. Responding to the community's enthusiasm, we launched the project in the fall of 2004 with two big events ø a Back to School celebration at the Elks Lodge and my presentation on Art as Social Activism to the public at the University. Giving the project a working title, Community Remembrance, we followed up these two events by holding monthly meetings at the Elks. We also presented the project and conducted workshops at the nearby Mt. Zion Church so that more people would have the opportunity to participate. Virginia Bradley, Chair of the Department of Fine Arts and Visual Communications, assigned several graduate students to support the project, organizing, documenting and providing hands-on assistance during workshop sessions. Sharing their stories and family photos, community members sketched out a clear picture of what their community once looked and felt like. It was a community everyone belonged to, a community of harmony and deep bonding among its residents. Despite the challenges of social inequality and Jim Crow in the North at the time, the community thrived through its deep faith in God and its togetherness. The longing for the past, the lost community and its neighborhood was palpable in our gatherings. People felt comforted by sharing their memory of a life that was full of color and joy, a life that shaped their identity, values and sense of purpose.

As we began to brainstorm about the right artistic format to express and honor people's feelings and memories, we came upon "mapping," which proved to be an effective way for people to recall the physical layout of the community and the locations of churches, homes, streets and stores. By this time, first-year students were volunteering to help out. They organized the drawings created by residents during our workshops. They turned some into quilt pieces. And they learned about the African American communityÕs long history in this part of Newark and the importance of the Elks Lodge and the neighborhood churches to this community. Some community members still live in their original homes which are now surrounded by the University campus. Many others have moved into the greater Newark and Wilmington area. Students appreciated the opportunity to participate in the project, which they felt has enriched and deepened their experience on campus.

By the end of the semester, community members clearly expressed their desire to have a monument that would commemorate their community. I set out to design this monument during the winter holidays. My inspiration came from the stories and images we had collected as well as the text and pictures in People Were Close, the oral and photographic history collection produced by Professor Bernie Herman and his American Material Culture Studies students. The main portion of the monument is a colorful image containing people, a church and several buildings under the star-filled sky. To express the sense of warmth, joy and love in this community, the design had a gentle and harmonious composition. I proposed that the monument stand on a solid and double-stepped foundation, representing the people's feeling of deep rootedness in the community. The monument will be completed in mosaics for color effect and permanency. Sprouting from the monument are tree-like columns, which represent both the continuity and the changes undergone by Newark's African American community. It expresses the desire of the older members in the community to keep their collective memory alive so that it may one day strengthen and nurture the younger generation. I felt that the monument should not stand alone. It should be accompanied by a group of story-telling poles of different colors and sizes. This sculptural ensemble aims to express the situation of the current Newark African American community. As it is, people come back to the Elks Lodge and the area churches — Pilgrim Baptist, St. John's, Mt. Zion and Iron Hill — to connect, celebrate and be together.

When I presented the concept and design to the community at the Elks Lodge, the initial response was terse and direct. They felt that the main image was too generic and idealized. They wanted representations of professions of the people in their working-class community, e.g., a nurse, a postman, a politician, a schoolteacher, a baseball player, etc. They also wanted to bring the church from the right side of the picture to its center, since the community life revolved very much around the church. Their ideas were then incorporated into a redesign more correctly reflecting their community in an earlier era.

When the spring semester started, Virginia Bradley assigned one class of senior Art majors to work on the Community Remembrance Project. The twenty-some enthusiastic students in the class were divided into three groups, who worked separately on design, implementation, and documentation. Incorporating the suggestions from the community, students completed the design for the monument, which they then enlarged to its actual size, ready for mosaic installation. To get the materials ready for mosaics, students researched the internet and acquired the right kind of bisque tiles, which they then glazed and fired into beautiful multi-colored tiles for outdoor surfacing. For practice, they created a few mosaic samples with the tiles they glazed, showing dazzling results. We then presented the revised design and mosaic samples to the community at the Elks Lodge again. This time, the community members clapped their hands with delight. They said, "Yes, that's us." They named the monument "Our Community in Newark."

In order to reach more people from the community, we presented our "Rememberance" project at the George Wilson Center in early February. We invited the community to come to share more stories and participate in creating some story-telling poles. It was very exciting when families came to the center with children. I remember particularly when Mrs. Florine Henderson walked in with her family and a stack of family photographs. She shared stories of her family and the "good old times" while her children painted story-telling poles with the art students from the University. Basing their designs on the existing interviews and the new stories given to them by the community members, students painted their story-telling poles at the Wilson Center and in classroom workshops. Some of the students created imaginative and sculptural forms that really added texture and variety to the colorful poles. In May we were ready to build the monument, but we met a roadblock. We were told that we must first apply for a permit for the construction of the monument.

Virginia Bradley worked hard to get the permit, and the project is back on track again. Looking back on the project, I am deeply grateful for the privilege of hearing this community's stories, of working with many talented University students, and getting firm support from the University. My special thanks go to Virginia Bradley, whose patience and understanding helped to make the project a success.