{"id":11790,"date":"2019-05-15T08:32:28","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T12:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=11790"},"modified":"2019-09-08T00:36:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T04:36:09","slug":"im-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/05\/15\/im-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"A Laser Show To Celebrate Local Immigrants\u2019 Stories \u2026 And Confront Stigma"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE<\/strong>: I’ve been commissioned by the Essex County Community Foundation to help document\/promote cultural projects from its Creative County Initiative, which is supported by Boston\u2019s Barr Foundation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

As darkness settled on Salem\u2019s Point neighborhood last Saturday night, machines began to fill the warm spring air with haze. Then the crowd of dozens of people gathered in a parking lot at 34 Peabody St. ooohed as lasers lit up the air\u2014blue and green and red, lines and grids and wedges of light, sometimes it all seemed to ripple like waves.<\/p>\n

And recorded voices in Dominican and Haitian and Salem townie accents began to speak: \u201cI wasn\u2019t born here in Salem. I was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic.\u201d \u201cMy mom came here from Brazil when she was really young, like 16 or 17.\u201d \u201cWhen I first came into the Point I was very scared. I couldn\u2019t speak the language. But the Point was like an escape room.\u201d \u201cEverybody spoke French in the Point when I grew up in the \u201950s. So it was still very French-Canadian centered.\u201d \u201cThey came here for a mission, to become established here, to provide more opportunities for themselves and their children. They accomplished that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie<\/a>
Stephanie Benenson’s “Im|Migration” at Salem’s Punto Urban Art Museum, May 11, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The laser and sound installation \u201cIm|Migration\u201d by Stephanie Benenson<\/a> of Hamilton for the North Shore Community Development Coalition<\/a>\u2019s Punto Urban Art Museum<\/a> repeats on May 16, 17 and 18 from 8 to 10 p.m. each night. In addition to the light show, the presentation includes an augmented reality project in the outdoor Alley Gallery off the parking lot and photos of community members by Jeff Barnett-Winsby of Wassaic, New York, printed on banners hung on a fence across the street at Peabody Street Park. On May 18, the coalition also holds its \u201cFiesta de Arte\u201d fundraiser from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., with music, lighting installations and performance art at its loft gallery at 96 Lafayette St.<\/p>\n

The project is funded by a grant from the Essex County Community Foundation\u2019s Creative County Initiative, which is supported by Boston\u2019s Barr Foundation. The initiative aims to mobilize North Shore artists, arts organizations and community and business leaders to enhance life in Essex County.<\/p>\n

The coalition\u2019s CEO Mickey Northcutt says, \u201cI don\u2019t ever remember seeing or hearing the immigrant stories of the people in the Point over time all of them told together as one, the French Canadians and the Dominicans, all told together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Stephanie<\/a>
Stephanie Benenson’s “Im|Migration” at Salem’s Punto Urban Art Museum, May 11, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Telling Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more than a century, Salem\u2019s Point neighborhood, just south of downtown, along the South River, has been a tight-knit immigrant community\u2014Irish and French-Canadians and, in more recent generations, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Brazilians, Algerians. Northcutt says, \u201cIt has been and it is a really welcoming place for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe essence of what we do is we want to create opportunity and improve the quality of life in the Point and other neighborhoods we work in. I think the best way we can do that is to tell stories,\u201d Northcutt says. \u201cPeople don\u2019t always want to do that because there\u2019s a stigma. \u2026 Not everyone wants to tell their story about being poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mickey<\/a>
Mickey Northcutt, May 11, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2013, the North Shore Community Development Coalition worked with the City of Salem and the Point Neighborhood Association to develop the \u201cVision and Action Plan\u201d<\/a> for the Point. It calls for affordable housing, infrastructure, a community center, and youth services.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the major goals in the action plan was to address the long standing stigma that\u2019s directed at the neighborhood and the people in the neighborhood,\u201d Northcutt says. \u201cThe reality in the Point is it is a wonderfully family friendly, welcoming neighborhood for Salem.\u201d<\/p>\n

So for the past two years, Northcutt says, the North Shore Community Development Coalition has held reunions for the French-Canadian community that used to be the majority in the Point. The reunions have been held in the coalition\u2019s office at 96 Lafayette St., formerly the French-Canadian community hall called the Klondike Club.<\/p>\n

And, as part of the coalition\u2019s efforts to support the Latino and Caribbean community that\u2019s the majority in the Point now, the coalition has been funding \u201csocial justice public art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Punto<\/a>
Punto Urban Art Museum murals in Salem, Massachusetts, May 11, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Punto<\/a>
Punto Urban Art Museum murals in Salem, Massachusetts, May 11, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2017, the coalition launched the Punto Urban Art Museum<\/a>, producing over 50 large-scale murals by dozens of artists to brighten the walls of affordable apartment buildings within a three block radius. Northcutt says the goal is to maintain the neighborhood as a home to current residents while producing \u201cart that is inspiring for the people who live in the Point, but also inspired by the people in the Point. It\u2019s also an invitation for people not from the Point to visit. We find often the stigma is rooted in a lack of understanding. People haven\u2019t had an invitation or a reason to come to the Point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie<\/a>
Stephanie Benenson’s “Im|Migration” at Salem’s Punto Urban Art Museum, May 11, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bridging The Past And The Present<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephanie Benenson grew up in Rockport, then spent time in New Orleans and New York, where she studied painting at the Art Students League and National Academy of Design and worked in advertising, before returning to New England to earn a master\u2019s degree at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 2017.<\/p>\n

Upon graduating, Benenson got a grant from the school that funded her launch of Harbor Voices, which she describes as an art \u201ccollective.\u201d Benenson says she\u2019s the lead artist, \u201cresponsible for the idea,\u201d then she brings in like-minded partners to help produce the lasers or photographs or augmented reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I moved back to the North Shore, I started to explore social practice and community public art,\u201d Benenson says. It\u2019s public art positioned as community building and service. \u201cAn artist can approach a community and create art that can emerge from things that are important to them or their history or their culture.\u201d<\/p>\n