DC & Me: Community Stories
Developed by Folger Artist-in-Residence Katherine Harroff, DC & Me is the first part of the three-part DC Amplified project which seeks to gather and uplift community stories within Washington, DC. In this phase, stories have been gathered through workshops and individual interviews with members of the Anacostia, Mt. Pleasant, and Penn Quarter communities.
These stories will be shared out through interactive sculptural installations at three DC Public Library locations (Anacostia, Mt. Pleasant, and MLK; April 24 – September 9) featuring visual artistic interpretations of these neighborhoods as well as QR code-accessible short films and an interactive hotline wherein people can record their own community reflections.
DC & Me: Community Stories from Mt. Pleasant
DC & Me: Community Stories from Anacostia
DC & Me: Community Stories from Penn Quarter
Penn Quarter Workshop
National Building Museum
Anacostia Workshop
Honfleur Gallery
Accessing Community Stories
There are a number of ways to interact with these installations and discover the stories from these DC neighborhoods.
- EXPLORE the community art that was generated through our visual workshops. These incorporate painting, collage techniques, and words that their artists felt captured the past, present, and future of their communities.
- WRITE your own community memory, reflection, or hope for the future and drop it in the kiosk mailbox.
- CALL the number listed on the kiosk to record a voicemail about your part of DC.
- SCAN the QR codes located around the installation to access shorts films showing community interviews and actor reenactments about life in DC.
Project Timeline
Summer 2021
- Artist Katherine Harroff presents a program proposal for DC Amplified, a three-part artistic exploration of DC created by and for the community. The project is developed for the Folger Shakespeare Library in collaboration with Director of Programs and Performance Karen Ann Daniels and Folger staff.
Fall 2022
- The first phase of DC Amplified, DC & Me, is awarded a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.
April 2023
- Community interviews begin as part of our Searching for Shakespeare Festival, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio and held in partnership with DC Public Library.
Summer 2023
- Interviews continue and are used to create scripts reflecting on the best and worst of DC, hopes for the future, and memories of people and neighborhoods.
March 2024
- Led by teaching artists from Angel Rose Collective, community visual arts workshops are held at the National Building Museum, Honfleur Gallery, and Lost Origins Gallery to generate the mixed-media works for the installations.
April 2024
- The first completed kiosk is installed at Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Library!
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov
On display through partnership with the DC Public Library.
DC & Me: Community Stories from Mt. Pleasant
DC & Me: Community Stories from Anacostia