Grassroots Democracy Is Focus of Documentary Collaboration

After nearly two years of work, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography are unveiling an original documentary project exploring grassroots democracy at work in America. Through photographs and interviews, the project, "Indivisible: Stories of American Community," provides a firsthand look at local initiatives and the people behind them in 12 communities across the country. The project encompasses a nationally touring museum exhibition, a major trade book, traveling exhibits that will circulate free postcards and an extensive Web site. The museum exhibition will premiere at the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago on Oct. 6 and run through Nov. 26 in conjunction with a postcard exhibit at the James R. Thompson Center, also in Chicago, Oct. 5-19. The book, published by W.W. Norton & Company/Lyndhurst Books, and including a foreword by journalist Ray Suarez, will be available nationally in bookstores by Oct. 6. The project Web site www.indivisible.org, launched concurrently with the Chicago opening, will present the "Indivisible" photographs and interview excerpts along with additional resources for learning more about community action. The project also includes major research archives, an educators' guide, and an instructional booklet for documenting community projects. The Pew Charitable Trust funded the project. Using original photographs and the voices of citizens telling their own stories, ¬divisible®ocuses on 12 local initiatives that address issues facing communities across the United States -- including housing, immigration, the environment, crime prevention, health care, youth empowerment, race relations and economic and cultural development. Photographer Lynn Davis and folklorist Jens Lund introduce Alaskan fishing communities along the North Pacific Coast where innovative marine conservation efforts are having an impact; photographer Reagan Louie and ethnographer Barry Dornfeld go to North Philadelphia, where -- through the hard work of community residents at the Village of Arts and Humanities -- some 87 abandoned properties have been converted into art parks, community gardens, education facilities, and low-income housing; and photographer Sylvia Plachy and journalist Karen Michel visit midwives and doulas -- volunteers in the service of women during pregnancy, childbirth and early postpartum time at home -- working to support mothers on Long Island. Among the others documented are Haitian immigrants in Delray Beach, Fla., working with local police to patrol their streets to combat drug use and crime; migrant farmworkers in Texas border towns who learn to finance and construct their own homes; and loggers, conservationists, and other residents in Montana forming a coalition on preservation and sustainable use of the forest. "Indivisible" is a unique project matching documentary expression with committed grassroots community action. The creative work of project photographers and fieldworkers provides powerful testimony to personal efforts, encouraging dialogue about the importance of the individual in community life," said project co-director Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies. "By amplifying the stories of local people and places, "Indivisible" affirms the value of community and illustrates the potential gain that comes from recognizing mutual interests and interdependence." "The photographers, twelve distinct interpreters of American life, have given us a wealth of imagery that speaks to the texture and character of diverse communities across the country," said project co-director Trudy Wilner Stack, curator of exhibitions and collections at the Center for Creative Photography. "These artists powerfully reveal places that define our nation and people who inspire us in the search for a renewed commitment to working democracy." Archived collections of ¬divisible®roject photographs, interview tapes and transcripts will be housed at both Duke and the University of Arizona, providing public access to an unusually large body of work documenting a cross section of modern America. The historical value of the collection, given its grounding in a cultural perspective and the inclusion of a range of issues, places and demographics, will engage and inform future researchers and others interested in the diversity and complexity of American civic life, organizers said. Each of the 12 communities will also receive a set of photographs and interview tapes from the documentation of their initiatives. Rankin will discuss Local Heroes Changing America, the book included in the project, at the Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m.