See You in the Future

See You In The Future is a place-based storytelling and art project with the residents, workers, and visitors of a stigmatized informal area of Boston known as Mass. and Cass. The team is motivated by the fact that these residents were being written out of the future in the City of Boston’s latest neighborhood plan, by the criminalization and dispossession of this complex community where people have developed unsung care and survival practices, and by the relationships they have with folks on the ground, rooted in deep listening, building trust, and committing to co-creation as best as they can.

The team uses storytelling, public art, and design research to advocate for this complex community’s needs and to learn what spatial justice means in this context. Over the grant period, they have hosted regular arts workshops at a local community center; listened to and recorded stories with staff, guests, service providers, and advocates; started a participatory mural at the local men’s shelter paid by the Boston Public Health Commission; and begun a partnership with the Boston Society for Architecture to formalize and share their design methods and approach.

It is clear that neighborhoods live in us as much as we live in them, so this community art and storytelling project lays the foundation for a more intentional approach to designing the future of Mass. and Cass.