A row house on K St NW in Washington DC was once a safe haven and social hub for Filipino immigrants from the 1920s-1950s. Memory of Filipinos who gathered there to create community while in a form of exile is re-embodied through graphite rubbings of the original floorboards.
View from the top of the row house’s original staircase
Rubbing of the original wood floorboards
Acton, a Montessori school for elementary and middle school students, now inhabits what once was Manila House in Washington DC. I invited the entire community of children and their teachers to learn about the history of their school building with me. We shared our own important memories connected to a specific place, and made floor rubbings together.
Onlookers stood 3 people deep to watch Intense card games played here at a round table. Gambling was involved.
Working with the MFA cohort to make a rubbing of the side of the original building from the alley. A gate, now gone, would have kept the alley secure from the public when there were race riots against Filipinos during the 1930s.
Archival photos of Manila House in the 1930s from the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland.