Local teens find parallels between 1968 and 2018 to create new exhibit

The days following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968 were especially bleak in DC, as neighborhoods across the city erupted with riots, fires, and looting.

Fifty years later, local teenagers revisited that history as a source of artistic inspiration.

To create a space for us, the new exhibit at the National Building Museum, local middle- and high-schoolers kept busy with interviews, writing, and photography to examine that era in the nation’s capital — and to compare it to the present day. The teenagers concluded that “2018 doesn’t seem all that different” from 50 years ago, according to their exhibit materials, which draw parallels between the controversial political leaders and “marginalized voices speaking out” in both periods.

The exhibit, which debuted Aug. 11 and continues through January 2019, is the product of a five-week summer program called Investigating Where We Live, which the museum has run since 1999 with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This year’s exhibit covers loaded topics including school shootings, police brutality, equality, and corruption. The display is interactive: Museumgoers can take photos with protest signs to share on social media, with hashtags such as #ExpressYourself. There’s a voting station for the public to decide what unites community: Is it identity, interests, or location? Visitors can also take a pledge to perform services such as volunteering or patronizing local businesses.

Lauren Wilson, the National Building Museum’s manager of teen programs, says the most important aspects of “Investigating Where We Live” are establishing a “third space” for teens outside of home and school, plus introducing “third adults” — beyond teachers and parents — who can serve as mentors.

Another benefit is uniting peers from all walks of life. The program — which won the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award in 2013 — draws youth ages 13 to 18 from public, private, charter, and home school environments across the Washington area, from all economic, religious, and social backgrounds.

Program facilitator Samantha Yeh said creating a safe space allows the young people to find their voices. The teenagers conceived, created, designed, and installed every aspect of the exhibit, including replicating an urban environment by spray-painting a gallery bench.

For their research and inspiration, participants visited DC sites such as the Latin American Youth Center, founded in 1968; Walter Pierce Park in Adams Morgan, which was revitalized especially for youth to use in the late ‘60s; and the U Street corridor, where the 1968 riots began. They also interviewed local adults who were teenagers at that time to get an idea of what life was like back then.

After visiting the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, learning about the Southeast Neighborhood House and its community-organizing efforts, the teens created a poster collage featuring the line: “If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes truth politics.” In text for an exhibit sign, they noted that, “In both 1968 and today, community spaces have been utilized as a tool for unity and youth empowerment in times of turmoil.”

That sentiment was apparent Aug. 11, when the teens ended their summer program by joining with family members, community partners, and museum staff to celebrate the opening of a space for us. The exhibit is open through winter on the first floor of the National Building Museum at 401 F St. NW.

This post has been updated to correct erroneous references to “60 years ago” and “60 years later.”