Housing is a Human Right
2009-2010 Swing Space Resident, 125 Maiden Lane, 9th Floor
Housing is a Human Right: Stories from the Struggle for Home (HHR) is an ongoing multi-platform documentary portrait of the struggle for Home. The project creates a space for people to record stories of Home, community and ongoing efforts to maintain or obtain housing. Stories are recorded in sound and photographs in the tradition of oral history, with the hope of building a collection of first person-narratives that represents the diverse spectrum of the housing crisis and illuminates the complex fabric of community and the people's right to a place to call Home.
Stories are shared through a variety of traditional and new media outlets, and public exhibitions. The project launched in fall of 2009 with an installation of audio stories, photos, and Remixed Testimony (a rhythmic mash-up of aspirations, anecdotes, and music produced in collaboration with DJ Oja) that played out loud amidst the hum of washers and dryers in a Laundromat in Brooklyn.
Co-Creators, Co-Producers: Rachel Falcone & Michael Premo
Photography: Michael Premo
Remixed Testimony, Additional Mixing/Mastering: DJ Oja
Thanks to LMCC’s Swing Space, Housing is a Human Right has a temporary home to take on interns and volunteers to plan and execute our 2010 season which includes collecting, archiving and producing audio documentaries and multimedia stories for screenings, listening parties, and installations in NYC, New Orleans, and South Africa. They will also begin documenting people impacted by foreclosure’s and predatory banking practices for an art installation presented by chashama Jamaica Studios that will run in vacant storefronts in Southeast Queens in late 2010.
