Chalk Riot core team went on a historical walking tour of Chinatown for several hours, led by executive leadership of the 1882 Foundation. Over a delicious meal and storytelling at Chinatown Garden and long coffees at La Colombe, we started to brainstorm ideas for the visuals and listened to long-term goals for the neighborhood. We recorded these meetings on audio so that we could reference them later while designing.
We went on countless site visits to the area before all of the curb extensions were made. We know that when designing artwork for roadways, it's important to just sit and observe for hours on end. Understanding the traffic flow, busy and slow times of the day, and pedestrian and cyclist patterns inform our final designs immensely. Maps can only tell us so much, but talking to passersby, local workers, and residents helps us understand the mapping more.
A community design meeting with leadership from the Sixth & I Synagogue, city planners and the Chalk Riot core design team. Again, this meeting was audio recorded so that designers could reference it later. We used the same storytelling process with both Jewish and Chinese American groups, so that common themes and imagery naturally emerged from the notes taken during those meetups.
One of our initial meetings with the city planners, transportation engineers, designers, and long-time residents of the Wah Luck community and a translator. Thank you to the Mayor's Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs for providing a translator, and to Shani Shih for outreach to the attendees.
We were lucky to attend one of 1882's monthly TalkStory afternoons, which is an oral Chinese history storytelling event. The CYC stories we listened to made their way into the volleyball section of the mural. These occur regularly and are free for the public to attend.
We had a limited color palette due to the paving coating product, the durability we wanted, colors that honored both cultures without striking on taboos for either, and being aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching. Our final palette worked great. We ended up adding some more reds to the palette after this photo was taken after some additional feedback from Chinese residents.
One of our long design meetings, ensuring everyone was present even while overseas! The MLK Jr Library nearby the site became our default office for about a month. We're thankful for their facilities.
Equus line striping company created all of these new curb extensions, it was so cool to see their process. They are a great Black- and woman-owned local striping company that prioritizes community and safety and quality of the highest standards.
Given the nature of the project, often the process of identifying common themes between the two cultures happened without much prompting or direction. This is an example from one of those meetings.
As we moved through this storytelling exercise, identifying overlaps and similarities became more clear. The challenge was whittling them down into concise, simple imagery that was also capable of being produced in our rigid paving paint, and efficiently on our timeline of racing cold weather.
mmm research!
mmm more research!
Eventually, it was time to take stock of inventory and go shopping for a massive amount of materials!
Rosy teaches high schoolers affiliated with the Chinatown Art Studio the basics of paint prep and how to apply color to the road.
Q&A with members of the Chinese Community Church about history of the neighborhood and the role of the Church in the DC Chinese American community.
Shani from Chinatown Art Studio shares with the Sixth & I community about the collaborative barrier murals and their affiliated activity combining Jewish and Chinese residents' contributions. During mural production, both Sukkot and the Mid-Autumn Festival happened on the same new moon, on the same block of road!
Ted Gong from 1882 Foundation shares stories and history about Chinatown with Jewish community members under the sukkah designed by paint team member and local muralist Hillel Smith. Rabbi Aaron also shared a bit about the significance of the sukkah and the holiday Sukkot.
Almost every day of the second week of production, we had a "special guest" from the neighborhood to chat about their experiences and connections with the neighborhood. It was an opportunity for Q&A from painters to gain deeper knowledge of the area.
Shani Shih, design and paint team member, has been a tenant rights organizer for several years in DC's Chinatown. One morning, she served as our morning "special guest" and shared about the important work being done to protect elderly Chinese and Black local residents from displacement. The Museum Square and Wah Luck communities have faced treacherous landlord battles, which is unfortunately not uncommon in Chinatowns across America. There are still about 300 Chinese residents in Chinatown today.
Sticker swap at lunch on site!
Common themes from all our meetings, communications, storytelling and research began to present themselves.