The Power of Place

Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 1995.

Dolores Hayden presents a plan for integrating “social memories” into public history and public art (9). In her own words, “This book is . . . an exploration of how the social history of urban space may lead to public history and public art, and may enlarge the practice of urban preservation and the writing of urban history” (xi). Hayden’s big idea is that the whole urban landscape is a valuable text for reading the history of a place and that the landscape itself can be used and developed to bring that history into a larger public consciousness (11, 227).

Hayden is particularly concerned with how “locating ethnic and women’s history in urban space can contribute to what might be called a politics of place construction” (xii). Because space was/is so often confined in political ways for women and ethnic minorities, designing public spaces for them to tell their own stories is empowering. Hayden calls this process “claim[ing] political territory” (237) in their own communities.

Hayden identifies three resources for housing the types of projects she proposes: “buildings with status as designated city landmarks needing broader historical interpretation; buildings important to social history that are not now designated as landmarks but should be; and vacant sites of historic importance where no structures remain but where new public art or open space designs might be possible to commemorate their significance” (104). All three of these sites are valuable venues for community-based social history projects, but Hayden mostly focuses on her experiences with the third type in creating a memorial wall for Biddy Mason in Los Angeles.

Most of all, Hayden stresses that public history and public art are not possible unless diverse members of the community are involved, and unless the residents in the area are “on board” with the idea of the project. She gives practical suggestions for those of her reader that are interested in pursuing similar projects of their own (respect for the community and individuals, funding, etc.). She ultimately concludes that, in urban landscapes, where “the remains of the past are few in architectural terms, . . . public art may hold the key to making new forms in the city that interpret the past in resonant ways” (231).

If you'd like to learn more about Dolores Hayden (and I KNOW you would), check out http://www.doloreshayden.com/%20fif only to see Hayden's softer, nature-loving side (and you thought she only was concerned with urban landscapes--pshaw!).