Neighbors took another step toward converting a drab concrete highway overpass that divides two neighborhoods into a living, human bridge.
The two neighborhoods are Upper State Street and Jocelyn Square.
Organizers first planted trees and painted fences in and around the overpass, by which I‑91 split the area.
Then, this Saturday, they began taking pictures of people who live in the area. Nice ones. Some of them, taken by Chris Randall and Ian Christmann, are reproduced here.
The idea is eventually to plaster 200 portraits on the concrete. Both symbolically, and in reality, humans will have retaken the terrain.
Some six photographers took a total of 100 photos Saturday, according to project co-organizer Ben Berkowitz. Another communal shoot is scheduled for May 12 at 11 a.m. Once the group raises $9,600 for printed materials (help here), it plans to start hanging the pictures. And a highway overpass will become a gallery.
Berkowitz said the plan is to print the photos on five-foot-by-six-foot “UV paper,” then “wheat-paste” them to the concrete. The organizers would “welcome” donated work from an interested printer.
Pictured below are some shots of Saturday’s event. (Those are the color ones.) Berkowitz sent them in. New Haven has spent decades justifiably complaining about how highways divided us a half-century ago. In Jocelyn Square and Upper State Street, people have decided that they can not only fix the problem, but create new beauty and community in the process. Rather than just kvetch or try to recreate the past.
Click here to learn more about the project and get involved. Click here and here for two background stories.
