Pan Left Productions

We are high school students from Barrio Anita and Dunbar/Spring neighborhood. We are making a video about these historic neighborhoods and how they've changed over time. In the past few months we've conducted over 15 interviews with long-term neighborhood residents and are in the process of turning them into an video about where we come from and what our future may hold. We'd like to thank Pan Left for equipment and support! -students of Stories Of Our Streets

Background: Stories of Our Streets is a youth video project that looks into the similarities and differences between Barrio Anita and Dunbar/Spring neighborhood, which are separated by railroad tracks and by different demographics. Thanks to the support of the Dunbar Coalition, an organization that is turning the once-segregated Dunbar school into an African American cultural and education center, we have a base to meet and conduct our interviews in the neighborhood.
This oral history project brings together neighborhood youth, elders, and long-term residents to piece together the puzzles of our neighborhoods and barrios. From the Apache and Tohono O'odham roots of Barrio Anita, located close to the once-flowing Santa Cruz River, to the African American roots of the Dunbar/ Spring neighborhood that centered around the segregated school and was a hub of Black-owned and operated businesses, we follow social, economic, and cultural changes that have transformed these neighborhoods. Why did the integral Chinese population leave these neighborhoods? How is Barrio Anita being affected by more affluent white newcomers? How did Dunbar/Spring flip from a predominately African American neighborhood to a predominately white one? How do these neighborhoods' proximity to downtown and the University of Arizona effect the demographics and property values? And finally, what can we do to preserve our downtown neighborhoods and barrios in the face of revitalization and gentrification? These are the Stories of Our Streets. -Piper Weinberg, Stories of Our Streets project director