The artist team behind a public art project called “Washing” held an open listening session for the Chinatown community on March 7. The multimedia work is being created by Lily Xie, Dianyvet Serrano, Chu Huang, Charlene Huang, and Maggie Chen, in collaboration with the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC), and it will showcase resident stories about the history of the I-93 and I-90 highways. Culminating in an outdoor projection event in July, Washing explores the impact of the interstates on air quality, residents’ well-being, and health.
“The inspiration is that I had previously been working on another ACDC project called ‘Residence Lab.’ While I was working on that, I spoke with Chinatown residents who told me about their concerns for the neighborhood. A big one that kept coming was around air pollution,” said Xie. She added, “[One resident said], we don’t need studies to know that the pollution is bad, because my windows are dirty. That inspired me to start looking into the history. [I looked into] how the pollution got so bad in Chinatown, learning about the legacy of the highways that were built in the 50’s and 60’s. They not only cause all of this traffic but also displaced hundreds of families, divided and created what people call a ‘scar.’”
The I-93 central artery runs north and south, while the I-90 Massachusetts Turnpike extension runs east and west. The first, built in the 1950’s, was originally planned to run through the business district of Chinatown, which caused business owners and merchants to successfully push for the movement of the path. With the original plan, over 200 families would have been displaced, and with the final plan, only an estimated 15 were. In the 1960’s, the I-90 was created and did not receive as much pushback. According to Xie, this construction was “really devastating” for Chinatown and destroyed the community, displacing residents.
“One of the streets that was taken out when the highways were being built was this street called Hudson Street. People said that it was the heart and soul of Chinatown,” said Xie. “The context of Chinatown at that time is that folks were just starting to get rights as a people. That was a really important community street, and it was just demolished, taken by eminent domain. Folks would get a notice on the door that said they had some number of weeks to move out.”
Today, the highways continue to contribute to air pollution, with Chinatown having the highest childhood asthma rate in Boston. Pedestrian safety is also a concern, with Reggie Wong Memorial Park being a site of recreation near the traffic. People who live near the highways worry that their playing children may be too close to the congestion. Noise pollution is a problem, as well, with residents opting to not open their windows because of the loud sound caused by cars.
During the listening session, participants were organized into break out groups where they listened to quotes from Chinatown community members who reflected on the presence of the highways. Some speakers addressed a sense of apathy surrounding the issue, while others, like author and activist Michael Liu, described how growing up, people “played in the rubble of these homes while they were building the highway.” Community member Tony Maiullari spoke to the sacrifice that Chinatown has endured through the construction.
“If you think about it, yes, the State could benefit from having a road that people can more functionally navigate the city. But think of the lives we displaced to get to that point?” said Maiullari, on a recording. “…What was the greater good, if the voices and the families were pushed out, or the beauty that we no longer have was pushed out?”
Listeners observed themes in the quotes such as the idea of responsibility, questioning whom the bigger entities were who made the decision to create change. Others noticed the tension between developers, the City, and the residents, pinpointing the frustration expressed by the speakers in the recordings. They also identified a social call to action, communicated in the excerpts from interviews.
According to Xie, the project is in the middle of its development. All of the spoken audio clips that will be used for the art piece have been gathered, and feedback from the listening session will be used to help inform how to structure the chapters of the installation. A visiting artist will assist in capturing footage and putting together the video component of “Washing”, which Xie said will be “very experimental.”
