Companion Projects

Dynamic spoken word and perspectives by Clarissa Street neighbor who by the 1980s came to be known as the iconic Bebop Poet, reminiscing on the 3rd Ward and Hanover Houses (7th Ward), calling out racism, and more. TE digitized bobby’s vintage videos and created this YouTube page to thank him for inspiring the Youth History Ambassadors’ walking poetry tours. Presented to bobby at age 92 in June 2022 at a Pythodd tribute event outside the debut Clarissa Uprooted exhibit (CUE), at the Liberty Pole, Rochester NY.

This intergenerational mixed media companion exhibit ran concurrently to CUE in 2022 at FCAC’s galleries at 713 Monroe Ave. FCAC youth artists created posters to celebrate the 25th Clarissa St. Reunion and interviewed Clarissa St. elders for a photo shoot filled with heart. The resulting portraits were accompanied by gorgeous biographical poetry. Also featured social documentary photos by Sharon Turner capturing the joy of the annual Clarissa Street Reunion.

In 4 episodes, using clips from original recordings of Howard W. Coles & Alma Kelso Coles (Greene) on air. RCTV youth podcasters share the hidden history of Rochester’s first African American broadcast DJs, including early R&B vibes and their advocacy for justice in housing, migrant farmworkers’ rights, and police violence. As well, they challenged racist media stereotypes while asserting how they would represent themselves, both as radio personalities and community leaders. All filtered through the lens of the young podcast producers.

Intricately researched interactive maps showing redlining and racially restrictive covenants in local home deeds, as well as comparing contemporary Greater Rochester school district statistics (Effective data points to begin understanding long-term impact since school budgets are determined in large part based on property values/taxes). A wonderful feature is their Resistance Map, which highlights locations and stories of people standing up against housing and other discrimination. Our Local History’s mission is to empower people with information not only about the harm done, but also inspiration and ideas from history for how we can create a better world.

OLH shares curriculum for elementary, middle and high schoolers, along with trainings for teachers in all area school districts. They have expanded their work to be NY statewide, helping other communities research and share their own specific stories. Created for the Our Local History Project by the digital humanities Resistance Mapping team at RIT College of Arts and Design. TE Youth History Ambassadors advised on the curriculum and the tool appears in the Clarissa Uprooted Exhibit.

The first draft of history has been written by newspaper journalists. Howard W. Coles also published The Frederick Douglass Voice (& variations on the name) on Clarissa Street, from 1933-1996. The newspaper documented Black stories, concerns, movements, and enterprise. Scroll through the papers here via RMSC.

His daughter Joan Coles Howard (also a co-founder of the original Clarissa St. Reunion Committee) championed making the collection visible and accessible to the public for many years. She credits the energy she gained from working alongside the Youth History Ambassadors with helping finally push the digitization project to come to fruition.

This digital exhibit and archive is a treasure trove featuring the legendary Pythodd Room jazz club, along with artists and other Rochester jazz venues through images, stories, album listening (via Spotify), news stories and concert ads, as well as archival finding aids with links.

The Youth History Ambassadors oriented and invited University of Rochester Public History students to contribute to the Clarissa Street exhibit. These UR Public History undergrad and grad students got excited to dig into Pythodd and other local jazz history. A month later, the pandemic shut down the world and the project became this digital exhibit and archive that unearthed several primary sources the Clarissa Uprooted team would likely have missed without these students’ diligent work.

Digital collection featuring images of people and places from photo albums of former Clarissa Street/Third Ward families, as well as Sharon Turner’s black and white photos capturing the spirit of the annual Clarissa Street Reunion (1996-2019), articles, flyers and more.

Youth History Ambassadors worked with 4th generation Third Ward resident and educator Mekko Griffin-Mongeon and Rochester Public Library’s Local History and Genealogy Division archivists to digitize and gather archival “metadata” (who, what, when, where) with Clarissa Street elders. The photo collection inspired the original concept to create an exhibit about Clarissa Street.

Clarissa Street Legacy welcomes additions to this collection—including images and/or names, dates, times of any current images that still need to be filled in! Please contact info@clarissastreetlegacy.com

A graphically rich comic book to inspire all of us, young and older, to find our inner strength through a soaring portrayal of our young superhero, Clarissa, as she shares the lessons of Clarissa Street and continues to engage youth now through animation!

The Landmark Society selected Clarissa Street for their Five to Revive priority list for preservation efforts in 2020. Then, in 2021, they renamed and expanded the Third Ward Historic District (aka Corn Hill) to include its historically African American area around Clarissa Street, which had previously been excluded.