Proposal to Hidden Histories:

Recollection of Two Parallel Streets by TCNS

The field of History has been an essential witness to the remembrance of places, people and events, but also to remember one's culture, language, and ideologies. "History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity." (Cicero)

So, in respond to a decade of mainstream press promoting the Inner Mission, San Francisco, as a hip and lucrative propriety value, when in fact, for those living in this area who comes from working and immigrant classes, this is another story of gentrification, adaptation and reinvention. The Counter Narrative Society (TCNS), as the historian society who does not come “to replenish the gaps of memory…[but to challenge] even those memories that have survived intact" (2) (Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi), proposes to launch at the Hidden Histories event the research "Thinking of You: Mission and Valencia" that aims to document artistically the current social dichotomy between Mission and Valencia Streets.

The society is implementing this research by going directly into the public to ask what people know, remember and feel about the Mission and Valencia Streets. This happens at the Hidden Histories's Headquartes where the TCNS proposes an installation in the form of a small conference-office room. Through out the month, the conference room serves as a platform for conducting surveys and meetings with community members and organizations to create art that addresses: What do we remember of these two streets? And how we would like these streets to be preserved or changed?

By Mabel Negrete - (a.k.a TCNS)