The Heights is a series of tea-stained cyanotype prints that reflect on the ties of identity and place. This neighborhood, Seminole Heights in Tampa, Florida is my home as a Tampa transplant. It is a neighborhood that has been around for over a century and has faced the tumultuous pains of the turbulent 1900s. An era of gentrification in the 2000s has brought new life, but at a cost to the thousands of marginalized peoples that inhabited this place for decades.
Each of these prints are 12x18" and stained in black tea.
THIS PLACE SCARED ME; PETRIFIED ACTUALLY
A PLACE, NEGLECTED, FORGOTTEN
LEFT TO POVERTY AND GRIEF
BUT KEPT STADNING BY ITS GATEKEEPERS
ONCE BOOMING AND THRIVING, BECAME DELAPIDATED
THEN ONE TRAVESTY STRUCK THE WORLD
WHAT LEFT SO MANY BROKEN AND SHATTERED;
GAVE THIS PLACE NEW LIFE
THEN THEY CAME
THEY CAME HERE SEEKING SOLACE AND REDEMPTION
THEY ALSO GAVE THIS PLACE A NEW LIFE
VITALITY RETURNED TO THIS PLACE
WHAT WAS ONCE DELAPIDATED
NOW BEING REPAINTED
THEY GUTTED THIS PLACE
AND THE GATEKEEPERS LET THEM
THE GATEKEEPERS SAW PROMISE WITH NEW LIFE
BUT THEY GUTTED THIS PLACE
AND SUBSEQUENTLY THE GATEKEEPERS
THE GATEKEEPERS HAD KEPT THESE BONES ALIVE
BUT THEY SAID FUCK YOU
VITALITY CAME AT A PRICE
THE PRICE WAS THE GATEKEEPERS
BUT THEY BROUGHT NEW LIFE
NEW COLOR, NEW MONEY
ART AND BOOZE AND FOOD,
AND MORE ART AND BOOZE AND FOOD
DON’T FORGET THE COFFEE SHOPS,
OH THE COFFEE IN THIS PLACE
NEW LAUGHS, NEW FRIENDSHIPS
NEW CHILDREN, NEW FAMILIES
AND THEY KEPT COMING
THOSE OF OLD COULDN’T KEEP UP
THE ONCE GATEKEEPER’S WERE REPLACED WITH NEW
THE OLD COULD NOT PAY THE PRICE OF NEW ADMISSION
POLITICS AND POLICY THEY SCREAM
BUT TAX DOLLARS AND LAWS MEAN VERY LITTLE
VERY LITTLE WHEN FOOD CAN’T GET ON THE TABLE
TODAY NEW AND NEW
BUNGALOW’S REVIVED
ROADS NOW PAVED
THIS DELAPIDATED PLACE FOUND NEW HEIGHTS
BUT WHAT WAS THE PRICE
WE PREACH THE PAINS OF IMPERIALISM
TEACH OUR CHILDREN OF A NEGLECTFUL PAST
BUT WHEN ITS IN OUR OWN BACKYARD
BLIND EYES ARE TURNED
GENTRIFICATION
SAVES THE RICH FOLKS
BUT DAMNS THE REST
NOW WITH FRESH NEW PAINT
FRESHLY PAVED ROADS
NEW FOODS, NEW BOOZE, NEW FOLKS
REACHED NEW HEIGHTS
THE PRICE WAS WORTH IT FOR THE RICH FOLK
BUT DAMN THE REST
