Golden Home

Golden Home is a project that aims to explore how Boston neighborhoods cope with and experience rapid development. The project began in Egleston Square and Hyde Square Jackson during the summer of 2018 and is a collective storytelling initiative. The goal is to spark conversations around forced migration, displacement, cultural preservation, and affordability.

The project focuses on the community’s efforts over the last 15 years to preserve their culture in a rapidly changing neighborhood. It also examines how newcomers are integrating into the community. One of the main questions Golden Home aims to answer is what the community is doing to preserve its cultural roots.

Above is a data visualization comparing the highest percentage of White, Hispanic, and Black-African Americans in the population, revealing a clear separation between races.

In Egleston Square, the project seeks to highlight and document the consequences of rapid development and the lack of affordable housing accessibility. The community is also working to increase the visibility of communities affected by increased home value and displacement.

I worked alongside Luis Cotto from Egleston Main Street and Gerald Robbins from Hyde Jackson Square Main Street to engage with the community and gather their stories. I attended events such as movie nights, “Teatro en el Parque,” and the YMCA and Community Center morning activities. We exchanged stories, ideas, challenges, and dreams in exchange for golden balloons adorned with a house logo. Each balloon represented a valuable conversation, and the interactions were documented in various forms, including text, audio, photo, or video.