Newest Americans

FAIN: GW-254080-17

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark (Newark, NJ 07104-3010)
Timothy Raphael (Project Director: August 2016 to present)

Newark, NJ, one of the nation’s oldest cities, embodies both the challenges and promise of urban America, nowhere more evident than in its legacy as an (im)migration hub. In spite—perhaps because—of this, residents’ voices often are lost in histories of Newark. We will engage three Newark neighborhoods representing multi-layered trajectories of (im)migrant communities locally and nationally since the 1965 Immigration Act. Combining community-based scholarship and public programming with multimedia publication, we will join local residents to design and conduct neighborhood tours via a Newark History Bus—a school bus retrofitted as a public media lab and media training facility for city residents. Humanities scholars, residents, students, teachers, and media professionals will co-produce a replicable public history resource to undergird sustained learning about (im)migrant histories and conversations about the challenges and opportunities these histories present for cities like Newark.

Associated Products

EDUCATION (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: EDUCATION
Author: NEWEST AMERICANS
Abstract: Student stories come from our project-based, civically engaged curriculum, which trains students to research the histories of local communities and to use digital media to share their discoveries in a wide variety of artistic and documentary mediums. Students in our classes are introduced to multiple research methods while simultaneously learning to become socially inquisitive and self-reflective citizens, critically and compassionately engaged with their communities and capable of pursuing these engagements with skill and purpose. Our curriculum explores Newark’s past and present through Newest Americans media and supplemental resources, while providing the tools for students to conduct their own community-based research projects and to represent their findings through digital media. By training the next generation of media makers, scholars, and citizens, we strive to engage younger and more diverse audiences in the stories that define our distinct histories and that will shape our common future.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://newestamericans.com/education/
Secondary URL: https://newestamericans.com/curriculum/
Secondary URL Description: Our curriculum addresses the absence of post-Ellis Island immigrant narratives and histories in school classrooms nationwide, and reflects the demographics of post-industrial cities like Newark, where post-1965 immigrants from around the world co-exist with the descendants of multiple waves of migration from Europe and the American South. We are currently collaborating with Schools That Can, The Newark Trust for Education, and Newark Public Schools to develop high school curriculum. The curriculum is supported by the National Geographic Society, Express Newark, and the Newark Board of Education. https://newestamericans.com/student-stories/ Students in Newest Americans classes produce media projects that demonstrate their research skills through a range of digital media approaches.
Audience: General Public

THE SACRIFICE ZONE (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: THE SACRIFICE ZONE
Writer: Talking Eyes Media
Director: TALKING EYES MEDIA - Julie Winokur, Ed Kashi, Katherine Garrison, Stephanie Khoury
Producer: Talking Eyes Media - Julie Winokur, Cat McGrath
Abstract: If you travel down a one-mile stretch of Doremus Avenue in Newark, NJ, you pass a natural gas plant next to a sewage treatment facility next to an animal fat rendering plant next to a series of ominous looking chemical storage containers behind acres of fencing. Airplanes pass overhead every two minutes, their engines rattling windows, while a putrid smell wafts from the open pools at the sewage treatment plant. This stretch is known as Chemical Corridor, and it’s located just down the road from schools and apartment buildings. It borders the Ironbound neighborhood, where Portuguese, Brazilian, Central American and African American residents are separated from toxic substances by little more than a railroad track.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://thesacrificezone.org/about
Primary URL Description: If you travel down a one-mile stretch of Doremus Avenue in Newark, NJ, you pass a natural gas plant next to a sewage treatment facility next to an animal fat rendering plant next to a series of ominous looking chemical storage containers behind acres of fencing. Airplanes pass overhead every two minutes, their engines rattling windows, while a putrid smell wafts from the open pools at the sewage treatment plant. This stretch is known as Chemical Corridor, and it’s located just down the road from schools and apartment buildings. It borders the Ironbound neighborhood, where Portuguese, Brazilian, Central American and African American residents are separated from toxic substances by little more than a railroad track.
Secondary URL: https://www.njtvonline.org/programs/nj-pbs-specials/sacrifice-zone-iu0qjk/
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Film
Format: Web

East Side High (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: East Side High
Director: Newest Americans
Producer: Tim Raphael, Rachel Dennis
Abstract: This is the first episode of the Newest Americans podcast. Since October 2016, we’ve been working with a group of students at East Side High School, the most diverse public high school in Newark. Led by Dr. Shana Russell, five students meet weekly to learn audio recording and editing and to explore the stories that emerge from a multilingual, multicultural, urban high school.
Date: 03/08/2017
Primary URL: https://newestamericans.com/east-side-high/
Primary URL Description: This is the first episode of the Newest Americans podcast. Since October 2016, we’ve been working with a group of students at East Side High School, the most diverse public high school in Newark. Led by Dr. Shana Russell, five students meet weekly to learn audio recording and editing and to explore the stories that emerge from a multilingual, multicultural, urban high school.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Format: Other

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