Urban Views

One of Ms. Dunham’s passions included the country of Haiti. “[Dunham arrived] in Haiti where she stayed for nine months. Her work in Haiti resulted in her thesis, “The Dances of Haiti: Their Social Organization, Classification, Form, and Function” and another book, Island Possessed. These pioneering dance/anthropology works were significant first steps toward the now recognized sub discipline of dance anthropology. But of even more significance was the effect Dunham’s fieldwork had on her own artistic development. During her time in Haiti, Dunham came to understand–both intellectually and kinesthetically–the African roots of black dance in the West Indies. From this physical understanding of what she considered her cultural roots, Dunham began to develop the first African American concert dance technique.” Source: http://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200152685

After this country was hit by a devestating earthquake, it seemed fitting that the Dunham Museum organize a donation effort.

This effort was very successful! As you can see from the picture below, the Dunham Museum collected mounds of clothing to send overseas.

Many of these donations had to be sorted through, organized, and boxed up for their trip overseas!

Here is a picture of the group of volunteers that made this possible!

One of the many projects of the SIUE IUR is to create the East St. Louis virtual historical society. This website contains many historic East St. Louis documents and pictures for use of students and for the public to explore the history of the city! If you have not seen this great resource, feel free to visit it here: http://www.siue.edu/graduate/iur/eslhistory/

Part of the virtual historical society involved traveling to East St. Louis to obtain recorded interviews about how life was like in East St. Louis from the people who lived there. In order to do this, the IUR visited the Joseph Center/ Eagle’s Nest. According to their website, “Eagle’s Nest is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to empower homeless military veterans to achieve their highest level of self-sufficiency, economic independence, and rejoin the community as productive members of society. In November of 2009, Eagle’s Nest opened their doors to The Joseph Center, a full-service living center in East St. Louis. It provides supportive housing to 26 homeless veterans and is the only center of its kind in the entire St. Louis metropolitan area.” Source: http://www.thejosephcenter.org/

Here is a picture of IUR volunteers conducting an interview.

A picture of the group!

On a Saturday in November, the Institute for Urban Research partnered with student organizations from SIUE to clean up one of the treasurers of East St. Louis: the Katherine Dunham home. This home, which was occupied by Ms. Dunham, had fallen into disrepair. With the help of many volunteers, we were able to get the home in much better shape!

In 1975, “The Katherine Dunham Fund purchases three adjoining houses in East Saint Louis from Southern Illinois University. Located on Tenth Street, one is to be Dunham and Pratt’s residence; one is to be used as an office (and later for storage); and the third, a stone building referred to as the “corner house,” is to be a residence for students, instructors, and visitors.” Source: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/dunham/dunham-timeline.html

Here is a picture of Ms. Dunham’s house.

A few images of the destruction in Ms. Dunham’s home due to years of misuse and neglect.

After many hours, Ms. Dunham’s house came back to life. In addition to cleaning, many artifacts were collected and stored at the Katherine Dunham museum down the street. These artifacts will one day be useful for students and the general public to learn about Ms. Dunham and the progress she was able to make for society.

A picture of the group of volunteers who worked very hard on this project.