Saying Goodbye To The Kojo Nnamdi Show
On this last episode, we look back on 23 years of joyous, difficult and always informative conversation.
Local residents gather for a game of checkers on the corner between Mount Pleasant and Kenyon streets in D.C.
For decades, the corner next to the 7-Eleven at Mount Pleasant and Kenyon streets NW in D.C. has been the unofficial town square, a place where residents play checkers and spend time together. Quique Aviles, a Salvadoran artist and community activist, paid tribute to the denizens of this corner, known in Spanish as “los esquineros” — the corner people — in a documentary project called “La Esquina.” In an attempt to memorialize this space and make it accessible to residents, a group of community activists and leaders are pushing for the construction of a park. How do small spaces, such as corners, shape the community of a neighborhood? Can these spaces survive gentrification?
Guests
- Quique Aviles Poet; Community Activist
- Arturo Griffiths Executive Director, Trabajadores Unidos; @TU_WDC
- Patrick Scallen Doctoral Candidate, Georgetown University; Social Historian
Photographs from "La Esquina," an oral history exhibit by Rick Reinhard and Quique Aviles
Los Esquineros play a game of checkers with bottle caps.
The 7-Eleven on the corner of Mount Pleasant and Kenyon streets suffered damages after the 1991 Mount Pleasant riots in Washington, D.C.
Jose, 59, is originally from El Salvador, spends time at the corner every day.
The documentary project "La Esquina" had its official launch parade back in March.
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