Marci Reaven is the Managing Director of City Lore, a non-profit founded in 1986 to foster the living cultural heritage of New York and other cities. She is the director of Place Matters - City Lore's joint project with the Municipal Art Society to promote and protect places of history and tradition throughout New York City. She also collaborates on other of City Lore's educational and interpretive programs, such as co-curating the exhibit, Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning, on the spontaneous memorials of September 11th, mounted by City Lore at the New-York Historical Society in 2002.

As a public historian and media producer, Marci has produced numerous projects for public television, and historical sites and museums. Some of these include exhibitions and educational programs for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Federal Hall National Memorial; a five-city discussion series and Guidebook for Building Stronger Communities through Public Dialogue with Study Circles Resource Center and Arcadia Films; and documentaries on public affairs and history for WGBH/Frontline, ABC/Our World, and WNET/A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Moyers.

Place Matters; Authority Matters
Marci Reaven of City Lore and Place Matters shared with the group some suggested reference material for using historic places as assets to promote the well-being of cities. Marci recommended Delores Hayden's book, Power of Place, as a source for examples of places making a difference. She also referenced Michael Frisch's concept of "shared authority". Although relinquishing interpretative monopoly is not without risk, it moves history beyond a static celebration of the past.

Saving 'The Point' Helped Rejuvenate Community
Marci described how Place Matters took on the challenge of preserving 'The Point', a dance hall and cultural center from the 1940s through 1960s for the Latino community in the Bronx. Their team canvassed the neighborhood to collect experiences and stories of the Mambo Era. In the process, they discovered the musical roots of Hip Hop, the famous musicians who lived there and, they located the longest surviving Latin music store, Casa Amadeo. The involvement of the Place Matters team had a rejuvenating effect on the community. By working with materials from the past to raise issues about the present, the exhibit "From Mambo to Hip Hop" tells a story with many voices about a rich past that still resonates with people in the community today.

Marci treated the audience to photos of the Bronx music scene, shown both directly above and in the top title photo. The history of Latin music in the Bronx, she described to the audience, was a history that could easily have been lost. By saving of the 'Point' , a rich history was saved as well

To learn more about what is going on in the Point community see

http://www.thepoint.org

To learn more about the exhibit "From Mambo to Hip Hop" go to:

http://www.thepoint.org/artsandculture/music/mambobig.html

To find out more about City Lore go to:

http://www.citylore.org

To learn more about Place Matters go to:

http://www.placematters.net

Marci explained that it doesn't work to make pronouncements, you 'have to go out and ask.' They cast a wide net and solicit nominations to find out from the community which places matter most. Inclusion on the Place Matters website allows these nominations to be shared with the public.

Last Updated: October 21, 2004