BARRY FARM: Community, Land and Justice in Washington DC
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- Take a left off of the Anacostia Freeway on to Firth Sterling Ave - what do you see? You see empty fields. You see shiny new buildings just breaking ground. Construction equipment. Sweeping views of the capital. As one community member states in this film, if you are a developer, you see a gold mine.
But these empty fields hold powerful memories. Enslaved people once worked this land. Later, during Reconstruction, formerly enslaved individuals purchased it, and built one of DC’s first thriving Black communities.
Here, the city constructed a sprawling public housing complex in the 1940s, beloved by insiders, if notorious to outsiders. Here, the movement for Welfare Rights took shape. Here, the Junkyard Band honed its chops on homemade instruments before putting a turbocharge into the city’s Go-Go music. Here, residents lived in the Barry Farms Dwellings up until 2019, when the final community members were removed for the redevelopment.
This documentary film, a collaboration between the Bertelsmann Foundation and the DC Legacy Project, and directed by Sabiyha Prince and Samuel George, tells a story of a journey for community, land, and for justice. It is a story of Barry Farm, but it is also a story of Washington, DC. And, in the cycles of place and displacement, it is a story of the United States of America.
As a social worker visiting folks in Barry Farms in the “townhouses” which were very appealing. I personally blame Muriel Bowser for selling the city’s prime land to the highest bidder (to her campaign) and change the history of this site.
Ms. Bowser did not make the decision on her own to sell the land.
They were millions of dollars in debt. Same thing with Sursum.
That land was sold years before her. She was there during the final stages.
Horrid~
The land had been sold years b4 her@@Cynthia-fx4we
I was born in Freeman's and lived at 5209 C St. SE. Grew up there and moved to Capitol Heights then Suitland. My Uncle worked at S&R until they closed. I knew all these areas and frequented them at various stages of growth. It's a shame that all the renovation wipes us out completely, as if we didn't exist. Instead, preserving the area was a welcomed bit of knowledge. My people, I love them then and pray for them now.
I originally grew up there. My family was from there. When my mom and I moved to NE DC, my grandma remained there until 2001. I still came over and stayed during the spring, winter and summer breaks. And it was a TIME!! My grandma lived in Barry Farms for 50 years. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away a year after she moved. I will cherish those memories at 1132 Stevens Rd.
It's interesting to learn the history of Washington DC!
Great documentary 🔥🔥🔥 love my city
My fa.iky lived in tge Frederick Douglas Project in Garfield area off Alabama and Stanton Terrace area that was very close to Barry Farms. Went to school with these students. The developers came to y neighborhood as well but the neighbor fought and demanded that they be allowed to relocate back to the new housing that was built in the area. My sister fought tooth and nail with her group and they won. Now modern homes line the streets of Alabama Avenue, Frederick Place, Stanton Terrace and Stanton Road areas. Brand new nice homes for people to live and enjoy with dignity.. Homes they can be proud to live in. My sister deceased after that but she left her mark on the walls of history pursuing justice for the community. Some may remember Clarice Dudley of Frederck Place S E.
Back then, that was real racism and it seems our black people did better for themselves back then versus present day. Broken families is number #1 on the list.
There's "real racism" today. 🤦🏽♀️
great doc. I am a Washingtonian native who came of age in SE
Actually being from DC and growing up in SE this is a lot of history to take in it angers me to know how we are always sold out by these people
I was born in Freemans Hospital. I grew up on Saratoga Av. And later in Palmer Park , and Lanham Md. So I know these areas well. So sad to see how things have changed. Not so much the change but how it was done. Glad to see Junkyard still kickin it!
This was simply, beautiful. ❤️ DMV forever
This is an amazing documentary. I wanted to cry in frustration seeing the familiar cycle of drugs and disinvestment lead to demolition. Yet there is also such proud history there, so many people who have fond memories of a thriving, neighborly, resilient community. Made me think of my own neighborhood, Kenilworth in NE DC. I hope we can harness all the nostalgia of the DC public housing alumni community to not only preserve the history but also make positive change in development approaches, to benefit the people who need it most.
My childhood neighborhood. There will never be nothing else like it, shout out to my homegirl Enid!❤
My mother and Grandparents lived on burns and Texas Ave S.E. those was the days
I can't say GoGo without thinking Junkyard. Love me some GoGo. house party block party
I've never lived in the city, I'm from P.G. COUNTY ( Laurel), but I have family members & I married into a family of PROUD NATIVE WASHINGTONIANS... I came to know Barry Farms thru JUNK YARD BAND ( MY FAVORITE GO GO BAND) WHEN THEY PLAYED THOSE FREE CONCERTS I WAS THERE PARTYING LIKE I WAS FROM THERE. I currently live in Temple Hills MD not 2 far from Barry Farms recently my husband & I were driving by and couldn't understand why those blogs were still there and thinking it's a shame they displaced all those families. It's good to know it's all due to the preservation of the history of the neighborhood, AGAIN IM NOT FROM DC but anywhere MY PEOPLE SUFFER I SUFFER & EMPATHIZE. CONGRATULATIONS ON THE HISTORICAL WIN & I PRAY THEY HAVE MANY MORE WINS & ALL THOSE DISPLACED PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO GO BACK HOME.... POWER TO THE PEOPLE ❤️🖤💚✊🏿... and thank you for making this documentary bc I never knew BARRY FARMS was so rich in our HISTORY... I CANT WAIT TO SHARE THIS VIDEO ❤🫶🏿
Ayyy PG county here too but Clinton! I miss Maryland 😢
So many great memories growing up in DC!!! Great see my classmate and friend Enid representing her neighborhood Barry Farms. I grown up off of Minnesota Ave and 16th street SE 1960-1980
LEGENDARY 👑 (D.C) 1#HOLY SPIRIT 🔥
Great doc keep DC history alive
Absolutely ridiculous, heartbreaking and sad!! I’m soo sorry this is happening in Barry Farms and other communities like this.
It ain’t nothing like big G hollering out “ay Barry farms”
Oy !
Gogo Isn’t Funk Music , Gogo Is It’s Own Genre
It started as a derivative of Funk with the latin percussion, but after while it morphed into its own thing, so you're absolutely right
Well, could we say that GO GO is a distinct and specific genre of FUNK? Because the FUNK is based on rhythm , syncopation, groove and all good thangs stanky. GO GO has all the qualities to be called a genre of it's own, but it definitely is Funky music ( cause FUNK used to be a bad word) and GO GO is bad ( in a good way). The Junkyard band is my favorite of the new era (1980's) GO GO. I'm a "Junkie"
@@Duane-tl2zc naw bra , funk gave birth to Gogo And Rap and rap was funk based for 20 years but still was a totally different genre . Gogo came from a Jazz song not funk originally. Bands like backyard , TCB , TOB etc all have styles that aren’t funk at all. This probably came from white fake gogo historians unfortunately white people are the authority on all music and create the narrative. Chuck brown was primarily an funk artist that’s where the confusion comes from
He is not right. He is wrong. Go go is derived from funk music.
Huh
Informative and moving! Congrats to everyone involved!
I recognize the Woman reminiscing of her Mother’s Home.in a Documentary about her two Sons.I pray all is well with her family.Specially Lil Man,He has so much potential🙏
Thanks for bringing this history to our attention.....
They ask why we need reparations.
So when are american blacks going to ask the africans who captured other africans and SOLD THEM OUT to the european ship owners who then resold them worldwide as slaves for REPARATIONS for their participation in the slave trade ?
The residents got kick out by Big Daddy Government that owned the land and buildings. They should have been more responsible and accountable for their lives. How can anything be owed to people that never owned anything? Stop the victimhood bs. It's OLD!
@@sassysara223 where u from lady
@@sassysara223🤡
@@michaelwashington4408 privilege. 400 years of using our bodies to build a way of life for their people... And 100 more years of redlining, Jim crow and other crimes against humanity they don't care to understand. Shameful that we overcame all these things and still push forward, only to be told we "aren't owed" anything. My mother was in high school during the end of the civil rights movement. The eagerness to claim they can't be held accountable for what their ancestors did when many of those segregationists are STILL walking this earth is an astounding absence of accountability. Pay now or pay on judgment day. But they will pay.
Barry Farms was real back in the 80 s earlier 90 s being from New York went to block party in Barry Farms it was a Friday it was pack first time hearing go go music woman like crazy and when it was over I thought I was in Brooklyn so many gun shots I mean some big guns I was like wow
My Family moved to Washington DC in 1965 from fort Lauderdale, Florida for opportunities of jobs and education.. Thank you for sharing a lot of history about city that was called The Chocolate City is where I was raised from a very young child.
Money talk BS talk. There will always be low income housing in Dc but it will nevrr be to the degree it was in the Past. Look now...these new apartments in DC are only building up to 3 bedroom apartments. As a young man who grew up DC it make me realiaze i gotta keep pushing and i will never let the government decide my future. Easy for me to say that but for so many that is not easy at all.
Yet and still, the govt controls you and your "future." 😂
The govt contracts are expiring. Developers are either rebuilding for market rent or selling the land for highest bidder, which will still increase the market rent. Studio prices are going for what one should pay for a 2 or 3 bdr.
Hey. You’ve got this! Don’t ever let nothing hold you down! Not even the government!
Fascinating report. A real crime that Barry Farms was done away with in such a fashion, but it's good that this preservation effort was successful at least. For so many public housing projects that have been demolished, no such trace even remains. Also, I'm not from DC but from Montreal (Canada) and I have to say that this gogo thing is totally dope. Gonna **definitely** look into that some more...
Also on the gogo thing, I'm so happy to see Anwan Glover here. Love Slim Charles from The Wire! ❤
Thank you for preserving the stories of our DC!
Powerful
Washington DC is my life
I was born in Maryland but we went into DC for just about everything. Pop Pop worked for the usaf out there and all our doctors were there and the stores we went to. It’s crazy to see how much it’s changed over the years. When they started getting really into “revamping” DC in my youth my uncle would call it a, and I quote, “a polished turd” a bit dramatic but still 😅
This makes me think of the families in Scotland in Potomac. They found ally's to help restore, renovate and rebuild rather than bulldoze & evict the community as if it never existed. I am happy that there is something left of Barry Farm.
To the organizers and producers… thank you!
I’m From Fort Stanton right there by Woodland and Langston Lane when I went to Douglas high school off of Stan Road I met a lot of the people from the BARRY FARMS Crew , it was a warzone but I learned to adapt
Dougless was a junior high not high school
33:36 hearing him say this as an adult and knowing how things have played out hits so different 😭. The destruction of the Black community overall, and in DC and PG "inside the beltway" is truly nauseating. At the heart of it all was really just family. I grew up on welfare and Section 8 in PG 5 minutes down Pennsylvania Ave. They pushed people out of DC to PG, then from PG to who knows where by this gentrification. They're not developing for the betterment of the black people who were living there.
It breaks my heart
Thank You! 1282 Eaton Rd from 1962-65...Nursery School to Birney Elementary School. This is an exceptional documentary on the hopes, dreams and experience of a people connected by this place of family and culture. I left DC in 1977 for college and a successful career in advertising and marketing in Chicago, when people ask me where I'm from, I proudly say SEDC..got my start in Barry Farms!
You may know my family. Do you know any Shorter’s?
@@ItsTIABaby1919 Hey its been a minute!! WE lived there from 1962 to 67. If you give some names...perhaps I can remember.
@@robertjackson1968 Bernard or Wesley
@@ItsTIABaby1919 I think so..Bernard, Wesley and one more brother??Clemont???
@@robertjackson1968 they don’t have a 3rd brother
I❤ this documentary!
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you!!!!
Wonderful, so well written, filmed, photographs, music, narration, artwork! It's a very moving film~
I use to live in Barry Farms. My address was 1149 Stevens Rd. SE., living in Barry Farms with some of the best days of my life. I’m so heartbroken that there will be no more Barry Farms.
My grandmother lived at 1132 Stevens Rd
The redevelopment plan rollout was disgusting. No one should be treated like this.
When the people makng a suggestions about Barry Farm have no backing or money that how they get u smh
Everything they are saying is correct does anyone actually realize that this was a 10 year plan with the renovation of the ST ELIZABETH CAMPUS.
Its being done now...the Hospital will be at the center otf many things
This where my moms side is from. The Dawson, Bailey fam…❤❤
Love dc I use to take the bus 70 from silver spring to dc 😊my home town now in Atlanta I love it here no bamas
I have family in Silver Spring and Wheaton. Have not been home in a long time. Retired from military and been back home maybe three times. Sorry to see the way change has happened.
William, lies you tell!
My brothers home town is silver springs! I’m from Clinton though. Currently also in Georgia about 1.5 hours from Atlanta actually lol
Amazing! Thanks for bringing back so many memories.
This documentary was almost completely beautiful and heartwrenching.
You know good and well the Holy Scriptures and Love for
the Lord, Spirituality, and Faith in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (One Entity)
were motivating knowledge in the lives of Negro/Colored/Black/African American
people. Why is America on a path to Hell 2024?
"...A Nation who turns its back on God...."
This life is temporary. The Real life is in Eternity and
Our work and belief here will let us know where our Souls shall live.
THIS DOCUMENTARY FORGOT TO INCLUDE THE LORD IN YOUR TIME AND EFFORT.
Poor love 😥😥😥
It was never your home 🏡, that why it's call public housing , that's granted privileges, that can be given or taken away.
Black Americans Owned The Houses They Demolished To Build Public Housing Nationwide. How did you miss how Freeman’s Bureau bought the land and blacks built houses . The government took it so people like you could say our housing was privilege . We owned it
I worked at Horace n Dickies from 99-2004 and had the best times of my life on #thasoufside. And the average basketball player wouldn't dare step on that court.....they woulda dogged.
Damn…gentrification….I left DC in 2001….the FARMS was still there then but they were already in demolition mode…I know right before I left VALLRY GREEN in SE off of SOUTHERN AVE was demolished….we’ll get it back but damn SE.
Valley green was just remodeled it’s still a majority black community, also Southeast is still the blackest part of DC, with Navy Yard, being the most gentrified neighborhood in DC/Southeast,
from a farm to a plantation to a warzone .
Yeah, those J6 thugs really terrorized the city.
What about Valley Green !
And east capitol Dwellings! 56th,57th,and 58th s.e and the n.e side
There's a video on here about Valley Green
20th and D is where the big money be , southeast DC.
They have did so much everytime the only thing missing is payment
Shorty Pop and young killer played in junk yard band was from Berry Farms
Great documentary video
Only 10% will be low income. The rest will be market rent. This land should continue w/ being mixed income.
Crack took my city out between the late eighties and mid ninties. We watched dealers from D.C. and New York take over our projects and public housing.Then came the Jamaicans. In a place where there was 1-3 homicides a year, the numbers went up to 1-2 each month. Crack and AIDS took a toll, 112 miles south of Chocolate City.
According to plan!
This was very informative & good thank you
Something is missing. No mention of Nichols Avenue. No mention of the Black churches on the avenue. No mention of Dale’s and Minnie’s. The Rec Center. The baseball games.,,,,
So sad many hip hop, rap, artist, athletes, and melanin people should have purchased Barry farms renamed it and help build generational wealth!
We won't come together, however we always complaining
What she said at the 7:30 mark is correct but for the wrong reason. It's really our birthright to own land bcuz the land was ours from the start. See, but until we realize that we are the indigenous people of America and get off that out of Africa bullcrao, we won't ever know that the land is ours. America is literally our land by birthright, and we don't even know it. Knowledge is power, while having no knowledge will destroy you!
Ironically the scene at the 33:29 time mark was taken right in front of my home.
I live on Steven's rd 1213😢😢
Give me some time i will buy land and build houses on it and charge ppl 150 to live in them it would be like the projects but nice houses and i will take inspiration from barry farms im 16 by the time im 28. It will only be available to black ppl and lower income families. Any use of drugs or violence you will be kicked out.
Your property will be destroyed in less than a month. Don't waste your time and money.
No one is talking about all the homicides.
Lol they won’t talk about the thousands of bodies that lost their lives there
Free Gaza
Exactly, this was one of the worse places to live. All that the ancestors fought for and they were killing each other left and right in that fukd up community. It had one of the worse reputations in the city. Thank goodness they tore it down. Nobody had nothing good to say about Barry Farms, it was simply terrible. Drugs, robberies, murders, you name it. This Documentary was well done but far from the reality of that jungle.
Whenever you're ready to address police corruption and how gun laws protect dealers who sell unlawfully, we're here.
That lady said our house is gone. See, that's the problem if you are getting public assistance or section 8 breaking news. IT'S NOT YOUR FREAKING HOUSE, SMH
Hmmmm
It's not your house if you own it. When the city is ready to build a railway or other project, it will take your house and throw you out.
I thought it was named after Marion Berry 🤦🏽♂️
Marion Barry? No way lol.
The crack smoking mayor? You sick in the head.
People really look at those old pics of our people and really believe that these people were slaves! A better term would be employees.
What?
@jayb9380 If you have to ask me that question, then you don't know our history. The way you go to work today is the same way they went to work then, except it was for a term. They were paid, bruh. They were paid very low but paid, nonetheless! We have been lied to about a lot of stuff. The majority of our people were free. The only ones who were anything close to a slave were the POWs. So, you must not know that we aren't Africans, either, huh? If not, you have a lot to unlearn and relearn. I can't even type all of this shit in this comment, and I wouldn't anyway. All I'm gon say is that you need to drop everything you were ever taught, and go find the real shit, which is out there. We are standing on our own land, bruh! That alone changes the entire narrative! You're looking up your history under the wrong titles bcuz you think you're someone that you're not, 9 times out 10! If your family are from Africa, you will know. If you have to go look for it, then you're likely an American. There us paperwork that exists for both, you just have to find it. Our people who are actually going to search for this stuff vs. just believing what we were told are finding so much shit about their family. They are finding paperwork that shows they got land and all that shit, joe. The land is ours. We just don't know it. Aye, but good luck, joe, with either finding the truth or continuing to believe the lies!
Y'all love it so much how y'all let it go to shit
some of this is self inflicted, because of lack of knowledge and mis education. I remember door to door campaigning there in early 2000, discussing with folks the threat of being sold out by the democrats here, and trying to get support for D.C. Statehood candidates in our ward with virtually no positive response. at the time it reminded me of the same response we received when trying to drum up support to fight the closing of D.C. General............well here we are 2024 the results speak for themselves. I am native Washingtonian, what would get our working, poor class to understand what is happening and the power they do have???
The first line applies perfectly to you. If big biz wants the land, big biz will get it. Period.
why are black people not working this construction site?
Because it's easier for blacks to collect that government assistance for life than work . Looks like the hispanics have GREAT work ethics though .
because 15
They problem is this your land and you keep thinking you came from Africa. Which is a lie from the same people you claim did you dirty
He admitted he wasn't a Christian in that link I sent 😢
It's Not yall House...😅
See how much democrats care for you
They ain't ready for that conversation
@@jayjohnson7708 you know it
Democrats got y'all fooled
They have their own agenda and have been exploiting black peoples' emotions for years
THANK YOU!!!! Jesus and self responsiblity was kicked out while victimhood and self-destruction moved in. Any person capable of free thinking can see that being on the government dole will NEVER grant you a peaceful, happy, and free life. Crime, drugs, rampant unprotected sex outside of marriage, disease, abortion, fatherless homes, and poverty fuel the majority of Black America. Call me what you what, but a Liar ain't one. Keep voting for democrats and keep living in squalor. It's the definition of insanity.
What a nice fictional take on the past
And what parts specifically would you consider "fictional" about the history of Barry Farm? Not asking to be smart of sarcastic, I'd like to hear your perspective.
These people have proven that they can’t manage anything
I mean if u were actually watching the video u would know that "those people" were managing their communities better than some white folks were until drugs and guns were pushed into their communities 🤷🏽♂️
"These people"...were victims of gentrification caused by chemical warfare i.e. C.I.A. drug distribution networks.
Once they drugged everybody then came the removal of black people through mass incarceration.
BURRY FARMS MOE 😂
Playing gogo music while wearing the globalist billionaire mask. Give me a break.
It wouldn’t until the baby mamas came to Barry farm and crack just like the rest of the projects , it was a very good people living in all the projects
Oh yeah Barry farms. I saw another documentary where a resident talked of how the neighborhood got together to beat two defenseless drug addicts to within an inch of their lives. Oh those wonderful memories. Talk about communities coming together, brings a tear 2 my eye
Great documentary 🙌🏽
Honored to have my photography in this film! @filmgoddess_