News Release

The Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood is reeling from the challenge of contemporary change — new people moving in, light rail running down Third Street, more commercial and residential redevelopment underway. Neighborhood history is at risk of being lost in the shuffle, but historical awareness and continuity may provide a bridge between communities struggling to understand one another and create what is becoming a new Bayview Hunters Point.

To document the history of the neighborhood’s black community, the Bayview Hunters Point Neighborhood History Preservation Project will present Bayview’s Historical Footprints, a multimedia exhibition of photographs, artifacts and oral histories of senior residents.

Featuring historical photographs from the private collections of residents and a video comprised of oral histories and interviews of the elders in the community, the exhibition is designed to provide awareness of the neighborhood’s rich and diverse history and give youth a sense of pride in their community. Children from a local elementary school are participating by interviewing family members who have lived in Bayview Hunters Point for 40 years or longer.

The BVHP Neighborhood History Preservation Project consists of community partners, Linda Brooks-Burton (San Francisco Public Library, Bayview/Anne E. Walden Branch), Larry Ware (Bayview historian) and Tom Kennedy (author of San Francisco: From the Inside). The exhibition may be seen from May 5-31 during open hours at the Bayview/Anna E. Waden Branch Library, 5075 Third St. (at Revere Avenue). Sponsored by the San Francisco Foundation and Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Bayview’s Historical Footprints will be reinstalled as a permanent exhibit at the Bayview Branch in fall 2007. An opening event will take place at the Bayview/Anne E. Waden Library from 1-4 p.m. on May 5.

Press images are available on request. This exhibition, like all Library programs, is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (415) 557-4277.