Penn Branch residents came out last week to celebrate the 95th birthday of Mrs. Jacqueline Tatum who lives on Texas Avenue. PBCA Block captain Lance Holt, who also works for the DC Department of Aging and Community Living, presented her with a special certificate from Mayor Muriel Bowser that acknowledge her long-time service to our community.
Last month PBCA Communications Director, Paul Grant was awarded a grant from DC Humanities, Oral History Collaborative Partnership to collect personal narratives from early Penn Branch families. The project, ‘We Are Penn Branch DC’ will focus on the stories of individuals who became residents of Penn Branch between 1945-1968.
About DC Humanities
The DC Humanities Oral History Collaborative Partnership funds projects that explore and preserves Washington, DC life, history and culture through interviews with the people who have lived it. Created in 2016 in response to a growing need to capture unrecorded Washington history, the DC Oral History Collaborative documents and preserves the stories and memories of DC residents as communities experience change and as residents age. The Collaborative increases awareness of existing oral history recordings and gives residents the training and financial resources they need to conduct new interviews. HumanitiesDC specializes in working with grantees who want to create new recorded stories or who want to dig into the archives and tell an old story with a new twist.
Why Oral History is Important?
Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies. These personal stories help fill gap between the major historical facts that we know and how real people experienced and understood these moments. As the Washington, DC area and continues to experience significant political, cultural, and economic change over the past 70 years, it is critically important we preserve the memories our most senior, and long-time residents and understand how the city’s evolution has impacted them.
The entire collection of stories will be archived in the permanent collection of the DC Public Library and the PBCA Executive Board is planning to host a public exhibition of the stories, once pandemic restrictions on public gatherings are released. Interviews will be filmed through October 2021 and participants will receive a $75.00 honorarium for their time.
To share your story, please contact:
Paul Grant | E-mail : [email protected] Tel.: (202) 888-3236
To learn more about HumanitiesDC, please visit:
Starting the week of March 8, 2021, DC will have a new, waitlist-like registration system in which users can pre-register online or by phone at their convenience and will be contacted by email, phone, and/or text by a DC Department of Health staff member when it is their turn to sign up for vaccine appointments. Residents who sign up will be contacted based on their priority group, zip code, and date of sign up. The new system will continue to prioritize certain zip codes. Although the DC Department of Health site has not been updated, please go to vaccinate.dc.gov for additional information and to learn how to sign up.
Let’s do what we can to stay safe during the pandemic. Visit the following links for additional information on local testing and vaccine clinics.
Testing Locations:
https://www.coronavirus.dc.gov/testing
COVID-19 Vaccine Information:
https://coronavirus.dc.gov/vaccinatedc
On Feb. 23, members of the Penn Branch Community Association executive board met virtually with a handful of Penn Branch’s O Street neighbors for a listening session. The PBCA board reached out to introduce ourselves and to gain a better understanding of neighborhood-specific challenges. Residents of O Street shared their thoughts regarding development in the Penn Branch Shopping Center and construction of the new CVS which is expected to be built on the existing laundry mat property.
Residents reported that they did not have concerns about retaining wall maintenance but are interested in engineering studies prior to future development, including in the areas adjacent to the shopping center and along the walled hillside, due to settling and water flows in the area. Residents also raised concerns about potential CVS parking lot overflow onto their street, increased traffic, aggressive driving, and trash and vagrancy on O Street.
Participants explored traffic calming measures and other ways to work collaboratively to benefit the community.
Your support is needed in helping to make sure DC residents 65 and older, especially those in Wards 5, 7, and 8, who want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine can get it. Here’s how you can help. The Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church (PABC) is participating in a pilot to serve as a vaccine clinic for two days this week on Thursday, February 11, and Saturday, February 13, 2020 from 10am – 4pm both days. Please help your neighbors to get registered immediately!
Registration Link: http://www.fivemedicine.com/request-a-appointment.php