Shotgun: The Most Contested House in America

Edwards, Jay

doi:10.1353/bdl.0.0018

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Among vernacular structures, wood frame with stone or brick infill buildings sustained the earthquake very well, while infilled concrete frame systems performed poorly (Fischer ; Lang and Marshall :345). Some of the shotgun houses of Haiti have been standing since the early eighteenth century (Edwards :66) and have sustained multiple disasters. The spatial configuration and architectural details of these houses provide a built archive reflecting at once the values of the rural lakou and the spatial needs and tastes of their former middle‐class owners.…”

Section: Urban Planning Along Monatufmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space, female economies, and autonomy in the shotgun neighborhoods of Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti

Joos

2017

Economic Anthropology

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This article argues that commercial practices, social relations, and moral obligations in downtown Port-au-Prince shape and are shaped by the vernacular buildings in which they take place. Women living in, and working from, shotgun houses-a structure with a small street facade that allows for both private and commercial life-use these houses to build moral economies woven around familial solidarity and egalitarian relations. Working in houses that formerly belonged to Haitian black middle classes implies inheritance of respectability values based around home caretaking, religious life, and intimacy. In their economic inventiveness, women who do not have access to formal employment mobilize the power and politics of these houses in a distinctive mode of work and entrepreneurship. Houses and acts of commerce, together, form a particular kind of Haitian respectability for women that offers visibility, social networking, and risk adversity. These domestic spaces that open up new political, social, and economic horizons are threatened by top-down urban planning projects. Through the narration of the life history of Clomène Firmin, this article details female economic and moral practices and phases of urban planning that had for effect, since the devastating 2010 earthquake, to dismantle female economies in urban centers.The eastern half of Rue du Champ de Mars is a narrow rectilinear street in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, within walking distance of Haiti's government ministries. It is one of few streets near the capital where electricity is reliably available. Among the medley of produce and clothing vending stands that occupy most of the sidewalk space, many small businesses requiring power also dot the street. New and secondhand electronic goods and appliances, along with water and cold drink businesses, abound in the semiprivate space of front porches and courtyards of dwellings used as both commercial and residential structures. Set against this streetscape, this area of the capital was severely damaged by an earthquake on January 12, 2010, that took the lives of more than 200,000 people. The buildings erected along this artery range from quake-shattered cinder block commercial structures to wooden houses, brand-new funeral homes, and apartment buildings of all shapes and colors. From sunup to sundown, hawkers crisscross the neighborhood, navigating between the more permanent sidewalk vending stands and the constant traffic that animates this busy administrative and commercial part of Port-au-Prince.Oftentimes, unoccupied sidewalk space indicates the entrance of a restaurant or, more commonly, a ti komès (small business) where economic activities occur around a house or in the front room of a residence. The vast majority of these houses are shotgun houses-structures with a small street facade and rooms that recede in the back in a trainlike fashion. These home businesses are run by women merchants with little financial capital who efficiently navigate a commercial arena where they have historically been "peze s...

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Section: Urban Planning Along Monatufmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space, female economies, and autonomy in the shotgun neighborhoods of Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti

Joos

2017

Economic Anthropology

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“…Given the contested nature of the neighborhood's name, it was significant that the organization proudly identified with the Seventh Ward. The "Porch" part of the name came from a conversation about the vernacular architecture of New Orleans as a reflection and symbol of convivial social spaces among neighbors, mediating the household and the street and, to a certain extent, the social divides within a neighborhood (Bechet et al 2008;Corser and Gore 2008; see also Donlon 2000;Edwards 2009). As co-organizers of this initiative, we (Rachel and Helen) were well aware of our insider/outsider status as white women but also as long-term residents of the neighborhood.…”

Section: Welcome To the Seventh Wardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can There Be a Critical Collaborative Ethnography?: Creativity and Activism in the Seventh Ward, New Orleans

Breunlin¹,

Regis²

2009

cla

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It is only through the way in which we represent and imagine ourselves that we come to know how we are constituted and who we are. There is no escape from the politics of representation, and we cannot wield "how life really is out there" as a kind of test against which the political rightness or wrongness of a particular cultural strategy or text can be measured.-stuart hall, "What is this 'black' in black popular culture?"We're going to have to learn to fight. Everything feels good now, and we'll worry later when we disagree that we'll damage our organization or relationships to speak out about it. Really, [if we try to avoid arguments] we'll just make it worse. Knowing how to fight and how to make up builds trust and respect. It balances power. -shana sassoon, community organizer, March 2006The Neighborhood Story Project opened its doors in New Orleans in 2004 with a deceptively simple mission statement: "Our stories told by us" ). The organization, which Rachel co-directs with Abram Himelstein, and in which Helen is an active board member, works with high school students and collaborates with neighbors and "community-based" organizations to create and publish books about neighborhoods around the city. NSP methodology is inspired by the eclectic backgrounds of the people who work under its umbrella. The collaborative anthropologies • volume 2 • 2009 116 •

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“…78 The theories about the origin of the shotgun house argue it is linked with the Haitian rural cottage type called ti-kay and African Yoruba culture. 79 The shotgun house is an architectural adaptation made by Africans in Haiti, who developed this house type from African Yoruba houses. Following the Haitian revolution, 12,000 refugees had arrived in New Orleans by 1809, along with European plantation owners and free people of colour; they further developed the shotgun house type.…”

Section: The Agency Of Architecture In Make It Rightmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the image of the Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans

Rodes¹

2021

Arq

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The article examines the neighbourhood of Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans following the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It focuses on the rebuilding project initiated by Make it Right Foundation (2007-ongoing), founded by actor Brad Pitt. The article looks into media images of the rebuilding of Lower Ninth, and notes that the rebuilt architecture cannot be analysed outside of its relationship with media and images. The rebuilt architecture in Lower Ninth relates to image in multiple levels - it represents image of social justice and resilience, and aims to assign a new (image) value to the suburb. The article analyses the rebuilding within the framework of the relationships between contemporary architecture and media image and argues that these relationships are more complex than perceived by current architectural literature. It sees these relationships as productive in the case of this rebuilding, and aims to expand the space of their analysis.

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Shotgun: The Most Contested House in America

Cited by 9 publications

References 14 publications

Space, female economies, and autonomy in the shotgun neighborhoods of Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti

Space, female economies, and autonomy in the shotgun neighborhoods of Port‐au‐Prince, Haiti

Can There Be a Critical Collaborative Ethnography?: Creativity and Activism in the Seventh Ward, New Orleans

On the image of the Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans

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