Presented here are archival clips and excerpts of oral history interviews which were conducted via phone call between 2020 – 2022. They rely on existing familial relationships and generational wisdom.

Audio quality doubles as an indicator to show distance, with the grainer the call, the more distant in geography and audio clarity showing closer proximity. Materials sourced includes the author’s personal and public archives.

Instructions:

The exhibit is designed to be experienced in an automobile, with each clip corresponding to a car seat. With Seat 1 being the driver, Seat 2, front seat passenger, and Seats 3-5 being the backseat, with Seat 4, the middle seat, representing disconnection, participants are to be in conversation with each other, entering a discussion of their own.

Seat 1 – The movement of emotion.

My family and the interstate highway are intrinsically linked. The same year the Interstate and Defense Highway Act was passed, was the same year my mother was born. These same highways transformed the physical and economic landscape of mobility, being the conduit of my family’s migration to move from Down South to “Up North.”

Seat 2 – The art of connection.

Seat 3 – Where did they go?

Seat 4 – The weight of disconnection.

[00:40:30]
Anonymous: 
But you know? You wanna know?
This is what it is.

And I'm like… And I thought about that the other day.
And I'm like you know what?

There are families that have [insert here],
But hell! They got [insert here] FOR NO REASON.

And I'm wondering….

Is this how that stuff starts? 
[00:40:43]

Seat 5 – We remember, so we do.

Field work, Tuskegee, 1910

When you can’t make the drive,
make the call.

Ambar johnson

Discussion

What experiences have you had connecting with other generations of your family – older and younger? What have you found challenging and inspiring?

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Sources: Family History, CriticalPast.com, Videezy, Pexel, Divided Highways by Tom Lewis, Freesound.org, Personal Archives, Internet Archive, Library of Congress