If you were around in Philly this summer, then you probably have heard about Le Bok Fin -- Philly's the "hottest new bar" stationed on top of the former Bok Technical High School. As working educators and community members, many of us in WE and TAG were deeply upset about this type of development in our city.
Although the narrative of development says: "a building shouldn't remain empty" -- we wanted to push back against that type of market-driven logic and remember that Bok's current status is the result of a massive slashing and gutting of our public schools' budget, on top of the historic disinvestment we've seen in Philadelphia's public schools for decades, and the subsequent disaster-capitalism-type shuttering of 23 schools in 2013.
Gentrification often depends on a certain amount of "forgetting" -- i.e. how the space used to function, who inhabited the space and benefitted from its resources. Educators and community activists came out to talk to bargoers about the real story of Bok Technical High School, to ask the question, "What do we value in Philadelphia?" and to share a vision of stable communities and equitably-resourced public goods that benefit youth of color in our city.
Check out the video from the September Action at Bok Technical High School.