Urban Roots Podcast - UM Collborative

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Urban Roots is Urbanist Media’s award-winning narrative documentary podcast that preserves places through story. 

The podcast began in 2020, when Deqah Hussein-Wetzel, a Cincinnati-based historic preservationist focused on preserving places significant to people of color, joined forces with Vanessa Maria Quirk, a New York-based cities journalist and co-host of the City of the Future podcast. Deqah was all too familiar with the ways that top-down, systemic, and racist decisions have left communities of color bereft of the physical assets that were once/are still meaningful to them — and wasn’t shocked to find that fewer than 2% of sites on the National Register of Historic Places pertained to African American History. She started the podcast not just to raise awareness around the need to preserve physical places significant to women and people of color  — the tangible artifacts of history — but to preserve the intangible stories of the people who gave these places meaning. Oftentimes in communities of color, these stories are the only remnants left.

Urban Roots is unique in that, for each episode, we partner with local organizations to find community members who can guide us to the stories of people/places most in need of preservation. We also highlight people across the country doing the multi-generational work of equitable preservation-based development. We give voice to these folks on the ground who are working to protect their communities, redress the inequities of the past, and build a more inclusive future. 

We’re always on the hunt for partners to help us tell little-known stories of underrepresented and marginalized groups  — and how they’re navigating preservation and equitable development today. 

Have an idea or want to collaborate with or sponsor us? Email us at urbanrootspodcast@gmail.com

Our first season, made possible by a Truth & Reconciliation Grant from Artswave, focused on three black neighborhoods in Cincinnati, showing how they each were impacted by the highway and urban renewal. Our second season went around the country: we explored the African American lots of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, the legacy of Biddy Mason in Los Angeles, and the past and future of Indianapolis’ once-thriving black corridor, Indiana Avenue (made possible by a grant from Indiana Humanities). Our third season, currently in development in partnership with Vanport Mosaic, will highlight the story of the lost City of Vanport and the impact of its destruction on working class Portlanders of African, Japanese, and Indigenous American descent.  

In between seasons, we’ve also started airing bonus interviews with people pushing a paradigm shift toward equity in preservation and development. Our interviews with Vishaan Chakrabarti and Brent Leggs are excellent places to start.