Melody Chapin and Pauline Katz
Recorded
June 24, 2014
Archived
June 11, 2014
00:00 minutes
Audio not available
Interview ID: SCL000379
Description
Pauline Katz (25) interviews Melody Chapin (25) about growing up poor, moving to a new community, recognizing racial and experiencing social interactions and demographic change as a result of neighborhood gentrification, and grappling with the fear of a loss of diversity and affordability.Subject Log / Time Code
Pauline's (P) parents moved to Somerville, MA in 1984 to raise their family.
P remembers attending the Lincoln Park Community School in Union Square. She describes it as a diverse place where differences didn't matter. P was one of the only white girls who went to the YMCA after school.
P's great-grandparents, who were Jewish, immigrated to the U.S. before World War II. Her great-grandmother arrived without documents and came through Canada. P's family members came from Poland and Russia.
P grew up among "lots of immigrants." She spoke Yiddish, like her grandparents, although her parents didn't speak the language. She describes identifying as Jewish, not white, and checking off the "other" box to designate her ethnic identity.
P talks about how Mama Gina's, a local pizza place, has changed since when she was a kid. It used to be what she calls a "community place" where she knew all of the employees, but the owners have changed.
P talks about how the Midnight Diner, a local establishment, has changed in similar ways to Mama Gina's.
P talks about the new wave of gentrification in Somerville. Although she's grateful her parents raised her in Somerville, she recognizes they were part of the process of gentrification. She wonders about the cost of gentrification. It's a complicated topic that "confuses" her.
P talks about the importance of history and education. She talks about how great her Somerville teachers were, and how they influenced her to give back to her community.
P is getting her masters degree in education and hopes to teach in Somerville.
In college, P didn't enjoy her education classes. After real-world experience with AmeriCorps and abroad, she realized she loved teaching. She plans to pursue an education degree at Harvard.
P hopes that the diversity -- of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, class -- in Somerville never changes, and that the sense of community never goes away.
Participants
- Melody Chapin
- Pauline Katz