July 29

By Janelle, age 12

Hey! My name is Janelle and I'm 12 years old. This is my first year at IWWL and I'm in the Shaw group.

Today seemed like it would never end, not that it was bad. I got there at 9:00, and we started to do more work on our exhibit. 3 people came in to look at what we finished already. They were critics. After they left, is was about 11:30.

Today was the family lunch too. At about 11:45, parents and children started to come in. After lunch, the parents left. When they left, we started working on our exhibit and changing some of it. When it turned 2:00, we listened to Jamee for some announcements, then we headed off for home.

July 29

By Justin, age 16

This year I have learned a lot about U Street. My mom came to IWWL to eat lunch and meet people today. She went to a play on U Street called "Crowns." She liked the play a lot. She knows that Ben's Chili Bowl is near the theater. She also knew that Richard Lee's flower shop was there for a long time.

July 28

From Kealea, age 15

My experience with IWWL has been great. I've learned so much from U Street's history and how to work with a team. I feel I'm a better photographer, group participant, and all-around Washingtonian. I know so much more about U Street and the surrounding area. I get a hands-on approach that taught me more than a simple textbook would. To be able to hear peoples' stories then document and preserve them gave me such a new take on things. Everything and everyone has a story, we just need to listen and preserve it with our own stories, writings and artwork.

July 27

From Bryant, age 13

Today we spent the whole day in groups trying to create our exhibit. The first thing we did was decide if we wanted to blow up any of our other photos from our site visits on Day 4. Then once we had all of our blown-up photos we decided our top 10 photos. Then we lined them up across the floor for our group members to decide which 5 photos they liked and thought were the best for the exhibit of the top 10. Once everyone voted we placed the photos across the floor and pulled out or brainstorming sheet of all the ideas we wanted to display with the photos. For every idea we wanted one or two photos that would explain it in the exhibit. After we picked out the best photos that would represent an idea we came back upstairs from the Great Hall to have lunch.

After lunch, our team separated into groups to come up with ideas for: 1) which interviews we were going to use, what interactives, 2)what interactives we wanted the visitors to participate in, and 3) what kind of designs and layous we wanted to use for our wall. Finally, after we finished with our groups we shared our ideas with the team

July 27

From Jasmine, age 13

Today we picked our photos and title and theme. We looked at interview videos to see the ones we wanted the most. We had so much fun and we even have the next day planned.

A Look Back at Week 3!

July 22

From Cheyenne, age 15

Day 8 was filled with brainstorming for our exhibit and getting feedback from a curator from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. His name was Paul. Then he went to each group for 20 minutes to help us along with our exhibit. This showed us examples of how our interactives [interactive elements] could be. Then the Columbia Heights neighborhood group went to the gallery where our exhibit will be. After lunch, we went to the American History Museum to look at another exhibit so we could get more ideas for ours. After that. we came back and discussed how we could use interactions in our Columbia Heights exhibit.