News
May 21, 2025
Zine Academy for LA High School Students
Thanks to the continued support of USC’s Arts in Action program, and in partnership with the Los Angeles Public Library, the team will host a Zine Academy for local high school students from July 7 to 18, 2025. Participants will meet former residents, explore rare archival materials, and have a chance to get creative. If you know of a teen who might be interested, please get in touch with us using the form on our “Contact” page. There are a few spots left!
November 24, 2024
BHR featured on PBS SoCal
The BHR team recently sat down with Nathan Masters of PBS SoCal to talk about our work interviewing the descendants of Bunker Hill’s former residents. This summer, we met Donna Shelley and Cassie Heyen, among others. Shelly, the granddaughter of James Horgan, who lived in the Rowan Apartments at 123 S. Bunker Hill Avenue, shared stories about her grandfather and showed students a key to his apartment that the family had saved.
June 11, 2024
Bunker Hill Refrain team awarded a Zumberge Preliminary Studies Research Award from USC’s Office of Research and Innovation.
The project, “Before the Bulldozers: Bunker Hill in the New Deal Era,” will allow the team to complete the 3D model so that it represents the entirety of the 1958 Bunker Hill Redevelopment Area. This year, we will also create a web-based prototype to demonstrate how the public will interact with the 3D model.
May 31, 2024
Mats Borges and Eliza Jane Franklin present work in progress at the 2024 California Preservation Conference
Mats and Eliza introduced the Bunker Hill Refrain project to participants at one of the largest meetings dedicated to heritage conservation. They discussed how the project brings together students, scholars, and community members in a critical engagement with histories of displacement. Eliza represented students from USC’s Masters in Heritage Conservation Program who have been engaged with the project since its inception.
January 19, 2024
Bunker Hill Refrain awarded an Arts in Action grant to build the neighborhood’s “rebel archive.”
Funding will be used to hire student researchers. Arts in Action grants are selected based on their creative solutions, projected impact, and partnerships with grassroots organizations in Los Angeles.