The 'Making A Neighborhood' Exhibit Opens in Wyoming

A new exhibit in collaboration with the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation tells the story of Japanese and Black solidarity in the J-Flats neighborhood of East Hollywood.

The Making A Neighborhood exhibit is now open at the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation’s museum space in Wyoming. | Courtesy of Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

Over the last year, I’ve had the honor to work with The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation on an exhibit about the rise of “J-Flats” a Japanese American enclave in East Hollywood located just south of Virgil Village. The exhibit traces the story of the Albright-Marshalls, a Black family who settled the area in 1891, when it was still mainly farmland. Due to discriminatory practices like redlining and racially restrictive covenants, which kept Black and immigrant folks from living elsewhere, this neighborhood, much like Boyle Heights and South Central, became a diverse community. When WWII broke out, most of the Japanese American residents of J-Flats were sent to the Heart Mountain Wyoming incarceration camp. During this time, the Albright-Marshalls, who had developed close friendships with their Japanese neighbors, stepped up and helped safeguard their properties and belongings. 

The exhibit, located at the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation’s museum space in Wyoming, and curated by Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin and myself, is broken up into four walls that trace this history. The first wall explains redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and gentrification. The second wall tells the story of the Albright-Marshalls and their decades long history in the neighborhood. The third wall focuses on the inter-racial solidarity and allyship that existed in the neighborhood and became crucial during Japanese American incarceration. And the fourth wall tells the story of placemaking in the neighborhood across decades, most recently through the rise of a Central American community, and the effects of current gentrification. As part of this section, our efforts with the Making A Neighborhood newsletter are shown as a continuation of ongoing storytelling legacies in the Virgil Village/J-Flats area. 

A section from the exhibit about J-Flats. | Courtesy of Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

The credit section of the exhibit. | Courtesy of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

The exhibit opened at the end of July during the foundation’s annual Pilgrimage. I, unfortunately, was not able to make it to Wyoming to physically experience the months-long work we put into this ode to our neighborhood, but members of the Marshall family including Karen “Kiwi” Burch along with her aunt Barbara Marshall, sister Cheryl, and three cousins, Robin, Crystal, and Eric were present to receive the “Ladonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award” for their family’s allyship.

I spoke with Kiwi about her experiences in Heart Mountain. Our conversation below was edited for clarity and length.