Street Spirit is an independent newspaper in the East Bay dedicated to covering homelessness and poverty from the perspective of those most impacted. Est 1995.
Street Spirit is an independent newspaper in the East Bay dedicated to covering homelessness and poverty from the perspective of those most impacted. Est 1995.
Street Spirit now has a webstore! Sweaters, posters, stickers, & more <3 Shop
The following are a series of maps that are intended to bring to light different visions and memories of the Ashby/Shellmound encampment community. Though this land remains, the community that residents built there has largely disappeared due to a series of encampment sweeps by Caltrans and the city of Emeryville. However, the sense of place that residents found there remains in people’s minds. These maps are intended to help capture and preserve those memories—and share them with the wider world.
Transportation map of the Ashby/Shellmound interchange
(Google Maps 2022)
Hand-drawn maps and personal landmarks
Six hand-drawn maps that the participating artists drew on individual sheets of vellum that were placed on top of a transportation map, such as the one on the opposite page. These six maps were then superimposed to form the image you see above. Orange map by Laura Berry. Green map by Grimm Mercer. Red map by Ashley Frankum. Blue map by Ray Leichter. Purple map by D’art Lloyd. Pink map by Pat Thomas.
Text map, made up of quotes from the six participating artists
Text map created by Suzi Garner. Satellite image beneath from Google Maps, 2022.
Painted maps
Personal Map of the Ashby/Shellmound encampment area with freeway exit, train route, shoreline, and poisoned lake. Acrylic and marker on Vellum, 2021. (D’artagnan Lloyd)Personal Map of the Ashby/Shellmound encampment area with biking paths, location of tent and friends’ tents, and a Pacman ghost. Colored Pencil and Paint Markers on Vellum, 2021. (Ashley Frankum)
Street Spirit is based in Berkeley, CA and run by Alastair Boone, Bradley Penner, and Kevin Sample. We are fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media, a 501(c)(3) organization.