Newark Story Bus

The Story Bus is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Audible, NJPAC, Rutgers University–Newark, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey Council for the Humanities, and the New Jersey Arts & Culture Recovery Fund.

Newark today is defined by immigration and the Great Migration—by the movement of people from across the globe and around the country who have sought opportunity here and left their imprints in return. 

The Newark Story Bus is a mobile hub for sharing and collecting the rich stories that make Newark a global city. The bus, a refurbished Econoline Cutaway, contains a sound booth and portrait studio designed to gather audiovisual histories from residents and workers in the city. The exterior of the bus, created by local artists Geraluz and Werc, draws attention when it rolls into schools, street fairs, churches and community centers. The design evokes our mixed cultural heritages and celebrates the vibrancy of Newark. The interior space, created and built by Evonne Davis, doubles as a mixed-use media lab to help teach local residents storytelling skills.

Travel back in time with the Bus to relive Newark’s storied past in our latest collaboration with Audible

GREAT MIGRATION

The Great Migration was the largest internal movement of people the United States has ever experienced. From 1915 to 1970, six million African Americans fled the racial violence of the segregated South and headed North in search of jobs and freedom from oppression. What they met was more complicated than many expected. The racial dynamics of places like Newark had a profound impact on these new arrivals, while they in turn transformed the trajectory of cities across the industrial north.  

Isabel Wilkerson’s seminal book, The Warmth of Other Suns, brings this mass migration into focus with epic clarity. Like Wilkerson, Newest Americans draws parallels between the Great Migration and the waves of immigration that have shaped this nation over the past hundred years. Many who made the journey from the South became “strangers in a strange land,” despite never having crossed an international border. 

Wilkerson opens her book to the music of a Richard Wright poem:

I was leaving the South
To fling myself into the unknown…
I was taking a part of the South
To transplant in alien soil,
To see if it could grow differently,
If it could drink of new and cool rains,
Bend in strange winds,
Respond to the warmth of other suns
And, perhaps, to bloom.

Mayor Ras Baraka’s grandfather, Coyt Jones, recounted his journey north as part of the Krueger-Scott Oral History Collection. When we produced our film, We Came and Stayed, about the family’s history, Baraka recounted that his family, like many others, heard the train conductor announce that they were pulling into Newark, which sounded like New York, so they got off before ever reaching their intended destination. Within three generations, the Jones family went from struggling to find work to achieving international prominence in the arts to leading the largest city in one of the wealthiest states in the country.

The Great Migration isn’t buried in the deep past. It is a vivid part of our pulsing present, with people who have firsthand experience walking amongst us. On the Newark Story Bus, we often encounter these people, who are transported when we ask how they ended up in Newark. They share stories about the cruel circumstances that made the South untenable, the eye-opening journey to a new land, and the dueling forces of opportunity and racism that many families encountered when they arrived. These are reminders that the Great Migration is living history that continues to shape us all.

LATINX NEWARK

The Latinx community is the second largest in Newark, and the fastest growing. To reflect this vibrant part of the city, we’ve curated some of our favorite stories from Newark’s Latinx residents who attended various Story Bus events, their narratives spanning from Mexico to Colombia to Ecuador to Paraguay. They shared their stories with us at the Halsey Street Festival, the Jam Poetry Slam, the Hawthorne Avenue Farm, and Newark Museum of Art’s Juneteenth celebration.

GOSPEL HIGHWAY

For Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and Billy Preston, Newark was a destination on the ‘Gospel Highway.’ The longest running Black gospel record label in the world, Savoy Records, was founded in Newark, and pretty much every major gospel artist of the latter half of the 20th century recorded on the label.

We invited a group of local gospel singers to share their reflections and revelations on the Newark Story Bus in anticipation of the 2022 Festival of Praise at Newark Symphony Hall. In these stories, they share the rich history of gospel music and its sublime origins in faith.

Newark has been a hub for gospel music for over a century, giving rise to world-famous singers like Cissy (and Whitney) Houston, Reverend Milton Biggham, Ella Mitchel, and the Grammy awarding-winning Jubilation Choir. Tales of sold out shows with thousands in attendance at the Newark Armory and Newark Symphony Hall rival stories about huge crowds turning out to enjoy gospel performances at Weequahic Park and the old Laurel Garden Arena. First Baptist Church located next door in Nutley, New Jersey was the site of the first ever live gospel recording, with James Cleveland, Lawrence Roberts and The Angelic Choir, setting a new standard for gospel music.

Hear from people who were there to bear witness and those who are carrying the legacy forward.

BREAKOUT NEWARK

Breakout Newark, a series of experiences led by Newark Changemakers sponsored by Audible, took place October 8-9, 2021. Community leaders gathered for workshops and storytelling actives, and the Newark Story Bus gathered the stories of several participants.