The Overlooked History of Bradoff: Industry, Community, and Ethnic Intersections

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Along the ancient path of the Menanga Halo River, Bradoff, Pennsylvania sits in the eastern region of Allegheny County, approximately nine miles outside of Pittsburgh. An industrial suburb brought off his home to Andrew Carnegie's first still mill, Dehaker Thompson works. Operating since 1875, it is the last functioning still mill in the region. For 12 years, I have produced collaborative portraits, still life, landscapes, and aerial views in order to build a visual archive to address the intersection of the still industry, the environment, and the healthcare systems impact on the bodies of my family and community.

The tradition and grand narrative of Bradoff is mostly comprised of stories of industrialists and trade unions. Currently, the new narrative about Bradoff, a poster child for rust-built revitalization, is a story of urban pioneers discovering a new frontier. Mass media has omitted the fact that Bradoff is predominantly black. Our existence has been co-opted, silenced, and erased. Fourth generation, and a lineage of women, I was raised under the protection and care of Grandma Ruby, off 8th Street at 805 Washington Avenue. She worked as a manager for Goodwill. Mom was a nurse's aide. She watched the still mills close and white flight to suburban developments.

By the time my generation walked the streets, disinvestment at the local, state, and federal level, eroded infrastructure, and the war on drugs dismantled my family and community. Grandma Ruby's stepfather, Gramps, was one of few black men to retire from Carnegie's mill with his pension. He worked in high temperatures, tearing down and rebuilding furnaces, cleaning up spilt metal and slag. The history of a place is written on the body and the landscape.

Areas of heavy truck traffic exposure to benzene and atomized metals, risk, cancer, and lupus. 123 licensed beds, 652 employees, rehabilitation programs, decimated. A housing discrimination lawsuit against Allegheny County removed where the projects, tablet towers, once stood. Recent rezoning for more light industry has since appeared. Google maps and Google Earth fixulations can seal the flammable waste being used to squeeze the Bun family off their home in land.

In 2013, I charted a helicopter with my cameras to document this aggressive dispossession. In flight, my observation reveals thousands of plastic white bundles owned by a conservation industry that cleans its eco-friendly and recycles millions of tires to preserve people's lives and to improve people's lives. My work spirals from the micro to the macro level, excavating hidden histories. Recently at the Seattle Art Museum, Isaac Bunenai mounted this exhibition and the exhibition was used as a platform to launch his voice. Through reclamation of our narrative, we will continue to fight historic erasure and socioeconomic inequality. Thank you.