Sept. 22, 2000, Durham, NC — This fall twelve communities across the country will be featured in an original documentary project that explores grassroots democracy at work in America. Through the distinctive visions of some of the nation's leading photographers and compelling interviews by prominent oral historians and folklorists, Indivisible: Stories of American Community provides a firsthand look at local initiatives and the people behind them, creating a unique portrait of an America moved to action.

Indivisible is a project of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, the University of Arizona. Indivisible is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The project encompasses a nationally touring museum exhibition, a major trade book, traveling exhibits that will circulate free postcards, and an extensive Web site. The museum exhibition will premiere at the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago on October 6, 2000, and run through November 26, 2000, in conjunction with a postcard exhibit at the James R. Thompson Center, also in Chicago, October 5 through October 19, 2000. The book, published by W.W. Norton & Company/Lyndhurst Books, and including a foreword by journalist Ray Suarez, will be available nationally in bookstores by October 6. The project Web site (www.indivisible.org), launched concurrently with the Chicago opening, will present the Indivisible photographs and interview excerpts along with additional resources for learning more about community action. The project also includes major research archives, an educators' guide, and an instructional booklet for documenting community projects.

Using original photographs and the voices of citizens telling their own stories, Indivisible focuses on twelve local initiatives that address issues facing communities across the United States—including housing, immigration, the environment, crime prevention, health care, youth empowerment, race relations, and economic and cultural development. Photographer Lynn Davis and folklorist Jens Lund introduce us to Alaskan fishing communities along the North Pacific Coast where innovative marine conservation efforts are having an impact; photographer Reagan Louie and ethnographer Barry Dornfeld take us to North Philadelphia, where—through the hard work of community residents at the Village of Arts and Humanities—some eighty-seven abandoned properties have been converted into art parks, community gardens, education facilities, and low-income housing; and photographer Sylvia Plachy and journalist Karen Michel visit midwives and doulas—volunteers in the service of women during pregnancy, childbirth and early postpartum time at home—working to support mothers on Long Island. Among the others documented are Haitian immigrants in Delray Beach, Florida, working with local police to patrol their streets to combat drug use and crime; migrant farmworkers in Texas border towns who learn to finance and construct their own homes; and loggers, conservationists, and other residents in Montana forming a coalition on preservation and sustainable use of the forest.

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