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By Mikayla S. Whitaker with photography by Jared Lazarus
The Heart of Burch Avenue
The Burch Avenue Community Garden, located in the center of Durham and tucked away among historic homes and quiet streets, has long provided a place to relax, play, and interact with neighbors. Recently, however, it has evolved into something even more significant: a place where a neighborhood’s past is being cherished, shared, and retained.
Local institutions provide support
The Burch Avenue Neighborhood Association (BANA), in collaboration with the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and local artists, developed an oral history project into a larger neighborhood preservation initiative. Created with support from the Duke Doing Good Housing & Neighborhood fund, this multi-phase, community-led project has strengthened links between the past and present while uplifting the voices of longtime residents.
Local creatives bring stories to life
The first creative phase was led by neighbors D.L. and Kavanah Anderson. D.L is a Durham-based documentary producer and filmmaker with Vittles Films, and Kavanah is an educator and oral history practitioner. With support from staff at the Pauli Murray Center, they conducted oral history practitioner and educator with Duke Gardens. With support from staff at the Pauli Murray Center, they conducted oral history interviews with neighbors who have lived in Burch Avenue and the surrounding Brookstown neighborhood for decades.
Next, they collaborated with local artists Wutang McDougal and Aminah Coppage to use photography, illustration, and public storytelling displays to bring these meaningful stories to life. The artistic displays were installed in the Burch Avenue Community Garden space and include QR codes linked to short-form videos, now available on YouTube. Altogether, these assets are living tributes to the community’s pride, resilience, and strength.
Words echo as invitation and testament
The interview “Be Your Authentic Self” features a powerful call to action from Alisa Johnson, a Burch Avenue resident of many decades. She speaks with clarity, bravery, and strength. She discusses embracing who you are—not just as an individual, but as a community.
“You can build something that lasts when you know who you are,” she says. Her words echo as both an invitation and a testament.
Johnson also appears alongside her partner, artist and educator L.D. Burris in the interview “Embodying Chuck Davis,” a tribute to the lasting impact of Dr. Charles “Chuck” Davis, the legendary African American dancer. Through their reflections, we hear how movement, rhythm, and cultural pride have shaped their communal identity.
We have to pass on the history that our bodies hold.
– L.D. Burris
“We have to pass on the history that our bodies hold,” Burris says of Davis.
Charles Dunegan’s interview “We Lived off the Land” takes us back to a time when survival depended on instinct and cooperation—growing your own food and trading with neighbors. His words resonate as a quiet meditation on resilience.
“It wasn’t easy,” he says, “but it was ours.”
In the interview “Neighborhood Cookouts and Sweet Tomatoes,” Evelyn Dunegan smiles as she reflects on the past. Neighbors laughing in the park, the scent of barbecue, and the taste of homegrown tomatoes all contribute to her story.
“It was more than a meal,” she recalls. “It was belonging.”
It was more than a meal. It was belonging.
– Evelyn Dunegan
Despite their individual perspectives, these stories share common themes: love of place, resilience, cultural pride, and communal joy. They live on not just in archives or behind glass, but in conversations, gardens, porches, and shared meals.
This neighborhood-rooted cultural preservation project shows what can be achieved when local leadership, community trust, and creative collaboration come together. In partnership with the Pauli Murray Center and Duke Community Affairs, BANA has helped create a platform for residents to share their stories—in their own voices.
The entire oral history series is now available on YouTube. As new narratives and creative components continue to unfold, one truth becomes increasingly clear:
Here, history doesn’t just live. It speaks.
Watch the Neighborhood Heritage videos on YouTube
