Will Langhorne
Two weeks ago, a group of first-year students walked through New Haven’s historically-Black Dixwell neighborhood on an audio tour created by local high schoolers.
The tour and programming — organized by Dwight Hall’s First-Years in Support of New Haven — aims to share the history of New Haven’s marginalized communities and help Yale students engage thoughtfully with the New Haven community
The audio walking tour was created by students at Metropolitan Business Academy, one of New Haven’s eighteen high schools. Titled “A Peoples’ History of Dixwell”, the tour was produced as a project for an African American and Latinx history course previously taught at the high school by Nataliya Braginsky.
“I am thrilled that my students’ map and walking tours were featured in the First-Year Disorientation,” Braginsky wrote in an email to the News. “Not only does it educate Yale students about the long history of resistance among Black, Indigenous and Latinx New Haveners, it also sends a powerful message — that Yale students (not to mention faculty and staff) have a lot to learn from New Haven high schoolers.”
High school students Angel Rovira, Dameon Dillard, Darlaney Chanthinith, E’moni Cotten, Flor Jimenez and Kaleeah Ramos lent their voices to various parts of the tour.
In their introduction to the audio tour, the students described the walk through Dixwell as “an invitation to reflect on the depth and power of Black, Indigenous and Latinx history not only in New Haven but across the country.”
“One of the aspects we really appreciated from the tour the Metro students created is that it placed significant focus on New Haven as a city separate from Yale, with its own history,” the co-coordinators of FIS-NH wrote in a joint statement to the News
The tour began on campus in the Grace Hopper courtyard and traveled through the surrounding Dixwell neighborhood, featuring several sites important to New Haven’s history, such as the Grove Street Cemetery, Hillhouse High School, the Hannah Gray Home and several buildings along Goffe Street and Dixwell Avenue.
The audio tour described these sites as “examples of resistance and struggles for justice in the face of racial discrimination and oppression, as well as examples of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creation, creativity and brilliance.”
During the tour, the co-coordinators emphasized that the walk is only an introduction to the city and its history. They encouraged students to learn more about New Haven through a list of resources that they sent out after the tour.
“We hope that first-years who attended the event will find ways to explore and engage with New Haven outside of Yale, become curious about New Haven’s history, and think about engaging with New Haven in a non-savior capacity,” the co-coordinators told the News.
FIS-NH planned the event in collaboration with five other campus groups focused on social justice. This year’s FIS-NH coordinators are Karen Wang ’24, Lisbette Acosta ’24, Joseph Bennett ’24, Jessica Sanchez ’25, Nikhe Braimah ’25, Aden Gonzales ’25 and Elyse Thomas ’25.
Alyssa Erthum ’26, who knew little about the city’s history beforehand, told the News that the tour made her want to become more involved in the New Haven community “beyond the Yale bubble.”
“I am a guest in this community and I want to make sure I’m engaged in a town that’s giving me a space to grow,” Erthum said.
The audio tour, which is roughly 45 minutes to an hour long, is publicly accessible online.