Dante Kirkman is a creator, artist, writer, photographer, filmmaker and undergraduate in the Class of 2024 at Stanford University. At Stanford, Dante is an Ernest H. Johnson Scholar majoring in Art Practice. He was the sole freshman and one of six undergraduates selected for the curated 2020 Student Art Showcase, and he was awarded an Arts + Justice Grant for this project on East Palo Alto gentrification. Dante was nominated by the Stanford Department of Art & Art History and received a merit scholarship to further his studies in photography at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, Colorado. His research-based essay on Black artist Ernie Barnes has been accepted for publication by the University of Utah’s Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Issues and Media. Dante is also a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and a National YoungArts Foundation Finalist in Creative Writing, Silver Award winner. He has attended prestigious writing programs including the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio at the University of Iowa, and the New England Young Writers’ Conference at BreadLoaf, Middlebury College. His work has been published, exhibited, screened and awarded at the state, national and international level, including poetry and commentary published in The New York Times, juried photography exhibitions at multiple galleries and universities, and documentary film awarded or screened at the Smithsonian Institution, the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, and the Black Hollywood Film Festival. As a USA Boxing Elite Level amateur boxer himself, Dante has interned at boxing legend Floyd Mayweather’s firm, Mayweather Promotions, supporting marketing, social media and videography. He has also interned at Vori, a venture-backed start-up, where he managed content assets including product photography databases.

The concept for this project is to personalize and document the migration stories caused by gentrification in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park.

My father’s extended family has lived in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park since the 1960s. They endured the time when East Palo Alto was a ghetto and when it was the “murder capital of the USA” during the 1990s. With gentrification now due to Facebook and other tech employers, these long-term residents can no longer afford to live here anymore. Most people are moving to the new ghettos in the Central Valley, such as Stockton and Modesto.

I use documentary photography to capture people and moments during this time of migration and displacement. Due to the pandemic, my project has been delayed and I will be continuing it over the summer. These are representative concept photos. My focus is on the main two streets where my father and his cousins have lived. I am in the process of photographing the houses and people and developing the stories of the families who lived there when these were mostly Black neighborhoods.