This Summer, Shruti is doing archival research in New Orleans about a lakefront property known as Lincoln Beach. The beach used to be a segregated Black beach, but had an amusement park and held concerts, political programming, and state fairs. After the Civil Rights Act, the city shut down the beach and made it illegal to go to. But, people kept crossing the levee wall and railroad tracks to reach Lincoln Beach, and today it’s a sort of autonomous zone that community members run and some even live in. Shruti is interested in how a piece of land ends up to be so inaccessible yet means so much for a community. What makes a place loom? Shruti is studying the history of the property, looking at multi-party ownership and public-private corporations’ involvement. She’s spent her time in notary and land records offices, and working with community organizers who are trying to make the beach safer. Shruti got to visit the beach for the last time in the next few years because New Orleans for Lincoln Beach has successfully advocated for re-development. She’s had the privilege to work with Ms. Janet Tobias who runs a museum of her own of Lincoln Beach, and Shruti is using her research to support Ms. Tobias’s exhibit.