PHOTO | LEVINE MUSEUM OF THE NEW SOUTH

Workers install a sign in Second Ward as part of Levine Museum of the New South’s KNOWCLT app, which launched Aug. 7 with a virtual history tour of the Brooklyn community. The app is a collaboration between the museum and James B. Duke Library at Johnson C. Smith University.

The Brooklyn neighborhood lives on in virtual space.

Levine Museum of the New South took a new step in place-based education with the launch of the KNOWCLT app on Aug. 7. The museum collaborated with the James B. Duke Library at Johnson C. Smith University to create the app, with technical development and design produced by Charlotte-based non-profit Potions & Pixels.

The app, which is free and available for iPhone and Android devices, elaborates on the museum’s exhibit “Brooklyn: Once a city within a city.”

KNOWCLT highlights seven historic locations in Brooklyn, which users can access by walking through Second Ward or remotely. Brooklyn was once a thriving Black neighborhood in the heart of Uptown, emerging in the early 1890s and swept away by gentrification in the 1960s. The city designated Brooklyn for urban renewal, forcing longtime residents and businesses out.

“We really dove into contributing to the city's conversation around economics, by taking a deeper look into neighborhoods and how they've changed over time,” Levine Museum director of exhibits and digital experiences Eric Scott said.  

Brooklyn’s past is shared through photos, narration, augmented reality, spoken word and oral histories from former residents. On foot, users can stand at the former Second Ward High School and Brevard Street Library, with their screens detailing what the sites looked like.

“We have been moving in this direction for a very long time,” Levine Museum staff historian Willie Griffin said. “The museum began as a museum without walls. Museums are always trying to update and keep up with the times with all of the latest developments and digital media, digital platforms.”

Griffin said Charlotte has been criticized for tearing down its history rather than preserving it. He said the museum’s approach to preserving history is through digital reconstruction.
“This allowed us to actually go out into a place and reconstruct something through augmented reality with photographs for people to actually see what a community looked like,” Griffin said. “These structures, these seven sites that used to be in Brooklyn, and you can actually teach about these sites. This allows us to really, truly become a museum without walls.”

User friendly
Technology may be the wave of the future, but it is still a work in progress for some members of the community, particularly older members who may not be as tech savvy.
“The app really does hold your hand,” Potions & Pixels founder Michael Zytkow said.

Zytkow said they were intentional from the start about making the app accessible. The developers built in tutorials and the app directs the user where to stand and where to aim the smartphone camera to capture QR codes.

The experience includes 12 achievements with rewards highlighting Black-owned businesses such as Cuzzo’s Cuisine and Mert’s Heart & Soul.

“It’s primarily food-focused because we thought that would be the most approachable and everybody loves food,” Zytkow said.

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