H.E.R.E (Homecoming Equity + Regenerative Encounters) and Back Again: Letters, Land, and Living Memory assembles research, storytelling, and community dialogue to explore how relationships to land are remembered, maintained, and reimagined across generations. Initiated in the context of the CCA-Mellon Multidisciplinary Research Program (In the Hurricane, On the Land), the H.E.R.E. Project began as a personal effort for Sam Carter-Shamai to trace his own family connection to Gloucester County, Virginia. What emerged is a broader inquiry into how we sustain connection to place when ownership is precarious or erased.

Supported by the Architecture as Public Concern Fellowship, the project treats gaps and contradictions between institutional records and collective memory as fertile ground for ongoing dialogue and exchange. An unpublished family memoir, a years-long letter writing exchange, or even a humble postcard provide key insights on par with dissertations, property records, or insurance claims. This presentation shares creative outputs from the project alongside reflections from collaborators and community partners. It is an invitation to consider how memory, correspondence, and everyday practices of care can inform new approaches to planning, cultural work, and collective life.

This event is free and open to the public. Please register here to join the webinar.

Sam Carter-Shamai is an urban planner and community advocate dedicated to equitable city-building. He was previously CCA-Mellon Research Fellow and Architecture as Public Concern Fellow at the CCA, as well as an Early Career Canadian Urban Leader at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. He has a Master of Planning from Toronto Metropolitan University and a planning specialization from Concordia University.