A musical short film celebrating the Berkeley Rose Garden, built by the WPA in the 1930s and a living community space to this day
Next up: Better Cities Film Festival Sep 19
Your Rose Garden is just the beginning… check out New Deal Spotlights
“We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.”
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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Singer/Songwriter/Producer: Alexis Harte
Director: Josh Peterson
A living history that is more relevant than ever today.
Berkeley’s Rose Garden is part of a vibrant tapestry of Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects across the nation, whose construction helped pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression.
A love letter and a call to action.
“I'm a Berkeley native and, like my kids, I grew up playing in its creeks and parks. I've been to birthdays, keggers, graduations, weddings, and memorials at the Rose Garden. This song is my tribute to the place, and more broadly to the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) that built this and so many other gems.”
— singer/songwriter Alexis Harte
Thanks for adding your voice to the story
Our film weaves imagery from the distant past to the living present. We invited community members to share their memories of the Berkeley Rose Garden in the form of family photos and home movies, to help us illustrate this space’s continuing importance to local communities across the generations.
“All the girls in my rose garden
Park far away and wander down in heels
Taking pictures with their lovers
They’ve been coming here for 90 years”
— song lyrics by Alexis Harte
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