Transform 1012 N. Main Street is transforming the Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas, into The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing, repurposing this monument to hate into a beacon of truth-telling and liberation. The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing will honor the life and memory of Mr. Fred Rouse, a Black butcher and father who was lynched by a white mob in Fort Worth in 1921. Adaptive reuse plans include transforming the space into a vibrant cultural hub with state-of-the-art performance and rehearsal spaces; arts training and programming; services for LGBTQQ2SPIAA++ and other resilient youth; exhibit spaces dedicated to social justice and civil rights; a maker space and tool library for local DIY classes; meeting spaces for racial equity and leadership workshops and community events; an outdoor urban agriculture and artisan marketplace; and affordable live/work spaces for artists- and entrepreneurs-in-residence. At the intersection of reparative justice, anti-racism work, spatial justice, inter- and intra- group healing and the arts, this project serves historically marginalized groups targeted by the Klan, namely Black, Catholic, Hispanic, immigrant, Jewish, and LGBTQQ2SPIAA+ populations.
