In this chapter, we detail a process that was profoundly personal, sometimes painful, and, in the end, definitively political. None of us knew quite what we were getting into when we signed on the dotted line and decided to be part of this project; we didn’t know where our journey would take us. With the benefit of hindsight, we offer a retrospective reflection upon a community-
based participatory action research project in which we critically
investigated our everyday lives in our neighborhood, the Lower East Side of New York City. Along the way we not only learned how to do research, but also we learned a lot about ourselves and our community. The research process engaged us in asking “why?”—in asking questions that lead to a critical perspective—in effect questioning our surroundings and in thinking deeply about what we cared about, what we knew, and what we didn’t know. Collectively we shared our desires and what got in the way of us accomplishing our dreams. We argued, laughed, and compared our experiences in our neighborhood and our perspectives on the world. In this chapter, we hope to do the same, to share the struggles and joys of doing participatory action research, and its potential for
“opening eyes.”