The Anacostia Exposed project started back in 2007, when Northern Ireland was one the regions of focus for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC.

Through a partnership between Arch Development Corporation, Honfleur Gallery, Belfast Exposed Archives and Gallery, Art Council of Northern Ireland and later the American Poetry Musuem, photographer Mervyn Smyth and poet Collette Bryce came to Anacostia for a residency and conduct workshops with young photographers and poets.

Before the workshops started Collette Bryce left the project. At the time poet Fred L. Joiner was based in Washington D.C. (he is now in Bamako, Mali, West Africa); Joiner was asked to bring his expertise as a poet and artist, based in Washington, D.C. and a resident of the East of the River community.

Once on board, Joiner convened a series of workshops with group of poets including Abdul Ali, Derrick Weston Brown, Kyle Dargan, Marlene Hawthrone (Thomas), Kirsten Kearney, Alan King, Dr. Tony Medina, Katy Richey, Rosetta Thurman; Joiner and Smyth co-facilitated the workshops.  During the workshops, Smyth would talk about Belfast and other areas in Northern Ireland and their striking and unexpected similarity with Anacostia. As part of the process, in another set of workshops, Joiner worked with Smyth to select evocative images and shared them with poets in an attempt to create poems inspired by the images.

The outcome of these workshops was an exhibition called Anacostia Exposed, which traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland as part of an Arts & Culture festival called Over Here.

The success of the workshops and exhibition would marked the beginning of an ongoing collaboration and cultural exchange project between poet and curator, Fred L. Joiner and Belfast exposed until 2012. During this time graphic designer, Eva Gonzalez, formerly of International Arts & Artists Design Studio, turned the entire exhibition into a book which you can download on this website. The book includes a introduction by Thomas Sayers Ellis.