Local & Community
Staging Section 14: Palm Springs Community Gathers to Honor Survivor Stories and Healing
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — The difficult history of Section 14 in Palm Springs is being brought to light through a new lens of healing and restorative justice. Community members gathered at the Church of St. Paul in the Desert for a meeting focused on "Staging Section 14," a collaborative project that aims to preserve the stories of those forcibly evicted from the downtown tract of land decades ago.
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The meeting centered around a stage reading project developed by the Green Room Theatre Company, which tells the real-life accounts of Section 14 survivors through a fictional setting. The initiative is part of a broader effort to use "restorative practices" to repair the generational harm caused by the destruction of homes and churches in the 1960s. By using theater and storytelling, the project seeks to repair relationships and foster collective healing in the community.
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During the gathering, attendees heard powerful testimony from local survivors who shared the lasting emotional toll of their experiences. One survivor recalled being a teenager at the time of the evictions and how they had suppressed many of those traumatic memories for years. They noted that after visiting a Section 14 display in Palm Springs about ten years ago, the reality of what happened resurfaced, filling them with a renewed sense of rage, anger, and helplessness.
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In addition to the storytelling, the event served as a community archive scanning session. Survivors were encouraged to bring photographs, documents, and personal articles to be digitized. This collaborative archiving process is designed to ensure that the diverse history of Section 14 is preserved and used as a tool for both public education and the personal reconciliation of the families affected.
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While the City of Palm Springs fulfilled a significant financial settlement with survivors and descendants in late 2025, community leaders and activists emphasize that restorative work remains a long-term journey. More meetings and archival sessions are scheduled to take place throughout the year as the "Staging Section 14" project moves toward its final stages.
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For more details on the upcoming meeting schedule and how to contribute to the community archive, you can find full information on our website at NBCPalmSprings.com.
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Explore: NBCPalmSprings.com, where we are connecting the Valley.
By: NBC Palm Springs
April 20, 2026
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