Joan is an ongoing project begun when I purchased a child’s diary from the Ashby flea market in Berkeley for $1. The few written pages suggest an intensely spirited and intelligent, upper-middle-class 8 year-old girl who lived in El Cerrito, CA in 1955.
Upon visiting the address, I spoke with the current resident who’d bought the house from Joan’s parents. She informed me that Joan committed suicide in the garage when she was a teenager.
I began a personal investigation of Joan. Who was Joan? I found photos of many of the people mentioned in her diary, walked and documented the paths she used to take to school and watched the movies she used to watch with her friends.
I visited her grave.
Unsurprisingly, her cause of death was largely covered up, both on her death certificate and as witnessed through online chats between her schoolmates - who were not informed or encouraged to discuss what happened to Joan.
I have attempted to contact some of the people who appear in her diary, but thus far none have responded.
