Defining "community literacy" as literate acts that could yoke community action with intercultural education, strategic thinking and problem solving, and with observation-based research and theory building, this paper articulates this "generative and tension-filled" vision of community literacy. The paper begins by examining the social/historical context of urban settlement houses, a context from which the Community Literacy Center (CLC) emerges and yet seeks to reinvent in particular ways. The paper notes that the CLC is a community/university collaboration between the Community House (one of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's oldest settlement houses) and the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy at Carnegie Mellon. The second part of the paper examines the theoretical context of the CLC, examining how the concept of community literacy is positioned within other established theories of literacy as they relate to community building. The paper concludes with an examination of a set of guiding principles that have emerged after 5 years of reflecting on community literacy in practice on the Northside of Pittsburgh. Contains one figure and 49 references. (RS)