On June 24, the Library of Congress hosted the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative’s (CCDI) Summer Fuse event! A recording of the program is now available in two parts: CCDI 2024 Summer Fuse Part 1 and CCDI 2024 Summer Fuse Part 2.
The hybrid event celebrated CCDI’s 2024 Awardees and brought together the awardee’s project teams, the initiative’s advisory board members, library staff, CCDI’s Interns and virtual and in-person audience members.
Read on for event highlights including conversations with our Artists/Scholars in Residence, Higher Education and Libraries, Archives and Museum Awardee presentations, a Community-Engaged AI panel and presentations from CCDI interns!
2024 Artists/Scholars in Residence Conversations
Maya Cade, CCDI’s Inaugural Artist/Scholar in Residence, kicked off Summer Fuse by introducing CCDI’s current Artists/Scholars in Residence, Maya Freelon and Dr. Allie Martin and their interlocutors.
Artists/Scholars in Residence Conversation: Maya Freelon
Myrtis Bedolla, the Founder and Proprietor of Galerie Myrtis, sat down with Maya Freelon to discuss her project “Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States.” During their conversation, Maya described the process of engaging with the Library’s vast collections.
“Spending time with the archivists and the librarians was just a transformational experience… Once I got there, I realized some important questions. One, ‘where is the joy?’ I thought there was going to be a lot more in the subject matter that I chose. I don’t know why I thought that, but it surprised me. That was one challenge that came up. And then I had to expand my research parameters to find that.”
– Maya Freelon, CCDI 2024 Artist/Scholar in Residence
In addition to the recording of Maya and Myrtis’ conversation, you can learn more about Maya Freelon’s project and research process in her recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Artists/Scholars in Residence Conversation: Dr. Allie Martin
Dr. Samir Meghelli, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum, discussed Dr. Allie Martin’s work and process while creating her project, “Sampling Black Life: Soundscapes and Critical Intention.” During their conversation, Dr. Martin shared how the initial idea behind her project.
“What does gentrification sound like? How do we listen to gentrification? And had the bright idea to put recorders on top of buildings to listen to gentrification? I took the question quite literally at the beginning.”
-Dr. Allie Martin, CCDI 2024 Artist/Scholar in Residence
In addition to the recording of Allie and Samir’s conversation, you can learn more about Allie’s project and research process in her recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Libraries, Archives and Museums Awardee Presentations
D.C. Public Library
Program Coordinator for DC Public Library’s People’s Archive, Maya Thompson, Artist Tsedaye Makonnen, Journalist Hannah Giorgis Yohannes highlighted the collaborative and community aspects of their project, “Documenting the Ethiopian Communities of DC”. Together they will highlight the stories of DC’s Ethiopian residents across generations and identities and investigate the ways that the local Ethiopian community and the District of Columbia have influenced each other in all areas of everyday life.
“We are also really excited about talking with folks in the food space and thinking about how Ethiopian food in DC and in the United States, is shaped by what is happening in DC. It is such a vibrant part of the communities we’ve grown up in, but also of thinking about ways that Ethiopians and Black Americanness come together culturally, whether it’s on a plate or in music spaces as well. “
– Hannah Giorgis Yohannes, DCPL Project team member
In addition to the recording of their presentation, you can also learn more about DCPL’s project through their recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Friends of Tijeras Pueblo
Project Manager for Friends of Tijeras Pueblo (FTP) Judy Vredenburg, and mural artist, Deborah Jojola, highlighted their collaboration with Isleta elders and how their conversations with the Isleta community were being used to activate a mural at the Tijeras Pueblo Site Museum. The team is also working towards create a “zine” using images of the Isleta in the Library’s collections.
“Sketches of many of our Tiwa places that no longer exist are being remembered within this map project. With the CCDI grant, we can add actual voices of our elders telling the story of water watchers, sky watchers, and trails once traveled by Tiwa hunters, salt gatherers, and spiritual leaders.”
– Deborah Jojola, FTP team member
In addition to the recording of their presentation, you can also learn more about FTP’s project through their recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Hoboken Public Library
Hoboken Public Library’s (HPL) Special Collections Manager, James Cox, presented HPL’s project “The Puerto Rican Experience in Hoboken and America,” and highlighted HPL’s intergenerational and cross-cultural community events. HPL is creating an interactive timeline that illustrates the histories and relationships between the United States and, Puerto Rico, with an emphasis on 1960s emigration to Hoboken. The timeline will incorporate a variety of Library online resources.
“I’ve used Library of Congress materials for many years, primarily 18th and 19th century maps of New Jersey. So switching gears and interacting with the full breadth of materials related to a cultural group has been interesting, but also humbling. The Library of Congress has so many resources. “
-James Cox, HPL’s Special Collections Manager and Project Lead
In addition to the recording of their presentation, you can also learn more about HPL’s project through their recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Higher Education Awardee Presentations
Angelo State University
Angelo State University’s (ASU) Dr. Matthew Gritter, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy, and Dr. Aubrey, Executive Director of Library Services at Porter Henderson Library, showcased their project, “All History is Local: Celebrating the People of West Texas.” During their presentation, the ASU team shared their experience of working with faculty, students and staff to identify resources in the Library’s collections that connect with local history of Black and Hispanic or Latinx communities in West Texas.
“I think in my 12 years at Angelo State, this is really the most interdisciplinary, collaborative project that I’ve seen… And I think that will be very valuable because the local community, the local students and teachers will really be giving voice to their own stories.”
-Dr. Matthew Gritter, ASU Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy
In addition to the recording of their presentation, you can also learn more about ASU’s project through their recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Indiana University
Brandie MacDonald, the Executive Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Indiana University (IU), and Kelsey Grimm, Curator of Archives and Library Resources at IU’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, highlighted IU’s collaboration with three Indigenous artists as part of their project, “Connecting Collections: Indigenous Identities in Edward Curtis and Joseph Dixon Materials.” The IU team shared the process of working alongside a team of artists and prioritizing Indigenous perspectives and knowledge and their goal of redressing colonial harm.
“These collections are being used as inspiration for the grant exhibit. Though the initial creation of these materials was extractive and based in colonial practices, this project intentionally prioritizes the indigenous curators visions to redress colonial harm and uplift source community voices.”
-Kelsey Grimm, Curator of Archives and Library Resources at IU’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
In addition to the recording of their presentation, you can also learn more about IU’s project through their recent interview on the Of the People blog!
University of Houston-Downtown
University of Houston-Downtown’s (UHD) Professor of Spanish ,Dr. Raquel Chiquillo, and Online Learning Librarian, Jennifer Fuentes, shared their progress on their project, “Discovering Afro-Latino Heritage: A Reflective StoryMap Project to Enhance Student Belongingness and Learning.” The UHD team shared their experiences of sifting through the Library’s vast digital materials and learning how to create interactive, online StoryMaps.
“Interactive teaching strategies foster engagement, collaboration and critical thinking. And we hope, a love of learning. I’ve also found that for students who don’t like to write, writing in the story maps became something that was much easier for them to do.”
-Dr. Raquel Chiquillo, UHD Professor of Spanish
In addition to the recording of their presentation, you can also learn more about UHD’s project through their recent interview on the Of the People blog!
Community Engaged AI Panel
Following the awardee presentations, Dr. Kimber Thomas, CCDI Senior Innovation Specialist, sat down with Curry J. Hackett, Founder of Wayside Studio, and Tahir Hemphill, Founder of Rap Research Lab, to discuss the possible transformative potential of AI when harnessed with a community-centered approach. Throughout their conversation they explored how AI technologies can be utilized to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of communities of color and how AI tools can be used to empower, engage, and address the unique needs of diverse communities.
“ I’m really fascinated by the question, the kinds of questions, that AI tools can allow us to ask. And I’m curious about the kinds of workflow, emergent workflows we can kind of look at in terms of image making, archival practice, storytelling.” Curry J. Hackett, Community Engaged AI panelist.
CCDI Interns and Junior Fellows
Summer Fuse closed with presentations by CCDI’s 2024 Junior Fellows Janiya Peters and Jonathan Walton’s and by CCDI’s 2023 AHHA Intern Ide Thompson. After their presentations, they also participated in a moderated conversation with Dr. Kimber Thomas, CCDI’s Senior Innovation Specialist.
Janiya Peters’ soundscape project asks how the history of the cotton gin challenges the assumption that technological advancements lead to progress and innovation. It incorporates oral histories from formerly enslaved people and cotton gin operators in the Voices Remembering Slavery collection. Creatively, Janiya sampled snippets of audio feedback from the interviews to loop and recreate the whirring sound of the cotton gin in motion.
Jonathan Walton’s soundscape project focuses on the interconnected sounds of America. He collected samples of music, spoken word, and interview audio from the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project and the Tony Schwartz Collection together with his own composed music to form a sound collage. The collage celebrates the creativity and unity of arts communities across the U.S., illustrating that our shared struggles and triumphs are what truly connect us.
Ide Thompson’s project focused on the Library’s collection of Mary Church Terrell’s papers and the emotional qualities of Terrell’s writing. He used Terrell’s works to create an experience that allowed users to generate new creative works through the words and themes embedded in Terrell’s writing and through the usage of erasure poetry. To read more about Ide’s work and the work of other CCDI AHHA Interns check out this recent blog post on the Of the People blog!
CCDI is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path program with support from the Mellon Foundation. This four-year program provides financial and technical support to individuals, institutions and organizations to create imaginative projects using the Library’s digital collections and centering one or more of the following groups: Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color from any of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and its territories and commonwealths (Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands). Learn more about CCDI here.