CCDI’s Fall 2024 Awardee Project Celebration featured presentations from the initiative’s latest award recipients. During the event, project teams shared their project outcomes, demoed final projects, and answered questions from the audience. You can view CCDI’s 2024 Fall Awardee Project Celebration video recording on the Library’s website.
Artists/Scholars in Residence:
Dr. Allie Martin: Sampling Black Life: Soundscapes and Critical Intention
Dr. Allie Martin kicked off the event by sharing two soundscapes she developed as part of her project. Martin defines the soundscapes as short “sonic collages” which layer recording samples Martin has made herself with audio recordings found in archival collections. One of the audio pieces featured an interview with Fountain Hughes from the Library’s Voices Remembering Slavery collection, as well as ambient noises and Martin’s own vocals.
Over the course of her project, Martin hosted community listening sessions where individuals from Chicago, Illinois; Fort Valley, Georgia; and DC were able to listen, respond to, and participate in her soundscapes.
Maya Freelon: Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States
Maya Freelon discussed her process of using mixed media to create tissue-paper artwork featuring images of Black children from the 19th century. These pieces were created to honor and celebrate the innocence, beauty, and resilience of Black children. Freelon’s work features materials from multiple Library collections, including the Johnston (Frances Benjamin) and Gladstone collections.
She also shared information about her exhibition, which recently opened at the Historic Stagville plantation in Durham, North Carolina. During the exhibition opening, fellow 2024 CCDI Artist/Scholar in Residence Allie Martin, presented a motion-activated soundscape in the plantation’s barn, where attendees could play environmental and vocal sounds by navigating the room. Nnenna, Freelon’s mother and an accomplished jazz singer, sang children’s nursery rhymes at the event.
Higher Education recipients:
University of Houston-Downtown: Discovering Afro-Latino Heritage: A Reflective Story Map Project to Enhance Student Belongingness and Learning
For their project, the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) team created a Story Map with the assistance of students and faculty members. The Story Map covers a range of topics from African Musical Traditions to Afro Latinx perspectives in Caribbean countries. The team used an array of Library materials in their work, including the Africana Historic Postcard collection, the World Digital Library, and research guides such as A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States. The UHD team shared photos from their LatinFest AfroLatinidad 2024 event, which they hosted in conjunction with UHD’s Center for Latino Studies. The university-wide event, which featured performances by a Garifuna dance group, highlighted and celebrated Afro-Latino heritage.
Indiana University: Connecting Collections: Indigenous Identities in Edward Curtis and Joseph Dixon Materials
Indiana University’s (IU) team worked together with three artist/curators-in-residence: Debra Yepa-Pappan, Molina Two Bulls-Parker, and Yatika Starr Fields to examine and respond to materials from the Library’s Curtis (Edward S.) collection and materials from Indiana University’s holdings. The artists created works that highlighted their experiences and sought to reclaim the racist depictions of Native Americans in collections created by white photographers. The team opened a physical and a virtual exhibit featuring the work and hosted a public conversation with the artists and IU community.
You can view information about the physical exhibition and experience the virtual exhibition on the IU website.
Angelo State University: All History is Local: Celebrating the People of West Texas
Angelo State University (ASU) worked with students and faculty across campus to produce a series of Story Maps highlighting local Afro Latinx perspectives in West Texas. The Story Maps were organized into various themes, such as “People & Places,” “Education,” and “Civic Engagement.” The team researched and used materials from Chronicling America, the Civil Rights History Project, and other Library collections in their project. Students were heavily embedded into the research process, with several making exciting discoveries. One student who has been researching the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge in San Angelo, Texas discovered a pamphlet created by Prince Hall in the Library’s African American Perspectives collection.
Libraries, Archives Museums recipients:
Hoboken Public Library: The Puerto Rican Experience in Hoboken and America
Hoboken Public Library’s (HPL) team developed a virtual exhibition and timeline to showcase Puerto Rican history and experiences in Hoboken, New Jersey. The project features multiple Library collections including Sanborn Maps, National Jukebox, and the World Digital Library Collection. The team hosted four cultural festivals and also attended the 58th Puerto Rican Flag Raising Ceremony, which is part of a festival that celebrates the island and its people.
Explore the team’s project on The Puerto Rican Experience in Hoboken and America.
Friends of Tijeras Pueblo: The Ancestral Tiwa World Connected to the Present: Tijeras Pueblo in Context
Friends of Tijeras Pueblo (FTP) created interactive videos and a digital zine to supplement the visitor experience at the Tijeras Pueblo Archaeological Site Museum. The videos, presented in English and in the Tiwa language, accompany the museum’s mural map of the Central Rio Grande Valley and cover topics such as Pueblo weaving from master Tiwa Piro weaver, Louis Garcia. The digital zine, entitled “We Are Still Here” uses various materials from the Library, including 19th century photographs of Isleta Pueblo people.
As a result of their CCDI award, the Friends of Tijeras Pueblo have developed an even closer working relationship with the Pueblo of Isleta. Additionally, they were provided a grant from New Mexico Arts to fund a new project.
DC Public Library: Documenting the Ethiopian Communities of DC
DC Public Library (DCPL) conducted, transcribed, and translated several oral histories with local DC community members. Last month, the team also hosted a “DC Ethiopian Archives Day,” an event that encouraged Ethiopian DC residents to digitize their family photos and participate in a pop-up exhibit. The project examined materials from the Library’s Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project collection.
Congratulations to all of CCDI’s 2024 award recipients!
You can view CCDI’s 2024 Fall Awardee Project Celebration video recording on the Library’s website. Learn more about CCDI’s 2024 award recipients on the Of the People website.
CCDI is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path program with support from the Mellon Foundation. This program provides fellowships and grants to individuals and institutions for projects that innovate, imagine, and remix Library materials to highlight the stories and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, 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.
Find more about the Library’s historic Of the People initiative.