Shorefront and Northwestern will host Mapping Black Evanston: A History Harvest on Saturday, April 25, from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm, at Evanston Township High School. Community members interested in preserving their photographs, mementos, and memories are invited to participate in this free event. Our staff and other preservation experts will scan & digitize materials, collect oral histories, and offer tips and resources for preserving family and community histories. Participants will be invited to listen to and share stories of Black Evanston past and present, browse a sampling of Shorefront’s historical photographs and records, enjoy food, and leave with a keepsake photo and short oral history. To advance Shorefront’s efforts to preserve and publicize the history of Black people in Evanston, participants will have the option to donate copies of their preserved materials to Shorefront’s collections. Thanks to a collaboration with Media Burn Archive, we can also support digitization of some home videos.
To guarantee your spot and expedite scanning, please make an appointment via our Calendly page.
Photo and memento guidelines:
Video guidelines:
Please do not bring the following items for scanning:
An ANCHOR-Grant partnership between Shorefront Legacy Center and Northwestern University
ABOUT THE PROJECT
A partnership between Shorefront Legacy Center and Northwestern University supported by an ANCHOR Grant, this project bolsters Shorefront’s work to preserve the perspectives of Black Evanstonians, including documenting the physical spaces where they live(d), work(ed), and have built community. We are putting the histories of Black Evanstonians on the map by documenting personal narratives and making them accessible to the public. This project has been shaped by longtime community leader Colette Allen and ETHS history teacher Makoto Ogura, who imagined “a community geography” embroidered with the “personal and collective histories” of Black Evanstonians in order to “tell a more nuanced story of us.” By collecting, preserving, and amplifying stories about place–including locations which have been lost or threatened by displacement and rising housing costs– the project ensures that the histories of everyday Black Evanstonians are valued and heard, both now and for generations to come.
Our work is organized into three categories:
1. Project teams are conducting place-based oral history interviews with 16 Black community members.
2. On April 25, community members are invited to share their artifacts and their stories at a “History Harvest” event at ETHS.
3. Team members are transcribing, editing, and geotagging oral histories – and working with Shorefront’s collections – to create a f that highlights important sites of Black life and history in Evanston.
WHO WE ARE
Coordinating Team
Laurice Bell, Executive Director, Shorefront Legacy Center
Ruth Curry, Program Administrator at the Center for Civic Engagement, Northwestern
Mila Kaut, PhD Candidate in History; Center for Civic Engagement Graduate Assistant, Northwestern
Jojo Galven Mora, PhD Student in History, Northwestern; Black Metropolis Graduate Assistant, Shorefront
Kate Masur, Professor of History, Northwestern
Matthew Taylor, IT Director and General Director of the Media and Design Studio, Northwestern
Charla Wilson, Curator for the Black Experience, Northwestern
Oral History and Research Teams
Leelai Demoz, Oral Historian, Videographer
Ron Whitmore, Oral Historian
Colette Allen, Oral Historian
Orion Sledge-Ricks, Undergraduate Oral Historian
Zoey Jowers, Undergraduate Researcher
Blaire Batista, Undergraduate Researcher
Caleb Evans, Undergraduate Researcher
CONTACT US
To make an appointment at Shorefront, contact Lead Archivist Stacy Moss-Paul at stacy@shorefrontlegacy.org.
For questions about History Harvest (Sat. April 25 @ ETHS), contact Ruth at ruth.martin@northwestern.edu.
RESOURCES
On Our Recent Collaborations
On Shorefront
On Archives
