Amistad is committed to collecting, preserving and providing open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations and civil rights. | |
60th Anniversary of the March on Washington: Where do we go from here? | |
Sixty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously departed from his prepared speech to proclaim to the over 250,000 attendees of the 1963 March on Washington that “Now is the time,” and then improvised his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. The Amistad Research Center and Dillard University join together with the Jesuit Social Research Institute to commemorate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with a three-day celebration. We invite you to join students of Dillard University and Louisiana civil rights organizers to consider the question, “Where do we go from here?”
Beginning August 26, join us to celebrate the triumphs of the past and answer the question of the future. This commemoration includes a documentary film viewing, two panel discussions, and an interfaith service for the public to engage in, free of cost.
For more information about this event series, please follow this link to RSVP via our Eventbrite!
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Commemorative poster for Where do we go from here? Program | |
A Conversation with Alia Farid and Amal Khalaf | |
In celebration of the Amistad-Rivers Research Residency Program in partnership with the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art + Thought, we invite you to join us for A Conversation with Alia Farid and Amal Khalaf.
Alia Farid, our fourth Amistad-Rivers Research Resident, and writer and curator Amal Khalaf will discuss the reverberations between Farid’s work in the marshlands of Iraq and her recent discovery of the wetlands of southeastern Louisiana.
The event will be held on August 29, 2023 at the Albert & Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design. Doors open at 6 p.m.; the conversation will begin promptly at 6:15 p.m. A short reception will follow.
Seating is first-come, first-serve. Attendance is free and open to the public, but due to limited seating, we strongly encourage you to RSVP on our Eventbrite link and arrive early to secure your seats.
Alia Farid, who lives and works in Kuwait City and San Juan, Puerto Rico, received a BFA from La Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, an MS in visual studies from the Visual Arts Program at MIT, and an MA in museum studies and critical theory from the Programa d’Estudis Independents, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. She has presented solo exhibitions at Portikus, Frankfurt, and Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam. Recent and upcoming group shows include participation in the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, the 12th Gwangju Biennale, Sharjah Biennial 14, the 2nd Lahore Biennale, Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2001 at MoMA PS1, Yokohama Triennale 2020, and the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial. Recent solo exhibitions include presentations at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto and Chisenhale Gallery, London in 2023. Farid was among the artists selected for the Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept.
Amal Khalaf is a curator and artist and currently director of programs at Cubitt Artists and civic curator at the Serpentine Galleries. Here and in other contexts she has developed residencies, exhibitions and collaborative research projects at the intersection of art and social justice, recently launching Support Structures for Support Structures, a fellowship and grant program for artists working in the field of community practice and spatial politics. With an interest in radical pedagogy, collectivity and community practice, she has been part of developing a migrant justice program through Implicated Theatre (2011-2019) using Theatre of the Oppressed methodologies to create interventions, curricula and performances with ESOL teachers, hotel workers, domestic workers and migrant justice organizers. She is a founding member of artist collective GCC and is also a trustee for film cooperative not/nowhere- London, Art Night-UK and Mophradat-Athens. Recent projects include Radio Ballads (2019-22), an exhibition and research project in London, and Sensing the Planet (2021), a gathering of musicians, artists and climate activists in Dartington, Devon. In 2019 she curated Bahrain’s pavilion for Venice, in 2018 she co-curated an international arts and social justice conference called Rights to the City in London, and in 2016 she co-directed the 10th edition of the Global Art Forum, Art Dubai.
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Event flyer by Nazli Ercan | |
Donations! Donations! Donations! | |
Amistad’s archival collections are the heart and soul of the Center. In the last month, we had the pleasure of acquiring the following collections:
- Paul Robeson Program - 1942 Othello
- Douglas Turner Ward papers
- Ronnie Moore papers addendum
- Katherine Dunham documentary collection
- Adult Education Center records
- Ronald Mickens papers addendum
We thank these donors and their families for selecting us as stewards of their legacies and allowing us to share them with the world.
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Amistad’s Collections Depend on Your Support |
Amistad’s mission to collect, preserve and provide access to historical documents is made possible by generous donations from individuals, families and organizations. Please consider becoming a recurring donor through our Network for Good page.
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Head of Research Services, Lisa Moore, Highlights Elma Moore Booker Collection for WGNO TV | |
“Dance is the last form of resistance,” says Lisa Moore, Amistad’s head of research services. “People in New Orleans dance about joy, death, getting our check at the end of the month, and babies’ first communion. It’s an expressive culture. It’s very African. We express ourselves through dance and song. It’s just part of what New Orleans is and does.”
In celebration of Juneteenth, WGNO-TV’s Christopher Leach interviewed Moore to discuss the collection of her great-aunt, Elma Moore Booker.
The late Mrs. Booker opened the first dance studio in Louisiana operated by a Black Creole woman in the 1920s. She taught many young girls the fundamentals of dance for decades before closing her studio in the mid 1970s.
In the interview, Moore fondly remembers her great-aunt’s contributions to the city through the archival materials held within her collection at ARC.
We thank WGNO-TV and Leach for featuring ARC and highlighting our staff's fantastic work to make global and local history accessible to our communities!
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Moore interviewed in ARC reading room for WGNO TV | |
Interim Executive Director, Kathe Hambrick, Honored with 2023 North Star Award | |
At this year’s Juneteenth Freedom Gala, the New Orleans Juneteenth Festival presented our interim executive director, Kathe Hambrick, with their North Star Award for her incredible work as a culture and history preservationist. For over 30 years, Hambrick has contributed her skills as a museum professional to tell unique stories about African American life across south Louisiana. She founded the River Road African American Museum located in Donaldsonville, Louisiana as well as the African Burial Grounds Coalition.
The Juneteenth Freedom Gala also honored masking Mardi Gras Indian and musical artist Flagboy Giz, and minister and author Willie Muhammad, for their tremendous efforts to amplify, protect and preserve the culture and lives of Black Louisianians.
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Hambrick honored alongside Flagboy Giz and Willie Muhammad for Juneteenth 2023 | |
Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) Records Now Available for Research | |
The Amistad Research Center has opened the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) records, a significant collection that was previously difficult to access due to its size and condition. Donated in 1988, with additional contributions in 1991 and 2003, the collection spans over 600 boxes and holds immense historical importance in African American and Southern U.S. history. The FSC/LAF, established in 1967 during the civil rights movement, has been dedicated to empowering African American farmers and rural communities in the Southern U.S. by assisting with land ownership and promoting cooperative economic development. This nonprofit organization has helped African American farmers overcome discrimination and obtain land ownership while fostering cooperative models for shared prosperity. The FSC/LAF's efforts have transformed lives, serving as a beacon of hope and progress in marginalized areas and providing invaluable insights into the challenges and achievements of African American communities.
To read more about this historic collection and its significance, follow this link to a blog post written by the project’s archivist, Courtney Tutt!
|  | This project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this blog post do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. | |
A group in front of the FSC sign at the Rural Training and Research Center (RTRC) in Epes, Alabama. | |
Institute for Museum and Library Services Awards Amistad | |
The Amistad Research Center (ARC) is proud to announce that the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded ARC with a museum grant for African American History and Culture! With this $99,978 award, IMLS will fund the archival processing (arrangement, description and preservation) of the papers of radio host and human rights activism Joe Madison and civil rights leader and government official Benjamin L. Hooks.
“African Americans’ involvement in radio is under-theorized and lacks sufficient generalizations,” says Black communications scholar Dr. Bala J. Baptiste. “Scholarship concerning Blacks in broadcasting needs more insight and detail that allow individuals to better explain relevant social behavior.” The project, “Media and Civil Rights: Preserving the Papers of African Americans in Broadcast Media,” seeks to remove any hindrances to researchers’ access and address long-term preservation of archival collections related to the two important figures who contributed prominently, and in the case of Joe Madison, is still contributing, to the intersecting problems of race and media. By supporting the use of primary source research materials documenting the work of African American participation in broadcasting and mass media through increased access, preservation, digitization and targeted public programming, ARC encourages our wide audience of with the means to pursue serious study on the impact of African Americans in broadcast and mass media on the global community.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Staff Attends Summer Conferences | |
Members of Amistad staff eagerly traveled to two conferences this past July for professional development. Interim executive director Kathe Hambrick; curators Paula Allen, Jade Flint, Brenda Flora and Felicia Render; and Smithsonian Robert F. Smith intern Parker Thompson all attended the African American Association of Museums (AAAM) conference in Nashville, TN. Lisa Moore, head of research services, traveled to Washington, D.C. for the Society of American Archivists (SAA) conference.
Aligned with the musical nature of the city, the AAAM conference centered around the theme, “Museums, Music, and Movements.” The plenaries allowed staff members to learn from the great work our colleagues across the nation engage in at institutions such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM).
Hambrick participated on the panel “How Safe Are You?” to highlight the risk assessment and discernment necessary to keep staff and visitors safe in times of emergency. Thompson also shared his insights on what makes a good internship experience alongside his fellow Smithsonian cohort for the panel, “What to Think About When Thinking About Internship Programs: An Intern Perspective.”
In the nation’s capital, Lisa Moore networked with other field experts and attended educational sessions on a wide range of topics, including methods to increase researcher access and new insights for creating reference statistics. Moore also attended tours of local museums sponsored by the conference’s host committee. She especially enjoyed the NMAAHC library tour and the museum’s Afrofuturism exhibit.
We are grateful that the generous support of our annual donors and various granting partnerships enable our staff to attend yearly conferences. These educational opportunities illuminate new strategies in our field and invigorate the research experience we provide to our researchers. Through this collective knowledge-building, our staff gathered valuable information that improves our commitment to carry out ARC’s mission with efficacy.
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Felicia Render poses with the 45 commemorative sign at AAAM Conference |
ARC staff from left to right: Brenda Flora, Kathe Hambrick, and Felicia Render | |
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