DECEMBER 2023

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.

Message from the Director:

I am thrilled to end my first year as the Executive Director of the Amistad Research Center (ARC) on a successful note. Our progress depends on people like you supporting the preservation of our collections. With gratitude, I acknowledge all of you who helped ARC in 2023.

The Mellon Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation awarded grants to ARC that will help us provide equal access to our wide range of manuscripts and collections from politicians, artists, writers, laborers, educators, and national and international organizations. The Terra Foundation for American Art, the Helis Foundation, and the Keller Family Foundation awarded grants that support the conservation of 41 original paintings from The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture series by renowned artist Jacob Lawrence.

Change is inevitable, and I embrace change wholeheartedly when it leads to the advancement of the careers of the Amistad staff. We end the year with fourteen staff members and sixteen ongoing grants that support our operational needs.

Valenetta Rainey joined Amistad as the new Operations Manager. Rainey’s professional experience includes administrative and management positions at the Ashé Cultural Center and the Solomon Group. Valenetta has worked on fabrication projects for the Sazerac Museum and the Planet World Museum in Washington, D.C.

We extend our appreciation and thanks to ARC Star Supporters who attended the December Holiday Soirée. A special acknowledgement is extended to Liberty Bank and the Louisiana Prince Hall Masons for their gifts of $10,000 and $5,000. New Orleans City Councilmembers Joseph Giarrusso, Jean Paul Morrell, Helena Moreno, and Eugene Green recognized Amistad’s importance by collectively awarding a $100,000.00 grant from the New Orleans Recreation and Culture Fund.

Tis the Season for wishing all of our researchers and supporters from across the globe a safe and happy holiday!

Sincerely,

Kathe Hambrick, Executive Director

Amistad Research Center

December Holiday Soirée Hosts, Darryl and Tracey Willis, Video/Photography by J.R.

Hambrick accepts a donation from Dr. Ralph Slaughter, Most Worshipful Grand Master of Prince Hall Masons Grand Lodge of Louisiana, on behalf of his organization, Video/Photography by J.R.

Hambrick and Boyle pose with members of the New Orleans (LA) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated. Left to right: Nona Martin, Judge Rachael Johnson, Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson, Vonda Rice, Kathe Hambrick, Kim Boyle, Judge Tracey Flemings Davillier, Chimenè Grant Saloy, Video/Photography by J.R.

Lisa Moore facilitates a donation from longtime ARC supporter, Charles L. Rice, Jr., Esq.,Video/Photography by J.R.

Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall’s passport photos, undated

Felicia Render accessing new materials for the collection of Dr. Midlo Hall in her son, Dr. Haywood Hall’s, home in Mexico.

ARC hosted a research and strategic planning workshop for the Texas and Alabama Field Offices of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives this December. Over the summer, ARC finished processing the papers consisting of the federation’s 65-year history of co-op development, land retention, and advocacy through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The field offices worked with Lisa Moore, Anna LeBlanc-Mulder, and Lisa Dahlke to conduct workshops to analyze past strategies used by the federation to complete their mission and discuss ways to reimplement their predecessors’ methods. Through voluminous archival boxes of correspondence, memoranda, studies, reports, statistical data, photographs, financial records, newsletters, and publications, the field offices left ARC revitalized and focused on helping Black farmers and landowners retain their land and develop co-ops and credit unions to generate generational wealth and knowledge for their posterity.

Members from the Alabama Field Office of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives during a workshop at ARC

Kathe Hambrick says hello to our Alabama researchers

New grants

On June 15, 2023, Amistad Research Center received a Museum Grant for African American History and Culture to process the papers of radio host and human rights activist Joe Madison and civil rights leader and government official Benjamin L. Hooks from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The project includes the digitization of over 72 audiocassettes and a future Conversations in Color program with Joe Madison and Dr. David Canton.

Research Services

Lisa C. Moore, Head of Research Services

• Moore attended the Society of American Archivists national conference in July in Washington, DC. While there, she attended seminars on a new technology, AirTable, to standardize the process of collecting reference services statistics.
• Moore also participated in an online course on working in community archives.
• Moore led tours for organizations such as Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Laundromat Project, International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE), The Black School, Tulane University’s Africana Studies Department, and Black Education for New Orleans (BE NOLA).

Anna LeBlanc-Mulder, Reference Archivist

• LeBlanc-Mulder was hired in January 2023 to replace Lisa Moore, who was promoted in September 2022 to Head of Research Services.
• She participated in several online courses for community archives, basic copyright for Library Staff, and reference and outreach services.
• She assisted Moore with our various tours of the year as well as the cataloging of Kalamu ya Salaam’s library of over 2,500 books.

Jennifer Long, Digital Archivist

• She also mentored our third Smithsonian intern, Parker Thompson. During Thompson’s time at ARC, Long supervised his scanning and metadata creation in the Jimmie Daniels and Rex Madsen photograph collection.
• She also managed another summer intern, Claire Stephens, who scanned and created metadata for the Alternate Roots collection as well as populated metadata in the LDL database.
• She assisted Moore and LeBlanc-Mulder with the loan of the American Committee on Africa collection to Adam Mathew Digital in the United Kingdom for full offsite digitization.
• She met with members of Alternate Roots to select images for digitization to be published in their upcoming book and published on LDL for public access.
• Long began a complete overhaul on the metadata for all of the digital collections to better structure the organization for easier staff and public use.
• She populated information relating to all ARC collections to TMS, a new content management system, for use by all staff. 
• She made three new collections available online through LDL.
• Long continued to ensure all born digital and external media remained in its original order, assuring that ARC’s digital files remain preserved in the same way the donor intended.
• She also made progress on processing new born digital collections.
• Long also applied for new grants to assist in the digitization process of existing collections.
• She attended a born digital workshop on the preservation of digital-born complex artworks held at the US Mint, administered by Myriad’s Maintenance Culture, a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded program.

Jakilah Mason, Digital Projects Assistant

• Mason joined the ARC staff in June to assist Jennifer Long with the digitization for existing and new born digital collections and maintenance of the metadata for all digital collections.
• They also participated in an online course on community archiving and an in-person workshop on the preservation of digital born complex artworks with Long.

Archives Division

Felicia Render, Curator of Manuscripts

• Render processed loan requests for items of special interest to the following local and global museums, archives, libraries, and art galleries in the US.
• The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL
• Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
• Art + Practice Gallery, Los Angeles, LA
• University of New Orleans St. Claude Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
• Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, Portland, OR
• She, along with the research services team led an archival tour of Black New Orleans with teachers from BE NOLA.
• Render participated in several virtual and in-person professional development opportunities through the Association of African American Museum Conference, Academy of Certified Archivists Business Meeting, and Greater New Orleans Archivists.
• Louisiana Archives and Manuscripts Association (LAMA) elected Render for an Executive Board position this year. Her term ends Fall 2024.

Jake Yount, Archivist

• Yount rejoined the ARC staff in June.
• Since he started, Yount has finished the processing and data entry of the Elsie Lewis papers and the Dent Family papers-addendum.
• He also assisted Render with the completion of the IMLS Women’s Grant Project
• This winter, Yount began processing papers related to the African Americans in Broadcasting grant project.

Lisa Dahlke, Archivist

• Lisa Dalke was promoted to Project Archivist, leading the archival processing for preserving the records of the Emergency Land Fund related to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. The Federation, formed in 1967 to assist African American farmers in obtaining land and overcoming discrimination, donated 700 boxes to this collection. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities supports the retention of these records.
• Dahlke worked on processing several existing collections connected to our various grants.

Moving Images and Sound Recordings Division

Brenda Flora, Curator of Moving Images and Sound Recordings

• Through a grant from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Flora digitized important cultural videos from the Jason Berry papers. The videos date from the late 1970s and document interviews with the musical Lastie family, a performance from the Neville Brothers, and extensive news coverage of the 1978 police strike in New Orleans, including footage of street level Mardi Gras celebrations during the year that parades were canceled due to a police strike.      
• Flora completed video digitization for the Junebug Productions records, supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The grant project has covered a survey of the collection and the digitization of close to 70 hours of footage. Videos include recorded theatrical performances, interviews and more.
• She also digitized more than 30 hours of video and multimedia recordings from the papers of sculptor and performance artist Senga Nengudi with IMLS grant support.
• Flora served as a resume reviewer for the Association of Moving Image Archivists. She continues to serve on AMIA’s Regional Audiovisual Archives Committee (RAVA) and as ARC’s liaison to the New Orleans Preservation Coalition.
• Flora attended her first convening of the Association of African American Museums conference in Nashville this past July.

Fine Art Division

Paula Allen, Fine Art Curator

• She worked alongside Kathe Hambrick and Laura Thompson to secure a few grants that will aid in the preservation and conservation of ARC’s Fine Art collection.
• Allen facilitated loans from the collection to various art institutions across the country.
• She processed the commission of a series of prints by Amistad-Rivers-artist-in-residence, Helen Cammock.
• Allen attended the Association of African American Museums conference in Nashville, TN in July.

Artist-in-Residence Program

Jade Flint, Amistad/Rivers Assistant Curator

• Flint co-curated Helen Cammock: I Will Keep My Soul alongside Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art and Thought curators, Andrea Anderrson and Jordan Amirkhani. The exhibition includes a full-length film, art prints, books, and archival documents from ARC to weave the experiences and encounters of Amistad/Rivers Artist Resident, Helen Cammock, while in New Orleans last year. Rivers organized the exhibition and presented it at the University of New Orleans’ St. Claude Gallery from October to December.
• She attended sessions on facility security and the use of music in the archives at the Association of African American Museums Conference.
• Flint worked with Artist Resident, Helen Cammock, to ensure the commission of six fine art prints into the ARC Fine Art Collection.

Installation images of Helen Cammock: I Will Keep My Soul, Alex Marks Photo