May 2022 News from the Amistad Research Center

Click here to view the Amistad Report in your browser

MAY 2022

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.

Support Amistad on GiveNOLA Day!

GiveNOLA Day is here and Amistad Research Center is counting on your support.

For 24 hours, this online day of giving is hosted by the Greater New Orleans Foundation to inspire people to give generously to area nonprofits. Right now, you can schedule your donation up until 11:00 pm tonight by clicking on the GIVE button below and pledging your support!

GiveNOLA Day is May 3, 2022

Your gifts will help Amistad increase visibility and awareness of public access to our Digital Projects; enhance our digital & print education program Amistad on the Go!; and produce public programs like Conversations in Color, which feature engaging and thoughtful speakers in dialogue. We thank you in advance!

Donor Seeks to Build a Legacy

Carolyn Harris learned thriftiness growing up in Massachusetts, a value she put to good use advising others during her career as a financial counselor. A long-time friend of the Amistad Research Center, Ms. Harris took a new approach with her recent generous donation to support the Center. Her donation came via a qualified charitable donation (QCD). A QCD allows individuals who are 70½ years old or older to donate up to $100,000 total to one or more charities directly.

It takes some planning, and Ms. Harris advises anyone interested in a QCD to consult a tax advisor, but for her, it is about “thinking forward and building a legacy.” Ms. Harris says, “People should think about ways to support their families and the organizations they love for the long term.” Her support for Amistad derives from the fact that Amistad preserves an oral history interview of her husband, the late Dr. James P. Carter.

Amistad Donor: Carolyn Harris

We thank Ms. Harris for her interest in supporting Amistad’s collections and outreach.

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Amistad’s mission to collect, preserve and provide access to historical documents is made possible by generous donations from individuals, families and organizations.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.

Do You Have Materials to Donate?

Interested in donating personal papers, organizational records, works of art, books or other materials to Amistad? Please visit our collection development policy available here to learn more about how you may donate, or contact us at 504.862.3222 (ext. 3) or info@amistadresearchcenter.org.

Amistad Finalist for 2022 IMLS National Medal

The Amistad Research Center is among 30 finalists for the 2022 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, which is awarded annually by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Amistad is the only institution in Louisiana to be selected as a finalist for this award.

“The Amistad Research Center is honored to be a finalist for the prestigious 2022 National Medal for Museum and Library Service,” said its executive director, Dr. Kara Tucina Olidge.

Amistad Research Center Named Finalist for 2022 IMLS National Medal for Museum and Library Service

“As the only finalist institution in the state, this honor also belongs to Louisiana. We at Amistad pride ourselves on our extraordinary service to our patrons, a service that is intergenerational and diverse, which are hallmark aspects of great library and museum service. Amistad was founded in 1966 during the civil rights movement, an important and pivotal time for the United States. We value being seen by IMLS and recognized by our colleagues; it speaks to the relevance of the Amistad Research Center as our nation continues to address matters of equity and inclusion.”

Online Access to Fine Art Collection Begins

Amistad Research Center will launch a new online catalog of its fine art collection on June 1, 2022. Visitors to Amistad’s website will be able to access the new searchable catalog, which will provide scholars and art enthusiasts with an opportunity to view images and information about the Center’s art collection.

A set of ceramic plates designed by Bruce Nugent, 1952. From Amistad's Fine Art Collection.

The catalog will also give researchers access to biographical information for the artists represented in the collection and exhibition histories for individual objects.

One of the most historically significant bodies of work by African American artists, the Amistad Research Center’s permanent art collection includes images by internationally renowned artists such as Henry Ossawa Tanner, Sargent Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Richmond Barthe, Elizabeth Catlett and Hale Woodruff. Jacob Lawrence’s Toussaint L’Ouverture Series, perhaps the most sought-after images in the art collection, has been exhibited at major museum institutions in the United States and in Europe. Consisting of forty-one tempera paintings, the series chronicles the rise of eighteenth-century Haitian revolutionary general Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743–1803) who led a successful revolt of enslaved individuals in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). More recent additions to the collection include works by artists Kesha Bruce and Senga Nengudi.

Mellon Artist Residents Continue to Explore Collections

This winter, the Amistad Research Center welcomed British artist Helen Cammock to its archives as the first participant of the Amistad-Rivers Research Residency—a collaborative venture between the Amistad Research Center and Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought. Supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this residency represents an exciting partnership between the two organizations and invites artists from around the world for extended research and study in the city of New Orleans and in Amistad's archives.

During her two-part stay in January and April of this year, Cammock interviewed some of the ARC staff to glean their perceptions of the importance of the archive and spent extensive time engaging with the community beyond the walls of the ARC as another form of historical excavation. Equipped with her camera and accompanied by her partner and producer Laura Shacham, Cammock explored New Orleans to film the magic of this place we call home. A detailed overview of Cammock’s time in the city will soon appear on Amistad’s blog.

Although we are sad to see Cammock depart, we are excited to announce the upcoming arrival of our next artist-in-residence, Troy Montes-Michie.

Helen Cammock looking through archival collections at Amistad. Photo credit: Alex Marks

Due to the restrictions of the pandemic, Andrea Andersson (Founding Director and Chief Curator, Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought) and ARC staff worked virtually with Montes-Michie to guide him through the ARC’s collection. This research worked in tandem with the opening of Montes-Michie’s recent exhibition, Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye, a collaboration between Rivers and the host institution, the California African American Museum. The early-career survey illuminates Montes-Michie’s research interests about the intersections between his experience as a queer man of Mexican and African American descent in connection with ideas about migration, borderlands, and belonging through textiles, fabric, and paper.

Amistad Research Center looks forward to warmly welcoming Montes-Michie in May to the ARC and supporting his research as he continues his subversive explorations.

Amistad Creates Pop-Up Exhibition in the Community

Amistad often considers itself an archive without walls and that was the case on March 16th when the Center presented “A Celebration of Visual Culture from the Archives” at the Corpus Christi Community Resource Center in New Orleans. The evening featured a brief program of speakers, but the highlight was a pop-up exhibition of works from Amistad’s art collection and a display of materials reflecting the history of African American civic leadership in the Crescent City. Thank you to Demetric Mercadel of U.S. Representative Troy Carter’s office for helping make the night a success and to everyone who attended.

(L-R) ARC president & chair Kim Boyle, executive director Kara Olidge, Demetric Mercadel, and ARC board member Dr. Rosanne Adderley. Photo credit: Adrien Broussard

Online Exhibition Explores Legacies of African American Women

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Amistad Research Center launched a new digital exhibition to highlight and celebrate the lives of eight women whose collections are being organized as part of a grant-funded project focused on African American women’s history. The collections document their contributions to and accomplishments within multiple fields of interest, illustrating engagement on local, national and international levels. Highlighted in the exhibit are opera singer Annabelle Bernard, social activist Jessie Covington Dent, writer Alexis De Veaux, historian Antoinette Harrell, civic leader Sybil Morial, visual artist Senga Nengudi, labor activist Maida Springer Kemp and political activist Dorothy Mae Taylor. You can view this exhibit and past Amistad digital exhibitions on Google Arts & Culture here.

Amistad Contributes to Documentary on William Warfield

A new documentary film, William Warfield: Cast in History, uses photographs and audio files of world-renowned bass baritone singer and actor William Warfield from the Larney Goodkind papers housed at the Amistad Research Center. Goodkind was Warfield's talent agent. The documentary was created by Dan Swinton and Tristan Walker at the Rochester Institute of Technology to accompany a sculpture of Warfield unveiled in 2021. More information about Warfield and his connection to Rochester, New York, is available here.

A Lifetime of Achievement: The Sybil Morial Papers

As part of its celebration of National Women’s History Month, the Amistad Research Center announced that the papers of Sybil Morial are open and available for research. This project was completed with funding assistance from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant project, “A Range of Experiences: Documenting African American Women’s History and Achievements." The papers of Sybil Morial, which include correspondence, organization records and photographs, represent a lifetime of achievement, activism, civic engagement and a commitment to education.

Federation of South Cooperatives’ Housing Program

In 1966 in Sumter County, Alabama, forty Black families of former sharecroppers formed the Panola Land Buying Association (PLBA). The families formed the association following their evictions resulting from a dispute involving the correct share of deferred acreage payments from the Department of Agriculture. No longer able to live on the land which they had worked, the group chartered the PLBA in 1967 and, with the aid of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC), was able to redeem a 1,164-acre parcel of land in a foreclosure sale. The land was located in Epes, in Sumter County, Alabama, and was used to build homes for PLBA members and to house the FSC’s Rural Training and Research Center.

An Afro-American’s Quest for Education: The Elsie M. Lewis Papers

One of Dr. Elsie M. Lewis’ major commitments to education involved her pursuit for rigorous historical scholarship. Lewis was an educator, consultant and scholar notable for her extensive research as an associate professor at Howard University. She was part of the first coterie of formally trained Black women historians of the 1940s; she served as chair of the History Department at Howard University (1964-1969); and she was the first African American contributor to the Journal of Southern History.

Campaign Films from New Orleans’ First Black Mayor Preserved

Amistad is pleased to share the news that three campaign films from the Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial collection have been preserved with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. The grant supported the creation of new 16mm preservation film elements and high-resolution digital copies.

Shifting Forms: The Senga Nengudi Papers

Also a part of the "Range of Experiences" grant project, the Amistad Research Center invites you to explore the history and art of Senga Nengudi. Nengudi, born Sue Irons on September 18, 1943, is a visual artist notable for her work in sculpture and performance. After studying art and dance at California State University, Los Angeles and Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, Nengudi went on to create art as part of the Black avant-garde communities of 1960s-1970s Los Angeles and New York City, including Studio Z, a collective known for improvisational and experimental practice. Among her more notable collaborators were fellow Studio Z artists David Hammons and Maren Hassinger. Throughout her career, Senga Nengudi’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries, including in the Just Above Midtown Gallery in New York City and the Pearl C. Woods Gallery in Los Angeles.