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.
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Support Amistad on GiveNOLA Day
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Dear Friend of Amistad,
GiveNOLA Day 2019 starts tonight at midnight
and we need your help to get the word out.
For 24 hours on May 7th, this online day of giving is hosted by the Greater New Orleans Foundation to inspire people to give generously to nonprofits.
Well,...why wait until tomorrow?
Right now, you can schedule your donation up until 11:59 tonight by clicking on the GIVE button below and pledging your support. You can also participate throughout the day tomorrow…in the morning, during the day, or in the evening!
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Your gifts will help Amistad increase visibility and awareness of public access to our
Digital Collections
; enhance our new digital & print education program
Amistad on the Go!
; and produce public programs like
Conversations in Color
, which feature engaging and thoughtful speakers in dialogue.
Thank you!!
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Longtime Friend Finances, Strengthens Collection
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Ora Myles Sheares has come a long way since her insulated origin story in West Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
She and the late Rev. Reuben Sheares, director of the United Church of Christ’s Office for Church Life & Leadership, moved 11 times during their 39-year marriage as he followed the path ordained for him to serve. Still, Sheares, a retired librarian, sticks with the fundamentals: Knowledge is power, and education is the way forward.
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De Veaux Reflects on Giving to Amistad
Donor support is essential to Amistad’s mission of telling America’s story. Financial funding is critical to this mission, but so, too, are donations to the archive itself. Last year, Amistad announced that author, poet, playwright, journalist and activist Alexis De Veaux had begun
donating her personal papers
to Amistad. De Veaux now reflects on the importance of donation.
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Amistad’s Collections Depend on Your Support
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Amistad’s mission to collect, preserve, and provide access to historical documents is made possible by generous donations from individuals, families, and organizations.
Do you have materials to donate? Please visit our collection development policy available
here
to learn more about how you may donate or contact us at 504.862.3222 or
info@amistadresearchcenter.org
.
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Amistad Collects, Shares Cultural Capital
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One way Amistad builds cultural capital in the community is by allowing other arts nonprofits access to its collection for their own exhibition purposes. The New Orleans African American Museum’s current exhibition, curated by Amistad, is a chronology of the Faubourg Tremé neighborhood from 1700 to the 1960s. Photos and other artifacts are culled from Amistad holdings to tell Tremé’s rich story. “It is a tremendous collection of work. It really allows creatives an opportunity to delve into a wide subject matter,” says Gia M. Hamilton, Executive Director and Curator of the museum.
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Exhibition Examines African American Beauty Culture
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“
African-American Beauty Culture: From the Politics of Respectability to Black is Beautiful
” traces the shift in perspectives about Black beauty from the 1930s through the early 1970s. Featuring photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, magazine advertisements, original artwork, and ephemera, the exhibition opened on April 1 and runs through August 2, 2019.
Nineteenth Century African-American women believed that mirroring mainstream standards of beauty would negate the brutal racism and intolerance of the times. Thus, the production, marketing, consumption and culture of beauty products were aimed at Black women who wanted to advance socially and economically. By the first quarter of the 20th Century, these efforts increased in response to the great wave of Negroes migrating from the South into industrial cities across the United States.
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Then came the Civil Rights Movement, which challenged those ideas and created a socio-political celebration of Blacks’ inherent African-ness. The Movement ushered in a new perspective about Black beauty as the 1960s saw traditional hairstyles and modes of dress challenged by young Black activists and artists who critiqued practices that negated Black people’s facial features, skin tones, and hair textures. They created a sociopolitical movement that celebrated Black Power and coined phrases such as Black is Beautiful.
Actress Fredi Washington,
Ebony
magazine, the Miss Black USA Pageant and renown artist Elizabeth Catlett loom large in this curated look at the politics and complexities of identity, self-love, respect and acceptance for African-Americans.
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Interns and Students Gain Experience While Helping Center
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Amistad boasts a strong internship and mentoring program that helps local high school and college students meet educational and community service requirements as part of their studies. Grant funding also allows the Center to occasionally hire student assistants to help with high-priority, short-term projects. Such opportunities assist the Center staff in organizing and cataloging its collections, increasing access through digitization, designing exhibitions and other tasks. They also provide valuable experience in archival and library research and methods and the preservation of cultural heritage to students who may be considering a future in the library/archival fields or other career paths.
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Amistad is fortunate to once again have hosted a wonderful cohort of students this Spring semester. Profiles of our interns/assistants and the projects they are working on are
featured at this post...
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Brenda Flora
, Curator of Moving Images and Recorded Sound, attended the Bastard Film Encounter in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 25-27. This gathering of moving image archivists, scholars, and collectors from throughout the U.S. examines difficult and rarely screened film and video content, discussing issues of both past and future historical context, ethics and consent, and distribution of resources in regards to footage that may be problematic or institutionally deprioritized.
Board member
Linetta J. Gilbert
was selected as the 28th James A. Joseph Lecture of the Association of Black Foundation Executives, a membership-based philanthropic organization that advocates for responsive and transformative investments in Black communities.
Deputy Director
Christopher Harter
attended the Black Bibliographia: Print/Art/Culture symposium sponsored by the Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware in April. This event brought together scholars and curators who examine histories of African American print production and reading.
Reference Desk Assistant
Amber Kinui
presented a paper on the life of actress Fredi Washington at the Global Souths Conference at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in early April. She is very thankful to Amistad for the opportunity and for help with curating this project!
Board member Judge
Terri F. Love
served as the 2019 Chair of the City of New Orleans Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Planning Commission and provided remarks at the commission’s annual event in January.
Board member
Jacklyn Monk
will be joining
WSJ, The Wall Street Journal Magazine
on May 20, 2019 as the managing editor of its editorial operations, production, and finances.
Board member
Sybil Haydel Morial
will be honored with the ACLU of Louisiana’s 42nd Ben Smith Award on May 23. The award is named for one of the organization's founders and given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of civil liberties in Louisiana.
Executive Director
Dr. Kara T. Olidge
, attended the National Humanities Alliance Annual Meeting and Humanities Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, on March 10-12. This event brought together humanities advocates from around the country for meetings with Congressional offices to build a persuasive case for federal funding for the humanities. The Amistad Research Center was one of two Louisiana institutions attending the event. Later in March, Dr. Olidge also co-led a session entitled “Strategies for Creating Community Archives” at the Queer History South Conference in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Find. Follow. LIke. Let's Be
Friends
!
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