history & Archives
My love of history begins with my grandparents and my parents. They were my first teachers and from them I have learned invaluable lessons.
Oral History
As an Oral Historian, my ultimate goal is to collect the stories and history of communities of color, that give a broader and richer account of those people often in the margins of History. Oral Histories collect, preserve and interpret the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. It is both ancient as a tool for remembrance and recording and one of the most modern, utilizing 21st century digital technology to capture history and marginalized voices.
Metro Community College + Iowa Western Community College
For six years I've been an Adjunct Professor teaching History for the Social Science Department at Metro. My courses begin with discussions of culture and its importance in all of our lives. World History and American History are the base of all of my courses. When people ask what I teach, I say History. We like to divide people into boxes for our convenience but there is no way to tell the story of Black people anywhere without looking at History as a whole.
In my Black History courses, we cover World History beginning in the 15th Century and look at the impact of slavery on black lives from the Caribbean to Antebellum America to the lives, movements and contributions to America by blacks into the 21st Century. In Black Women's History, we look specifically at the lived stories of Black Women in the Americas. World History and American History are the base of all of my courses.
University of Nebraska at Omaha
The Community Study Project is a course designed for students to primarily learn about the African American community and community organizations, in Omaha Nebraska, in the areas of housing, education or social services. It is designed to give students a base of understanding of black communities, their history, function, purpose, and complexities in the lives of black people in the United States generally and Omaha, Nebraska specifically. Students also complete a service learning component while conducting field work in a community-based organization.
Great Plains Black History Museum
As Program Director, I worked with the Executive Director and Board of Directors to create exhibits, find artifacts for display, create signage and educational material. I continue to conduct community workshops and classes on historical topics about the lives of African Americans and the Black Experience in America and locally in the Omaha Metro Area.
As Archivist of the GPBHM, I worked to preserve, organize and maintain all of their documents, photographs, artifacts and educational material.
Museum Exhibitions:
Audacious Nebraska: Descendants of DeWitty
Curator, Great Plains Black History Museum, Metropolitan Community College, Creighton University, Omaha, NE. Cherry County Historical Society, Valentine, NE. The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Hastings, NE. Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island, NE. Gage County Museum, Beatrice. NE.
Northside Carnation: Historic 24th Street 1940-1960’s (2016), Curator; Metropolitan Community College and Carver Bank (Bemis Center for Contemporary Art).
Say Amen: The Black Church in Omaha (2015), Assistant Curator, Researcher; Great Plains Black History Museum.
Leading the Way: Black Leadership in Omaha (2015), Assistant Curator, Researcher; Great Plains Black History Museum.
In Their Own Image: A History of African Americans in Omaha (2014-2015), Assistant. Great Plains Black History Museum.
Publications:
"The Poetic and Spiritual Expression of the African American Poet" in Black American Intellectualism and Culture: A Social Study of African American Social and Political Thought edited by James L. Conyers Jr.
Edited publications and works for speaking engagements for Rosalyn Terborg-Penn while serving as her Research Assistant at Morgan State University.
Assisted with publications for the Association of Black Women Historians.
Served as Research Assistant to Debra Newman-Ham for her entry to The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939 Edited by Robert L. Harris, Jr. and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn.
Oral History
As an Oral Historian, my ultimate goal is to collect the stories and history of communities of color, that give a broader and richer account of those people often in the margins of History. Oral Histories collect, preserve and interpret the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. It is both ancient as a tool for remembrance and recording and one of the most modern, utilizing 21st century digital technology to capture history and marginalized voices.
Metro Community College + Iowa Western Community College
For six years I've been an Adjunct Professor teaching History for the Social Science Department at Metro. My courses begin with discussions of culture and its importance in all of our lives. World History and American History are the base of all of my courses. When people ask what I teach, I say History. We like to divide people into boxes for our convenience but there is no way to tell the story of Black people anywhere without looking at History as a whole.
In my Black History courses, we cover World History beginning in the 15th Century and look at the impact of slavery on black lives from the Caribbean to Antebellum America to the lives, movements and contributions to America by blacks into the 21st Century. In Black Women's History, we look specifically at the lived stories of Black Women in the Americas. World History and American History are the base of all of my courses.
University of Nebraska at Omaha
The Community Study Project is a course designed for students to primarily learn about the African American community and community organizations, in Omaha Nebraska, in the areas of housing, education or social services. It is designed to give students a base of understanding of black communities, their history, function, purpose, and complexities in the lives of black people in the United States generally and Omaha, Nebraska specifically. Students also complete a service learning component while conducting field work in a community-based organization.
Great Plains Black History Museum
As Program Director, I worked with the Executive Director and Board of Directors to create exhibits, find artifacts for display, create signage and educational material. I continue to conduct community workshops and classes on historical topics about the lives of African Americans and the Black Experience in America and locally in the Omaha Metro Area.
As Archivist of the GPBHM, I worked to preserve, organize and maintain all of their documents, photographs, artifacts and educational material.
Museum Exhibitions:
Audacious Nebraska: Descendants of DeWitty
Curator, Great Plains Black History Museum, Metropolitan Community College, Creighton University, Omaha, NE. Cherry County Historical Society, Valentine, NE. The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Hastings, NE. Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island, NE. Gage County Museum, Beatrice. NE.
Northside Carnation: Historic 24th Street 1940-1960’s (2016), Curator; Metropolitan Community College and Carver Bank (Bemis Center for Contemporary Art).
Say Amen: The Black Church in Omaha (2015), Assistant Curator, Researcher; Great Plains Black History Museum.
Leading the Way: Black Leadership in Omaha (2015), Assistant Curator, Researcher; Great Plains Black History Museum.
In Their Own Image: A History of African Americans in Omaha (2014-2015), Assistant. Great Plains Black History Museum.
Publications:
"The Poetic and Spiritual Expression of the African American Poet" in Black American Intellectualism and Culture: A Social Study of African American Social and Political Thought edited by James L. Conyers Jr.
Edited publications and works for speaking engagements for Rosalyn Terborg-Penn while serving as her Research Assistant at Morgan State University.
Assisted with publications for the Association of Black Women Historians.
Served as Research Assistant to Debra Newman-Ham for her entry to The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939 Edited by Robert L. Harris, Jr. and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn.
