Creators: Janika Dillo; Allison Donine; Callie Hansson; Thomas Larose; Miranda Melson; Rose-Laura Meus; Titilayo Odedele; Morgan Richards; Giorgia Shields; Shavaun Sutton; Vanessa Torres; Anna Zhang; Angel David Nieves; Doreen Lee; Gregory Lord; Dzidzor Azaglo; Savita Maharaj
Course: INSH 5602 Documenting Fieldwork Narratives: Oral History, Ethnography, Archival Practices
The Black Artists of Boston Project began as a collaborative endeavor between a graduate class at Northeastern University and a group of community elders, who as artists, have been working in and around Boston for over thirty years. Professors Lee and Nieves were tasked with creating a new oral history and ethnography course for graduate students in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) that would develop their skills in the craft of ethnography while also training them to integrate community members and values into their work. The Office of Community Engagement, with the help of Ms. Chelsea Lauder, identified a project partner, Ms. Dzidzor Azaglo as someone who could connect the class to a vibrant group of local artists and support a project that centered the contributions of these artists to the Boston arts scene, as well as nationally and internationally. The course became a platform for honoring the contributions of eight multi-talented local artists (De Ama Battle, Bruno Eddie, Ife Franklin, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Jacqueline L. McRath, Dale Patterson, Susie Smith, & Valerie Stephens) in a pilot phase of the project that, if successful, will usher in a long term effort on the part of CSSH and the Public History Program at Northeastern to begin a series of projects on the contemporary Black arts movement and its legacies. The project is unique because it is in partnership with community members and works to co-create the series of interventions that help tell these stories. The website here acts as a portal or an introductory gateway to the artists and their work, but more importantly to the stories of their lives and contributions to Boston’s history. This is the beginning of a kind of digital directory or gazette of Black artists that will continue to grow as we build relationships, listen, and learn from our community partners and elders. We hope that this website becomes a resource for others to both access these artists and learn more about this vibrant, dynamic, and creative community.