The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is bringing its Community Curation Program to St. Louis and East St. Louis this September. The program allows family members across all generations to submit stories, photos, and videos to a digital collection to preserve their families history forever.
“The Community Curation Program is an innovative, digital-first initiative bridging the generational digital divide,” says Doretha Williams, NMAAHC’s director of the Robert F. Smith Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History. “By bringing the Museum’s digitization services to diverse communities across the country and creating a unique online platform [communitycuration.org], the program supports the preservation and sharing of community history and culture.”
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Originally launched shortly after the NMAAHC’s opening in Washington, D.C., in 2016, the program offers visitors a free introductory genealogy session to learn the basics about genealogy, census records, and other historical documents. Additionally, the Smithsonian’s Great Migration Home Movie Project allows guests to digitize audiovisual media for preservation in the museum’s media lab.
The programs and panels in and around St. Louis, beginning September 5 and running through September 29, have been specifically designed to highlight the deeply rooted African-American history in the region. Events include “Historically Speaking,” a preservation effort program based in the historic Black neighborhoods in our city; “A Holy Inheritance,” a story-telling panel of influential Black Catholics; and a gOD-Talk Documentary Screening exploring the complicated intersection of religion and culture in African-American populations.
The Community Curation Program launched its first satellite series in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2017 with a month-long residency. After a two-year hiatus from the satellite program due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the time has come for the satellite program’s comeback. St. Louis joins the rank of five other cities hosting the project.
“St. Louis and East St. Louis’ rich history of music, culture, and history makes it a perfect city for this project,” Williams says. “Through our services and events, we hope to achieve an equitable distribution of access to our museum’s resources, and to create opportunities for community building, skill sharing, and historical stewardship.”
