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Looking for What Is Missing: Wikipedia, Black History, and Community Development

Looking for What Is Missing: Wikipedia, Black History, and Community Development Why documenting the past matters to the future of African American communities As a longtime Wikipedia editor, I have developed a particular way of looking at information. I look for gaps. I want to know what has been documented, what has been overlooked, and what additional knowledge can help people understand the larger picture. This approach has influenced how I explore African American history. Recently, while examining the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Chicago Renaissance, I found myself thinking about more than the writers, musicians, painters, and intellectuals who made these movements famous. I began looking at the businesses, newspapers, banks, and community institutions that developed alongside their cultural achievements. These institutions tell another part of the story. The Harlem Renaissance was not simply a flowering of Black art and literature. Nor was the Black Chicago Renaissance merel...
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Beyond Art and Music: The Harlem Renaissance and the Black Chicago Renaissance

Below a blog article bringing together the people, institutions, economic foundations, and lesser-known histories of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Chicago Renaissance. It emphasizes these were not simply cultural movements, but also efforts to build community, establish institutions, and create economic opportunities Beyond Art and Music: The Harlem Renaissance and the Black Chicago Renaissance How Black communities built cultural movements, businesses, institutions, and networks of economic independence When we hear about the Harlem Renaissance, we often think of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, jazz musicians, painters, and the flowering of African American literature and art during the 1920s. When we hear about the Black Chicago Renaissance, we think of writers such as Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks, the paintings of Archibald Motley, the blues, and the cultural life of Bronzeville on Chicago's South Side. These artists and intellectuals made extraordinary contri...
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A piece of Black history hidden for more than 50 years is finally coming to the screen.

A piece of Black history hidden for more than 50 years is finally coming to the screen. Once Upon a Time in Harlem: When the Architects of the Harlem Renaissance Told Their Own Stories A film recorded in 1972 brings the voices, memories, and experiences of Harlem Renaissance pioneers to the screen more than 50 years later. On October 16, 2026, a remarkable piece of African American history arrives in theaters. Once Upon a Time in Harlem, filmed in 1972 by pioneering filmmaker William Greaves, preserves conversations among artists, writers, musicians, historians, and other cultural figures associated with the Harlem Renaissance. The gathering took place at the Harlem home of legendary composer and bandleader Duke Ellington. The people assembled there were not simply admirers of the Harlem Renaissance. Many had participated in the cultural movement themselves. They had created its art, written its literature, performed its music, built its institutions, and helped shape its intellectual ...
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From Trash to Treasure: Low-Tech Upcycling Solutions for Textiles, Plastics, and Glass

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From Trash to Treasure: Low-Tech Upcycling Solutions for Textiles, Plastics, and Glass ​Around the world, growing piles of waste pose significant environmental and public health challenges. From massive textile dumps to discarded single-use plastics and glass bottles, communities are seeking practical, low-cost ways to divert materials away from landfills and municipal waste streams. ​Upcycling—the process of converting waste materials into products of higher quality, utility, and longevity—is far more than a crafting trend. It is a form of accessible, low-tech engineering. By transforming discarded clothing into resilient floor mats, PET plastics into structural building blocks or self-watering systems, and glass bottles into durable garden pathways, individuals and community organizers can turn localized waste crises into practical resource hubs. ​Here is a comprehensive guide to three high-impact upcycling systems you can implement at home or in community-led projects. ​1. Transform...
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The Jewel of the Senegal River: Urban Life and Republican Politics in Late 19th-Century Saint-Louis

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  The Jewel of the Senegal River: Urban Life and Republican Politics in Late 19th-Century Saint-Louis ​During the late nineteenth century, Saint-Louis, Senegal , held a uniquely privileged and complex position within the French colonial empire. As the oldest French settlement in West Africa—founded in 1659 on an island in the Senegal River—Saint-Louis operated not merely as an administrative outpost, but as a vibrant urban center with a deeply rooted political culture, a sophisticated merchant class, and a distinct civic identity. ​1. Urban Geography and Architecture ​Saint-Louis was geographically divided into distinct zones that mirrored its social, racial, and economic hierarchies: ​ The Island City (Ndar): The administrative, commercial, and religious heart of Saint-Louis sat on a narrow sand island in the Senegal River. It featured European-style brick architecture, multi-story brick homes with wrought-iron balconies built by wealthy families, trading houses, administrat...
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Two Models of Freedom: Sanctuary vs. Imperial Control in French West Africa

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  Two Models of Freedom: Sanctuary vs. Imperial Control in French West Africa ​In the late nineteenth century, thousands of men and women across French West Africa sought an escape from the bondages of slave raiding and domestic servitude. As the French empire expanded inland, two distinct models emerged to address the growing population of self-emancipated people: the Protestant Refuge at Khor in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and the state-run villages de liberté ("liberty villages") scattered across the hinterlands of the Upper Senegal and Niger rivers. ​While both institutions were framed as spaces of liberation, they served radically different master motives, governance styles, and human outcomes. The Khor Refuge: Independent Legal Sanctuary ​Founded in 1879 by Pastor Walter Taylor—a Black Sierra Leonean minister educated in Paris—and financed by a network of Protestant merchants in Bordeaux, the Asile des Esclaves Fugitifs at Khor was an independent, urban-adjacent refuge. ​...
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