Library of Congress Awards More Than $500,000 In Community Collections Grants

The Library of Congress American Folklife Center has announced the 2024 recipient cohort of the Community Collections Grant program.

This series of grants, part of the Of the People: Widening the Path initiative, is awarded to individuals and organizations working to document cultures and traditions of Black, Indigenous and communities of color historically underrepresented in the United States and in the Library's collections.  

“We are excited to work with this year's recipients, who will be documenting a wide array of cultural activities in their diverse communities,” said Nicole Saylor, director of the American Folklife Center. “The collections they create will significantly enrich the Library's collections, allowing us to share a more inclusive American story.”

More than 100 applications, from across the United States including territories and protectorates were submitted for review by the American Folklife Center selection panel. Of the extremely diverse applicants and projects, a mix of 10 individuals and organizations will receive up to $50,000 each to fund field research within Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

2024 RECIPIENTS

Ashley Minner Jones

PROJECT: Beyond Baltimore Street

LOCATION: Maryland

DESCRIPTION: Beyond Baltimore Street is an oral history and photo documentary project that celebrates the vibrant, fascinating, everyday lives of Baltimore Lumbee elders, who manage to remain in community with one another despite the loss of their “reservation” — the geographic center they established for themselves as young people in the mid-20th century. One of the reasons their lives are so noteworthy is that they are transplants from one very specific place — the Lumbee tribal homeland — and they have enmeshed themselves in another very specific place — East Baltimore — and they act accordingly. They are the progenitors of a whole new culture that has been inherited and riffed upon by the generations of Baltimore Lumbee that descend from them. Over the course of a year, artist and folklorist Ashley Minner Jones (Lumbee) and photographer Jill Fannon Prevas will collaborate with 15 elders to produce forever-accessible records of their everyday lives and likenesses.    www.baltimorereservation.com

Chaldean Community Foundation

PROJECT: Chaldeans: Portrait of an Evolving Community

LOCATION: Michigan

DESCRIPTION: The Chaldean Community Foundation will preserve stories about the America's Chaldean community, a minority ethnic group from northern Iraq. Chaldeans bring rich cultural traditions that date back to ancient Mesopotamia. In the U.S., these traditions continue to evolve, especially during the past two decades. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, followed by the rise of the Islamic State group, have resulted in thousands of refugees arriving in the United States, settling mainly in southeast Michigan. The community responded by establishing the Chaldean Community Foundation which now serves more than 40,000 clients annually. The influx of new arrivals and their immersion with established Chaldean American families has had a tremendous impact on the cultural make-up of the community. www.chaldeanfoundation.org

CultureWorks, Ltd.

PROJECT: Time Out of Joint: Prisoners and Former Prisoners as Artists and Cultural Workers

LOCATION: Seattle

DESCRIPTION: A community of mostly former -and some current - prisoners who became artists while in prison. Company art forms are mainly writing, including essays, poetry, monologues and playwriting. Those of us who are free are teachers – using our arts backgrounds to inspire young people. Amiti Bey (incarcerated 40 years) and Kwame Mclean (incarcerated 15 years) will lead a robust documentation of our work and lives. The project consultant is Peabody Award-winning documentarian and oral historian Steve Rowland. The project will document our transformations through art and education. The documentation will include original writing; videos and audio recordings of us performing our works; videos of students reading our works; interviews with people who became artists in prison; we will even return to the prison to conduct interviews and performances with artists still in prison. www.tooj.org

Florida International University

PROJECT: Documenting Goombay and Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove

LOCATION: Florida

DESCRIPTION: This project seeks to capture the intergenerational traditions and folkways of the Bahamian diaspora of South Florida. Building on existing oral histories, we seek to systematically document the continuing placemaking practices of this community at a time when social ties and cultural connections are becoming dispersed and displaced. Specifically, we will document how the ongoing tradition of the annual Goombay Festival in the Grove brings together a once tight knit community that is fighting to preserve their connection to the land of their ancestors. Youth living in the Grove will be engaged in a photovoice project, empowering them with the tools to participate in community storytelling by documenting life in the neighborhood.

Kamilah Thurmon

PROJECT: Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington, D.C.

LOCATION: Washington D.C. 

DESCRIPTION: The Evolution of Blacks in Ballet in Washington, D.C. highlights African American, Washington, D.C., ballet legends such as Sandra Fortune-Green, Beatrice Davis-Williams, Kahina Haynes, Lynn Welters, Therrell Smith, Virginia Johnson, Bernice Hammond, Doris Jones and Claire Haywood. In Washington, D.C., there is a rich history of artistic and cultural communities from diverse backgrounds. For African Americans in the field of ballet, this history has spanned from the early 1920s to today. Although professional and internationally acclaimed ballet and other dance troupes have only begun to accept Black members and award them the highest honors, ballet has been thriving in D.C. over the last 75 years due to the efforts of passionate community members who refused to accept oppressive societal norms. www.gen2genmedia.com

Laura Grant

PROJECT: Returning to Our Roots – Documenting Traditional Nuwä Harvests

LOCATION: California

DESCRIPTION: Between December 2023 and November 2024, nuwä-led (Kawaiisu) community collaborators, led by Elder Lucille Hicks, will document ourselves, and three older people, teaching at least 20 younger nuwüm (Kawaiisu people) the traditional gathering and preparation of at least 10 plants used for our Indigenous foods and medicines. We will document gathering practices and the reflections of the participants. Our team will share video-based and photographic documentation techniques with the young as well so that they may partner in creating some project outcomes for archiving – contemporary documentation of nuwä gathering and preparation practices of at least 10 plants and the recorded impressions of the experiences of the elders and younger learners in carrying these practices forward.

Los Pleneros de la 21

PROJECT: From New York City to Puerto Rico: Documenting Evolving Practices and Perspectives of Bomba and Plena in the Diaspora

LOCATION: New York

DESCRIPTION: Los Pleneros de la 21 (LP21) collaborating Traditional Artists, LeAna López and Yesenia Lebrón-Romero, will work with Folklorist Elena Martínez, LP21 Founder/NEA National Heritage Fellow Juan Gutiérrez, and Master Artist Julia Gutiérrez, to document current community practices and the individuals and events who have influenced these practices over time in the traditional, community-based Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance forms known as Bomba and Plena. Focusing on NYC, surrounding Tri-State areas, and New York City-Puerto Rico connections, this project will generate digital video interviews with key artists and community members, as well as photo and video documentation of community-based cultural events. www.losplenerosdela21.org

Nottawaseppi Huron Band for the Potawatomi

PROJECT: Indian Town

LOCATION: Michigan

DESCRIPTION: The overarching goal of this project is to capture, preserve and archive first-hand accounts of Indian Town, Michigan while the sources who lived these experiences are available to share this important culture and history. Without knowing and understanding the history of Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi as a sovereign nation and a people it is impossible to fully appreciate how transformative and significant this change has been and how it contributes to the community's culture today. Given the history of the boarding school movement which sought to erase the culture and languages of First Nations, efforts to revitalize, preserve, and share cultural and historical information with Tribal membership hold an even greater value in indigenous communities. https://nhbp-nsn.gov/about/indiantown/  

Nous Foundation

PROJECT: La Musique Nous Réunit: Documenting Louisiana French Music

LOCATION: Louisiana

DESCRIPTION: La Musique Nous Réunit (music brings us together) is a music recording and interview documentation project aimed at understanding how Louisiana musicians are adapting their cultural practice of performing traditional French-language music to a 21st-century reality where English is ever-present. This project will document Louisiana French music as it is played in 2024. In partnership with the Library of Congress, a team will conduct and film a series of semi-structured interviews with six French-speaking, Louisiana-based musicians and bands - spanning different genres such as Cajun music, Zydeco, and swamp pop.  www.nous-foundation.org

Yvette Cohn Stoor

PROJECT: Sustaining and Reclaiming Cultural Danzas: Los Matachines Y Los Comanchitos

LOCATION: New Mexico

DESCRIPTION: Throughout New Mexico, there are Hispanic villages that struggle to carry-on the long-held tradition of the danzas de Los Matachines and Los Comanchitos. Los Matachines danza is performed on dates during fiestas honoring the Patron Saints of their affiliated Mission Churches. Los Comanchitos is a revived danza in remembrance of the assimilation of Indian captives into families and villages and acknowledging Genizaro identity (Spanish with Native American). The leaders of these groups persevere to educate and involve current generations to remember a deeply held bond within these communities. With education and exposure, there has been a slight uptick in interest. The goal is continued education and encouraging interest and pride in our shared history.

Grant recipients will work over the next 12 months to complete this range of engaging and meaningful research. Their work will ultimately be included in the Library's various permanent collections.

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