Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection: Key Activities & Accomplishments

FY 19-20

• Planned 17 public programs of which 13 were implemented. 4 were cancelled because of coronavirus. The 13 programs were highly successful because they involved partnerships, were evidence based and community engaging.
• Planned and implemented 2 exhibitions "Hip-Hop and Rad" and "Black Lives Always Mattered: A Preview"
• Increased partnerships with organizations such as Scribe Video, Rosenbach Museum, Philadelphia Clef Club, Jazz Bridge, Philly Jazz Project, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Legacies, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Africology, Brandywine Workshop and others.
• Worked on Pew Center for Arts & Heritage project, Black Lives Always Mattered: Hidden African American Philadelphia of the Twentieth Century graphic novel.
• Continue to expand collections with donations and acquisitions such as Dr. Leslie Pinkney Hill's family letters, Anne and Allan Edumunds Archives, Dr. Bernard Watkins Music Collection and others.
• Served on Advisory committees for Bethel Burying Ground, Rosenbach Museum, Frances Harper Project Think Tank, Pennsylvania Humanities Council and others.
• Awarded and implemented $10,000 PHMC's Historical and Archival Records (HARC) Grant.
• Continuing oral history interviews with current and former residents of North Philadelphia.

FY 18-19

• Completed paperwork for PEW grant, received grant agreement which was signed by Temple University and first funds released.
• Implemented PEW grant project, Black Lives Have Always Mattered.
• Completed paperwork for IMLS Museums for American Grant, received grant agreement which was signed by Temple University to release funds.
• Implemented IMLS preservation grant project. - Successfully completed the first segment of digitization project. At present, 289 of the rarest and most fragile Blockson pamphlets have been digitized, uploaded, and made available to researchers on the Temple Digital Collections site.
• Documented the history of the African American community in North Philadelphia through oral history interviews.
• Increased partnerships and collaborations on and off campus. - Developed engaging and informative well-attended public programs and exhibitions both onsite and offsite.
• Increased accessibility of the Blockson Collection's holding through digitization and the uploading finding aids on Blockson Collection website.
• Anne and Allan L. Edmunds donated their personal archives to the Blockson Collection.

FY 17-18

My eleventh year as Curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection was a great year, especially for partnerships and collaborations, increased community outreach, broader accessibility to Blockson resources, exploring new opportunities in publishing and scholarly communication and identifying new avenues of economic support.

I worked closely with my staff on innovative projects around processing, preserving and digitizing rare materials as well public programs, exhibitions, presentations and tours of the Blockson collection. I continued to observe and direct the performance of Aslaku Berhanu, Librarian, Leslie Willis-Lowry, Associate Archivist and Serkaddis Alemayehu, Public History Coordinator and Digital Archives Specialist as well as volunteer staff member Al Vara. Among Aslaku’s duties, she performed reference services, user education and liaison services, cataloging and library committee work.

We worked together on collection development, submission of a PEW grant application, exhibitions and public programs and community relations.

Some examples of Leslie Willis-Lowry’s work include extensive community and institutional outreach with use of archival materials, especially the John W. Mosley photographs including exhibitions, documentaries/videos and television, web/digital projects and publications/articles/dissertations.

Serkaddis assisted me in conducting oral history interviews as well as contributed to exhibits, instructional services, and public programs. She also worked with Aslaku on a rare pamphlet digitization project. Aslaku,

Leslie and Serkaddis served on library committees.

Our staff worked with Sara Wilson and others to coordinate public programs and other activities.

Al Vara provided volunteer services as needed.