Projects

Stories We Carry: Reclaiming History through Family Storytelling

Highlighting individuals who have used the stories of their families and communities to deepen, complicate and humanize the narrative of American history. Through oral histories, personal archives, and intergenerational storytelling, panelists demonstrate how communal memory can reveal overlooked dimensions of the national story, challenging myths, filling silences, and reframing what we think we know about America's past. As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, this conversation invites attendees to consider how personal narratives shape collective understanding and why the history of a nation is incomplete without the voices of the families and communities who lived it.

Black Family History Symposium: Refounding Legacies (2026)

Monticello and the Getting Word Project

Panelist

A group of four diverse professionals standing together indoors, smiling at the camera, with a large screen behind them displaying partial text.
A woman in a yellow coat speaking into a microphone during a panel discussion, with two men sitting on either side and a large projection screen in the background.
Five people sitting on stage, participating in a panel discussion. They are smiling and engaging with the audience. A woman in a yellow jacket is holding a microphone, and a man on the right is speaking into a microphone. Behind them, a large screen displays the word 'WORL'.

Family Reunion (2026)

The Redmond Family Reunion

Committee Chair

Inaugural Redmond Family Reunion

As co-chair of the Redmond family reunion, planning and preservation moved together, reconnecting nine branches of the family and coordinating the gathering itself. Ahead of the reunion, a book was compiled and distributed to attendees, bringing together historical documents, photographs, and a designed family tree so relatives could hold their shared history in their hands. The role reflects a way of working that treats family memory as infrastructure worth building for, not an afterthought to plan around.

Group of people gathered outdoors for a celebration or event, many wearing matching maroon T-shirts with a large letter R and text, with tents and inflatable structure in background, under a partly cloudy sky.
People walking past a table with a banner that reads 'Redmond Family Reunio' in a park with trees, some sitting at a picnic table, blurred motion of individuals in maroon and white clothing.
Children playing outdoors, with one girl in a black T-shirt smiling and others in maroon shirts, in a grassy area with trees in the background.
Three young women are outdoors in a park with trees and tents in the background, enjoying ice cream and smiling at the camera. They are wearing matching maroon shirts with white text and graphics.

Memory Lab (2025)

The Brunson Family Reunion

Interviewer

Family Memory Lab

During the Brunson family reunion, a memory lab created space for family members to sit down and share their histories with one another. Interviews were conducted across the gathering, collecting stories, memories, and reflections for the family's internal archive. The conversations captured voices in their own words, at a moment when relatives had come together in one place to tell them. It stands as a smaller piece of the wider practice of preserving Black family memory before it is lost.

Two women having a conversation in a clinical setting, one wearing a wheelchair and the other sitting on a chair. The room has white walls, cabinets, and medical posters, with a camera on a tripod recording the discussion.

Exploring Our American Stories (2025)

Oral History Association Annual Gathering

Facilitator

Turning Oral Histories into Creative Legacies: Preserving the past to shape the future

Stories of the past aren’t just memories—they’re blueprints for the future. This presentation explores how oral histories can be transformed into powerful creative projects that preserve, inspire, and redefine narratives of identity, legacy, and national belonging. As conversations around preservation and legacy grow more urgent, oral historians, artists, memory workers, and technologists are finding innovative ways to document and activate family and community histories. This session brings together practitioners who have used oral histories as a foundation for creative storytelling, offering case studies in film, textiles, technology, and digital archiving. Raja'nee Redmond’s A Long Way from Holmes documentary weaves family lore into a visual narrative of migration, resilience, and self-discovery. Jalen Hamilton transforms oral history and archival materials into textiles, quilts, and printmaking projects that make memory tangible. Kinkofa, a digital family history platform, turns oral histories into dynamic personal archives, connecting families to their past through interactive storytelling and technology.Through a multimedia presentation, including film clips, textile pieces, and a live demonstration of Kinkofa’s digital tools, we will explore how oral history can move beyond documentation into active cultural work. By engaging with memory as both history and artistic expression, we illuminate oral history’s fundamental role in shaping national identity—ensuring that the voices of the past continue to challenge, expand, and redefine the American story.

A colorful digital slide titled 'Session Overview' with sections: 'A Roadmap' in orange and pink, explaining how to go from oral history collections to creative projects; 'Practice Time' in purple, about applying framework to important oral history stories; and 'Project Possibilities' in orange and pink, about pursuing future interests.
A colorful diagram titled 'Creative Legacy Framework' with three sections labeled 'Amplify', 'Build', and 'Transform' in a horizontal row. The background is black with a textured pattern, and each section is in a pastel-colored rectangle.

Film Screening & Conversation (2024)

Arts and Public Life, with Jess Atieno

In conversation

Odyssey x A Long Way From Holmes (segment) Screening and Director Conversation

Odyssey, a 7 min short film by Jess Atieno, narrates a brief self-portrait of a family awakening amidst tragedy and loss. The film shows glimpses of their lives and pockets of found joy as a family and women finding their voice in the face of life's uncertainty. Atieno weaves together her family's video archive with selected footage from the South Side Home Movie Project, to tell the story in a non-linear experimental fashion. Odyssey invites viewers into the intimate fabric of their story where resilience and vulnerability intertwine in the dance of life.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Raja'Nee Redmond. Featuring excerpts from Redmond’s film, A Long Way from Holmes, discussion delves into various points of intersection between the two films including aesthetics, matriarchy, haunting, resilience and archival work within contemporary Black life.

Poster for the short film 'Odyssey' by Jess Atieno, featuring a vintage family photo of a woman holding a child and surrounded by four children, with event details indicating a screening and discussion on May 20 at Green Line Performing Arts Center.
A woman sits on a chair on a stage, speaking into a microphone. There is a small table with a water bottle beside her, and she is sitting on a decorative rug.

Media

Four women sitting on chairs on a stage, participating in panel discussion, with one woman speaking into a microphone. Audience members are visible in the foreground, and a large white screen is behind the panelists. The stage has a brick wall background.

Reimagining Reparations with Raja’Nee Redmond (2024)

Sixty Inches from Center

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