Kathlin Smith

In this last stop on our HBCU Library Alliance tour, we visit Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, a town known as the cradle of student protest. DeLisa Minor Harris provides a stunning overview of Fisk University’s enduring activist legacy—from the 1800s, when the Jubilee Singers brought international attention to the Negro spiritual, to the civil…

The Lowcountry of South Carolina is home to the Gullah Geechee people, whose language and traditions retain strong connections to their West African ancestors. But gentrification threatens their ability to practice the crafts that have sustained them for over a century. Nearby Benedict College holds the archives of the Mather School, founded in the aftermath…

Take a deep dive into Tuskegee University’s remarkable collections, from the notebooks of George Washington Carver to 20th century newspapers and photographs documenting the lives of ordinary Black Alabamans. In this episode, we talk with university archivist Dana Chandler, and hear excerpts from Tuskegee’s audio archives, including speeches from Myrlie Evers, Amelia Boynton Robinson, Muhammad…

Librarian Blanche Sanders has spent her career at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi—a longevity that’s not unusual at Alcorn, which inspires such loyalty it holds the Guinness World Record for most siblings (13) to attend an HBCU. In this episode, learn about the oral history project “If Walls Could Talk,” documenting Alcorn student life–and…

As the inaugural university archivist at Morgan State University, Dr. Ida Jones has a unique window into Maryland’s largest HBCU. Morgan’s history is deeply entwined with the history of Black politics, activism, and media, particularly in Baltimore. In this episode, Ida provides a glimpse into the treasures housed in Morgan’s library (including the archives of…

Kofi Amu Horne, who created the theme music for this season of Material Memory, started drumming before he was two. Join us for a special bonus episode where Kofi talks about drumming as a spiritual practice, how it connects him to his mother’s ancestors in Ghana, and the significance of the drum to the peoples…

Museums are for everyone, says librarian and curator Erika Witt. Join us for a conversation about Southern University at New Orleans’s African art collection, her transformative trip to Egypt, and how galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) can and must make themselves more inviting and accessible to visitors who are Black, Indigenous, and people of…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) occupy a remarkable space in American education, showcasing both the richness of Black intellectual tradition and the tenacity required to thrive in the face of racial hostility and chronic under-resourcing. In the third season of Material Memory, host Sharon M. Burney takes us on a tour of the treasures…