For convenience, links to revisit the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Director’s Lab Notes. As usual, these lab notes are too long to read in your email, click the title to read the full notes on the web.
This fall (and summer) saw us holding a lot of space for change, new transitions, expanding with intention and accountability, and adjusting to the new normal of a world rocked by pandemic and protest. The 2021-2022 keyword “VESSEL” is serving us well. It calls us to stock of how much we can hold and how to hold each other. It continues to ask us to reimagine what work against enclosure looks like in practice. We can reject the old normal all we want, but that work also entails decolonizing our own methods, assumptions, and patterns means challenging the disciplinary foundations of all of our work—be that history, data science, literature, or public health. What are we willing to give up to create something different? How much of the old can we hold before it must, for lack of space, be displaced for the new? And what is the new we want to bring to the work?
As we enter the new year and the Spring 2022 season, with a new variant on the rise, new deaths at the door, mediating on VESSEL also means slowing down as we go. Listening, building with care and joy, and being patient with how far we have to go and how much we have to learn. This is just the beginning!
So what were we able to hold this fall?
Workshops and Events for Members and the Public
LifexCode continues to provide a critical resource for members and the public, through workshops designed to advance skills, provoke critical conversations around technology and tools, and offer hands on opportunities to project build.
Our Digital Strategist and Coach, Dr. Alex Gil continues to amaze. Gil hosted two DH at the End of the World Workshops. The first, on Maps and Mapping, offered a space for critical engagement of mapping tools from GoogleMaps and Neatline, to ArcGIS/ESRI and artisanal maps (i.e. In these Same Boats). The second, on plain text, offered an overview of plain text and markup, and how/why to use it to create websites and create on your own. More workshops to come—all LifexCode workshops are free to attend, subscribe here to stay up on offerings and events.
We continue to partner with the JHU Digital History Workshop to host speakers who are doing cutting edge work in the field and bringing an against enclosure scope to their work. We had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Sophie Ziegler of the Louisiana Digital Library/Louisiana State University Libraries for a discussion of infrastructure, collections, and data.
Keywords for Black Louisiana, Taller Electric Marronage, the Space for Creative Black Imagination, and the JHU Center for Africana Studies also hosted a webinar/conversation on Black New Orleans: History x Art x Narrative. This event, featuring Cierra Chenier, Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, and Kristina Kay Robinson, was a conversation “on doing history, art, and storytelling as the world burns down.” Moderated by Kelsey Moore. Video forthcoming.
This fall, Taller Electric Marronage continued to post flight and fugitivity on their blog with a guest post by Dr. Paulina Johnson, Sîpihkokîsikowiskwew (Blue Sky Woman) and and a digital installation on pleasure and BDSM curated by Electrician Stephany Bravo.
In the spring, Electric Marronage programming returns with a new SOLIDARITIES series event—a conversation on Black Girlhood. Born from ingenious prodding by Dr. Aria Halliday, this event is a long-time coming and a balm to our souls!!! Join Kabria Baumgartner (Northeastern University), Annette Joseph-Gabriel (Duke University), Aria Halliday (University of Kentucky), Habiba Ibrahim (University of Washington), Nazera Wright (University of Kentucky), and Crystal Webster (University of British Columbia) for a SOLIDARITIES discussion about the promise, perils, and radical resistance of Black girlhood—past, present, and future. Moderated by Christina Thomas (JHU).
More hosted events and programming from all of the labs to come Spring 2022; subscribe to keep up!
LifexCode on the Virtual Road
This summer and fall, we also took the show on the road, offering skills and knowledges acquired over the last year and a half of work. The Keywords for Black Louisiana Colonial research team presented at the Association for Documentary Editing Annual meeting this summer. Sharing work and processes from the digital edition in progress (Kinship and Belonging in Black Louisiana, forthcoming, volume 140), Olivia Barnard, Emma Bilski, Leila Blackbird, Ellie Palazzolo, , and Jessica Marie Johnson described the work in progress and to come!!!
Tulane University hosted the work of our own Dr. Robin McDowell and Leila Blackbird, whose work on Black and Indigenous geographies and eco-critics remaps everything we thought we knew about the long, long, imperial and slaveholding history enclosure.
Dr. McDowell also co-organized the Hidden History Virtual Symposium with Leon Waters and Clint Smith. This symposium, organized in honor of the anniversary of the 1811 German Coast Slave Revolt, brought together these two scholars to discuss the important role Black history plays in the fight for social justice.
LifexCode members Emma Bilski, Olivia Barnard, and Ellie Palazzolo hosted workshops on paleography, colonial documents, and Black Digital humanities with Tulane partners. These workshops, to be integrated into the Keywords broader on-boarding process, built out important foundational skills for researchers interested in engaging with colonial documents with an eye for Black and Indigenous life.
The Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting went virtual, but that did not stop the Keywords for Black Louisiana Research New Orleans team from sharing their work. Joined by the Black Cultural History Project at Tulane University (led by Dr. Rosanne Adderley), LxC members Olivia Barnard, Robin McDowell, M. Koretzky, joined Andrew Miller, Kris Plunkett, and Keith Richards in a presentation on Black historical methods for researching the Crescent City.
Dr. Sarah Bruno shared her work on Black Puerto Rican fugitive geographies at Duke University in a talk with the Race Workshop. Her talk, “Choreographies of Resistencia: Bomba Puertorriqueña and Black Feminist Affective Abolition” discussed bomba, Black feeling, and the space of bomba as resistance against empire. Dr. Bruno also launched the Emotion and Affect Working Group at Duke University.
Project updates from around LifexCodes labs….
Black Beyond Data
This fall marked the start of Black Beyond Data, a new initiative led by Drs. Kim Gallon (COVIDBlack, Black Press Research Collective), Alexander White (Risk and Racism Project), and Jessica Marie Johnson (LifexCode). The BBD team also includes Lauren Rubin (St. Francis Neighborhood Center), Tom Lippincott (Director, Center for the Digital Humanities at JHU), Sayeed Choudhury (Data Services, Sheridan Libraries, JHU), Jeremy Greene (History of Medicine), and Cynthia York (Sheridan Libraries, JHU). We presented our work in numerous venues including the Sawyer Seminar at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute.
“A central objective of Black Beyond Data is to use innovative methods and technologies to visualize narratives about Black life and create communities of scholars, teachers, students, and community members who share common interests and collaborate to deepen their understanding of how data can be mined and analyzed to center Black humanity.” - New project unites digital humanities, Black studies, and data and computation
Community work has been a central axis of Black Beyond Data’s work. Through our partnership with the St. Francis Neighborhood Center, BBD launched a monthly reading group. Next spring, the reading group meetings will be visited by special guests, André Brock, Kenton Rambsy, Kimberly C. Deas, and Stacie Williams. All four are leaders in the fields of data science, health data, archives, and the digital humanities. Other partnerships abound; more to come in Spring 2022.
Metropolitan United Methodist Church History Project (PI: Christina Thomas)
In celebration of their 195th anniversary celebration, the Metropolitan United Methodist Church hosted a celebration gala. Unveiled there was “A Brief History of Metropolitan United Methodist Church,” designed by Christina Thomas, with text by Jacquelyn Oldham.
Also instrumental to the celebration was the Community Archives Program of the Inheritance Baltimore Project—we celebrated their work at the Black World Seminar in December! Read more about them and their work in Baltimore here.
View the Metropolitan United Methodist Church History Project here.
The Mardi Gras Indian Council Archive (PI: Kelsey Moore)
Over the course of the summer and fall, LxC member Kelsey Moore, alongside Dr. Rosanne Adderley and Emily O’Connell at Tulane University, began work building an archive of material related to the Mardi Gras Indians history in New Orleans. Using newspaper sources and Omeka, Moore is working with the Council to create a resource for showcasing the history of the Council, and building out documentation on best practices for Black digital cultural patrimony. Moore previewed the project at the Black World Seminar and, COVID allowing, will be meeting with partners in New Orleans beginning in Spring 2022.
Microdatas carolineses / The Picó Papers (PI: Dr. Sarah Bruno)
Dr. Sarah Bruno leads an investigation into a digital repository of archival material left by Puerto Rican historian and scholar Fernando Picó. An exploration of how to visualize Black data when that data is Black and Puerto Rican, of disappearing and reappearing archives, and of the lived experiences of Black Puerto Rican woman domestics in the nineteenth century, Bruno worked through the fall organizing, cleaning, and creatively reimagining how data on Black Caribbean women can be be presented and analyzed. This work continues into the spring, with a preview presented at the December JHU Black World Seminar.
Keywords for Black Louisiana
Keywords for Black Louisiana (LA Colonial, Marronage, and Research Black New Orleans) continues to build out their work and make connections. Along with presenting at the ADE, SHA, and, soon, the AHA Annual Meetings, the Keywords Teams have been building with Tulane partners, bringing on new LxC members, and expanding the scope of the research. This fall, the Black Cultural History Project, led by Dr. Rosanne Adderley at Tulane University joined the Research Black New Orleans Team creating datasets of sites and institutions of Black New Orleans, based on the historical research conducted by the late Dr. John Blassingame. In addition, Dr. Guadalupe Garcia joined the Colonial Team as the head of a group of researchers learning paleography and colonial history of Louisiana.
As part of their National Historic Publications and Records Commission Start-Up Grant for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History, Keywords for Black Louisiana will begin to build with new partners and on-board new researchers beginning January 2022. The team has expanded as has the mission, but the work continues with on-going conversations with Black historical practitioners in New Orleans.
The core Colonial Team now consists of: Leila Blackbid (Lead & Ethics Chair), Ellie Palazzolo (Digital Chair), Olivia Barnard, and Jessica Marie Johnson. This fall semester that team was joined by more than the secondary team led by Dr. Guadalupe Garcia and students at Tulane University. Research team members also now include Sophie White (University of Notre Dame), Jean Hébrard (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), and Christine Villarreal (University of Texas at El Paso), as well as Rosanne Adderley (Tulane University, and Emily Clark (Tulane University). Partners include Sayeed Choudhury (Sheridan Libraries, JHU), Karen Leathem (Louisiana State Museum), Howard Margot (Historic New Orleans Collection), Greg Lambousy (New Orleans Jazz Museum).
Keywords for Black Louisiana’s first in person, all team meeting will be held at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Acknowledging Loss, Change and Goodbyes
This fall, Hurricane Ida devastated one of the key communities we feel accountable to: The Black and Indigenous people of the Gulf Coast. We acknowledge the continued devastation Ida has wrought. As part of our Black New Orleans event, we posted links to organizations to give funds.
Tekrema Center for Art and Culture: https://www.facebook.com/tekremacenter/
Creative Alliance of New Orleans: https://cano-la.org/donate/
Ida Relief for Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ida-relief-for-pointeauchien-indian-tribe
Congo Square Preservation Society: https://www.congosquarepreservationsociety.org/donate.html
We also say goodbye to Emma Bilski (Lead Chair, Keywords for Black Louisiana, Colonial) who is traveling to dissertation land and will be stepping back from Keywords. She will be replaced by Leila Blackbird as Lead Chair, with Ellie Palazzolo as Interim Lead through next March. We are so proud of you and excited for the work you are doing and also we will miss you Emma!!!!!
And a final update to the LifexCode collective—we are thrilled to be in conversation with The Space for Creative Black Imagination (Maryland Institute College of Art). Directed by Raél Salley, the Space will be joining LifexCode events and workshops, building new programming, and more coming soon, Spring 2022.
More and more and more to come. Our VESSEL runneth over, but we are making space by leaning into letting things go. People and practices, ideas and questions. We are planting seeds over enclosing space. Come as you are, we receive you. Archipelagos over continental mass. We look forward to applying lessons learned and best practices as we continue our journey in the new year, seeking grace while holding space in the eye of the storm.
Until soon,
Jessica Marie Johnson, Director, LifexCode: DH Against Enclosure