Archives are more than paper and documents, according to Laurice Bell, executive director of Shorefront Legacy Center. There are paintings, artwork and clothes people have worn and previously owned inside the community archive. It can also be memories of Evanston and what used to be.
“What people have that have made a difference, whether it’s a doctor’s bag, whether it’s a dress someone wore on the cover of an album and performed in, whether it’s something that people wore to church on Easter Sunday or to dress up. We get slices of life from people’s lives,” Bell said.
These local themes will be explored in this Saturday’s “Activating Local Black History: A Symposium” at Harris Hall, Room 108, 1881 Sheridan Road, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The symposium took over a year to plan and 12 weeks of research from Northwestern and Evanston Township High School students working alongside Shorefront staff “to conduct research in Shorefront’s archives and to build our understanding of Evanston’s Black history.”
Colette Allen, former director of Family Focus, and ETHS history teacher Makoto Ogura will present a community geography of Allen’s memories of Evanston. Allen will recall places in Evanston that hold deep memories for her and speak to BlacksEvanston.
Other presentations will include topics on music, redlining, the lakefront and the Great Migration. The schedule is broken up into three sessions throughout the day. Each presentation in each session will be about 10 to 15 minutes long. A screening of Stolen School will take place at the end of the symposium.
Bell hopes attendees take away the significance of the work Shorefront has done, and can see themselves reflected in the work. “I hope that people will get a sense of who we are, the work we’ve done, the lives we’ve lived, the joys we’ve had, the the losses we’ve experienced,” she said.
