black homeplaces:

a disco co(lab)

est. 2024

Black Homeplaces is a project that harnesses VR to recreate the ever-changing sites of the Black homeplace and Black placemaking practices across the African diaspora. One of the central outputs of the project will be an interactive XR exhibition of an archetypical Black home, including oral histories, artistic renderings, video games, soundscapes, and more. This collaboration is led by Dr. Rianna Walcott, Associate Director of the BCaT lab and an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland.

introducing the black homeplaces cohort!

Micro-grant awardees submitted proposals focused on innovative research across a variety of mediums, including but not limited to: extended reality (XR) exhibitions, artistic outputs, journal publicatins, and audiovisual materials. Each awardee received mentorship, hybrid skills and methods workshops and support in developing their research outputs. Scroll to learn about our microgrant awardees and their projects!

  • Dr. Alisa Hardy

    Dr. Alisa Hardy

    Dr. Alisa Hardy works with XR, mapping and existing public murals to create a Breonna Taylor Memory Project.

  • Meshell Sturgis

    Meshell Sturgis

    Meshell Sturgis is an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico who is creating a video essay about getting home in her grandma’s words.

  • Yuhanxiao (Maggie) Ma

    Yuhanxiao (Maggie) Ma

    Yuhanxiao (Maggie) Ma is a multimedia artist and creative technologist from New York who is creating a digital archive, Exploring Black Kitchens as Spaces of Cultural Memory and Resilience, using 3D scanning, oral histories, and interactive installations to highlight Black kitchens as sites of storytelling, tradition, and cultural preservation.

  • Christin Washington

    Christin Washington

    Christin Washington is a PhD Candidate in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland who is creating a soundscape for a digital exhibit about an Afro-Caribbean funerary practice.

  • Azsaneé Truss

    Azsaneé Truss

    Azsaneé Truss is a researcher working on artistic renderings of the Kitchen Scholar Framework with Staci Jones.

  • Staci Jones

    Staci Jones

    Staci Jones is a researcher working on artistic renderings of the Kitchen Scholar Framework with Azsaneé Truss.

  • Nina-Simone Edwards

    Nina-Simone Edwards is a postdoc fellow at Georgetown Law's Tech Institute who is conducting legal analysis on privacy rights in Black homeplaces.

  • Fabiana Gibim

    Fabiana Gibim

    Fabiana Gibim is the founding editor of sobinfluencia edições and a researcher at Zeppelin University who is creating a sound archive called Deja Vudu Radio Project

  • Maurika Smutherman

    Maurika Smutherman

    Maurika Smutherman is a PhD candidate from North Carolina State University who is creating an archive of Black women's sewing rooms using photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and 3D modeling.

  • Dez Brown

    Dez Brown

    Dez Brown is a Visiting Lecturer from the University of Illinois Chicago who is creating a video game.

  • Montia Daniels

    Montia Daniels

    Montia Daniels is a PhD student in the Harriet Tubman Department Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park who is creating a collection of poetry and a recipe box, in honor of the recipe box that has been passed down in her family.

  • Diamond Beverly-Porter

    Diamond Beverly-Porter

    Diamond Beverly-Porter is a Tenure-Track Assistant professor at Washington State University who is creating a Video Game Demo titled Rhythm and Rope.

    Rhythm and Rope is a game that centers the unique play experiences of Black girls in a communal setting, with a particular focus on the embodied practices of Double Dutch and musical play.

  • Mila Turner

    Mila Turner

    Mila Turner (CAU) and Kristine M. Fleming (Florida A&M University) are faculty researchers who are exploring recreational vehicles (RVs) as contemporary expressions of the Black Homeplace, reimagined through mobility and leisure.

  • Kristine M. Fleming

    Kristine M. Fleming

    Mila Turner (CAU) and Kristine M. Fleming (Florida A&M University) are faculty researchers who are exploring recreational vehicles (RVs) as contemporary expressions of the Black Homeplace, reimagined through mobility and leisure.

  • Ajowa Ifateyo

    Ajowa Ifateyo

    Ajowa Ifateyo, Linda Leaks, Jessica A. Rucker, and Elizabeth Tibebu, activists-memory keepers, are digitizing Linda Leaks’s collection. The collection documents her 25 year career as a Black feminist housing organizer, cooperative educator, and eventually executive director of the Washington Inner City Self Help (WISH).

  • Linda Leaks

    Linda Leaks

    Linda Leaks, Jessica A. Rucker, Elizabeth Tibebu, and Ajowa Ifateyo, activists-memory keepers, are digitizing Linda Leaks’s collection. The collection documents her 25 year career as a Black feminist housing organizer, cooperative educator, and eventually executive director of the Washington Inner City Self Help (WISH).

  • Jessica A. Rucker

    Jessica A. Rucker

    Jessica A. Rucker, Elizabeth Tibebu, Ajowa Ifateyo, and Linda Leaks, activists-memory keepers, are digitizing Linda Leaks’s collection. The collection documents her 25 year career as a Black feminist housing organizer, cooperative educator, and eventually executive director of the Washington Inner City Self Help (WISH).

  • Elizabeth Tibebu

    Elizabeth Tibebu

    Elizabeth Tibebu, Ajowa Ifateyo, Linda Leaks, and Jessica A. Rucker, activists-memory keepers, are digitizing Linda Leaks’s collection. The collection documents her 25 year career as a Black feminist housing organizer, cooperative educator, and eventually executive director of the Washington Inner City Self Help (WISH).

  • Fatou Sow

    Fatou Sow

    Fatou Sow, Nogoye Sow, Fatima Sow, Aminata B. Sow, and Janice Jones-Sow are researchers and artists from Detroit, MI, building the Black Family Museum & Archive on the preservation of their family’s history through photography, documentary interviews, and the digitization of physical and virtual family heirlooms.

  • Nogoye Sow

    Nogoye Sow

    Nogoye Sow, Fatima Sow, Aminata B. Sow, Janice Jones-Sow, and Fatou Sow are researchers and artists from Detroit, MI, building the Black Family Museum & Archive on the preservation of their family’s history through photography, documentary interviews, and the digitization of physical and virtual family heirlooms.

  • Fatima Sow

    Fatima Sow

    Fatima Sow, Aminata B. Sow, Janice Jones-Sow, Fatou Sow, and Nogoye Sow are researchers and artists from Detroit, MI, building the Black Family Museum & Archive on the preservation of their family’s history through photography, documentary interviews, and the digitization of physical and virtual family heirlooms.

  • Aminata B. Sow

    Aminata B. Sow

    Aminata B. Sow, Janice Jones-Sow, Fatou Sow, Nogoye Sow, and Fatima Sow are researchers and artists from Detroit, MI, building the Black Family Museum & Archive on the preservation of their family’s history through photography, documentary interviews, and the digitization of physical and virtual family heirlooms.

  • Janice Jones-Sow

    Janice Jones-Sow

    Janice Jones-Sow, Fatou Sow, Nogoye Sow, Fatima Sow, and Aminata B. Sow are researchers and artists from Detroit, MI, building the Black Family Museum & Archive on the preservation of their family’s history through photography, documentary interviews, and the digitization of physical and virtual family heirlooms.

  • Felicity Dogbatse

    Felicity Dogbatse

    Felicity Dogbatse, Graduate Student, University of Maryland, is working alongisde Elizabeth Abena Osei to examine how indigenous Ghanaian art forms, specifically Akwaaba posters and Adinkra symbols, are integrated in living room design.

  • Elizabeth Abena Osei

    Elizabeth Abena Osei

    Elizabeth Abena Osei, PhD Student, is working in collaboration with Felicity Dogbatse to examine how indigenous Ghanaian art forms, specifically Akwaaba posters and Adinkra symbols, are integrated in living room design.

  • Jamie Thurmond

    Jamie Thurmond

    Jamie Thurmond is an undergraduate researcher from the University of Maryland who is centering inter-diasporic design elements in the Black front room using magazine archives such as Ebony, Jet, and Sepia.

  • Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson

    Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson

    Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is a Professor from American Studies, who, along with Dr. Cheryl Hicks, Associate Professor of Africana Studies & History, University of Delaware, and UMD American Studies graduate student Carla Joy Thomas Mcginnis, are creating a digital storymap to think through Black material culture in parlors, and how this aided in assisting entrepreneurial women not only to survive precarious living conditions, but also to exhibit the political, cultural, sexual, and personal aspects of Black female life.

  • Dr. Cheryl Hicks

    Dr. Cheryl Hicks

    Dr. Cheryl Hicks is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies & History from University of Delaware who is working alongside Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson, Professor from American Studies, and UMD American Studies graduate student, Carla Joy Thomas Mcginnis. They are creating a digital storymap to think through Black material culture in parlors, and how this aided in assisting entrepreneurial women not only to survive precarious living conditions, but also to exhibit the political, cultural, sexual, and personal aspects of Black female life.

  • Carla J. Thomas McGinnis

    Carla J. Thomas McGinnis

    Carla Joy Thomas Mcginnis is a UMD American Studies graduate student who is working alongside Dr. Cheryl Hicks, an Associate Professor of Africana Studies & History from University of Delaware, and Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson, Professor from American Studies. They are creating a digital storymap to think through Black material culture in parlors, and how this aided in assisting entrepreneurial women not only to survive precarious living conditions, but also to exhibit the political, cultural, sexual, and personal aspects of Black female life.

  • Evan Starling-Davis

    Evan Starling-Davis

    Evan Starling-Davis is a doctoral candidate of Literacy Education and writer/producer/curator from Syracuse University who is creating an immersive meditation installation through a Black cultural lens to (re)imagine an Afro-surrealist dreamscape within a ‘backyard’ space of the devised world.

Past Black Homeplaces Workshops

  • Flier for Digital Mapping & Black Spaces

    Digital Mapping & Black Spaces

    In this workshop, Dr. Morrison considers the constraints of mapping technologies in offering layered and rich representations of Black life and space, highlighting how digital mapping can be used both as a tool to supplement research and creative inquiry, as well as to present research findings.

    Recording available upon request.

  • Flier for Building Interactive XR Exhibits: From Concept to Creation

    Building Interactive XR Exhibits: From Concept to Creation

    This workshop will be hosted by Christopher Derrell. Chris is an award-winning software developer who in his role, manages UX, architecture, and development to create practical and aesthetic websites. These have spanned across multiple industries including Banking, Hotels and Engineering, from Barbados to Rome, while being recognized globally as leaders in technological innovation.

    Recording available upon request.

  • Flier for Black Soundscapes workshop

    Black Soundscapes

    From generative AI to various phases of appropriation, Black soundscapes are under constant surveillance and manipulation. In this workshop, Dr. Martin demonstrates strategies for considering the ethics of soundscape recording and composition in Black digital and artistic projects.

    Recording available upon request.

  • Flier for Archives and Black Traidtions

    Archives and Black Traditions

    Archives and Black Traditions explores the significance of personal and digital archives in re/defining historical legacies, promoting narrative control and agency, and expanding conventional notions of memory, place, and truth.

    Recording available upon request.

  • Flier for Oral Histories workshop

    Oral Histories

    In this workshop our speakers reflect on their own practices of collecting and narrativising Oral Histories, how method informs their research, and give practical guidance towards the recovery and ethical engagement of Black counter-narratives.

    Recording available upon request.

bcat bookclub Fall 2024: Black Homeplaces

The Black Homeplaces BCaT Bookclub ran from September 18th, 2024 - November 20th, 2024. We engaged with art exhibitions, fims, readings, and more that focused on Black placemaking practices across the diaspora.

click below to see our archive of materials!