Scroll to learn about our microgrant awardees from the Black Homeplaces DISCO CO(LAB)!

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

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

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

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 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 (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.

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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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.