Getting Those Stories Told; Utilizing Social, Community and Artifactual Literacies to Share Local Black Historical Stories

Abstract

This participatory action research documented ways that historical stories of the Black community were shared in the larger Berlin, MD. community. This act of community literacy was grounded in the belief that literary encompasses many more practices than just reading and writing. These literacy practices are social practices, intertwined with people’s cultural identity, sense of themselves and their world view and knowledge. The group tasked with sharing these stories was made up of Black community elders, along with museum staff and volunteers of the Taylor House Museum, myself included. With the knowledge that dialogue is key to expanding literacy practices, we worked collaboratively to create exhibits in the museum as well as sharing stories in other locations that the participants deemed appropriate. Data collected included meeting minutes, individual interviews transcripts with committee members as well as museum and event visitors. Multimodal data included artifacts, images, and video from the exhibits and events, as well as photographs taken by participants documenting their favorite parts of exhibits and events where the stories were told. Analysis of the data found that participants made meaning with artifacts and narratives by collectively discussing ownership of artifacts and information. They had gifts that they were willing to share with the group in the collaborative actions of sharing local Black historical stories. Participants had connecting networks they utilized to design museum exhibits, and they sought a variety of opportunities to ensure on-going access to local Black historical stories.