On June 19th we celebrate Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery and official emancipation of all slaves across the U.S. Although President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, the news that they were a free people didn’t reach the 250,000 enslaved African-Americans in Texas until nearly three years later. Galveston, […]
On June 12th, we celebrate National Loving Day. Loving Day is an annual celebration that commemorates the 1967 Loving v Virginia Supreme Court Decision that struck down anti-miscegenation laws, making restrictions on interracial marriages illegal across the country. For this monumental moment in history, we can thank Mildred & Richard Loving. Mildred Jeter was a […]
My Halifax Family Story We traveled to the historic Rocky Mount Mills in North Carolina to collect local family photographs and stories with our local partner UNC-TV for our new PBS television series, Family Pictures USA. Through our photo-shares, we uncovered fascinating stories about the people and places that make up their community. We met one family – the Ausby […]
Left to right: APPO Members Danielle Studer, Signe Pagel, Kristen Goodman, and Cathi Nelson. We are just finishing up the filming of our second television episode of Family Pictures USA with our incredible host Thomas Allen Harris! We’ve enjoyed working with WGCU Public Media in Southwest Florida and have been meeting so many amazing families with incredibly diverse, rich […]
My Fort Myers Childhood Story We are gearing up for our upcoming production of Family Pictures USA in Southwest Florida, where we will be exploring the families and community through their photographs and family albums for the second episode of the TV series. We are looking forward to uncovering hidden archives and personal connections to […]
An Interactive Celebration of Harlem Thomas Allen Harris with his work titled A Family Album at the Harlem Stage, on view at Mother, Bethel, Harlem, USA. Photo by Natalie Conn Mother, Bethel, Harlem, USA, a multimedia exhibition produced from an innovative in-gallery summer course led by artist and filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris in the Hunter East Harlem […]
“Maybe I will define family by what I believe it’s not. I don’t think that family is conditional to being related by blood. I don’t think family needs to be centered around romance or sex, I don’t think family needs to center children or monogamy. It’s not really what family is, but that’s off the […]
My Philadelphia Story Family Pictures USA was invited by the African American Museum in Philadelphia for their monthly Macy’s Family Fun Day to host a full day of photo-sharing sessions with the community. People of all ages came with their photographs to share their Philly stories as well as their family’s diaspora, giving us personal insights into the […]
Every year, thousands of media-makers, organizers, and agents for social change converge in Detroit for the Allied Media Conference (AMC): a 4-day, volunteer-coordinated conference that hosts hundreds of sessions focused on using media to build a more equitable, sustainable, and collaborative world. These sessions are far-reaching and innovative in their interpretation of media, ranging from food justice […]
Stories of Community Participants on stage at Black Communities: A Conference for Collaboration in Durham, NC “I am a person driven by an individual’s story and the stories of community. I use it in my own work by always reminding myself that we all have our own stories that have shaped us.” – DDFR participant […]
