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DC History Conference March 31-April 2, 2022 – Selected Sessions to be ASL Interpreted and Open Captioned
The 48th Annual DC History Conference will take place March 31 – April 2, 2022. This three-day event is FREE to all attendees. The conference will open with the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, 1201 – 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC, on Thursday, March 31. Scholars and researchers of DC history will kick off the first full day of the conference at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Washington, DC, on Friday, April 1. That day, community-based history practitioners will also showcase their organizations at the History Network. Panels continue along with opportunities for additional programming including workshops, tours, and a poster session at the Library on Saturday, April 2.
Even though the conference is free, registration is required before joining the sessions. Register HERE:
*ASL interpreted sessions on site in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library Auditorium:
Friday, April 1, 2022 at 12:00-1:00 p.m
Think-In: Archiving and Activating DC’s Art History
This conversation with community partners in the art field will generate ideas for preserving, studying, and celebrating Washington, DC’s regional art history and for building a more inclusive archive.
A “Think-In” is an informal, collegial “state of the field” conversation that brings together artists, curators, collectors, and arts workers with archivists and historians to discuss current efforts, best practices, historical challenges, and new opportunities in the study and practice of regional art history. Participants will highlight perspectives on outstanding recent work, shortfalls, and opportunities in the field today, followed by a 30-minute conversation. Participants will be able to share contact information and join a google group to continue the conversation beyond the conference.
Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 4:30-5:30 p.m.
A Mixtape from the 2021-2022 Great Migration Oral History Project
Each fall, DC high schoolers enrolled in the Real World History program study the Great Migration—the mass movement of Black Americans out of the Jim Crow South to cities in the north and west (1915-1970). They read The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson and conduct oral history interviews with people who came to DC as part of the Migration. As a class, the 2021-2022 cohort of Real World History identified key themes and topics of interest from their interviews and pulled excerpts to put their narrators’ experiences of migrating to DC in conversation with one another. This presentation is a student-facilitated discussion about the Great Migration and Washington, DC. Using a selection of audio excerpts from the students’ fall-semester oral history projects, Real World History students will facilitate a conversation among their narrators about the experience of migrating to Washington, DC.
*CART (Live Captioning) will be provided for the following sessions which will be live-streamed via Zoom. Register for the conference in order to receive the Zoom link:
Friday, April 1, 2022 at 10:30-11:45 a.m.
African American Activism, Enfranchisement, and Empowerment in 20th Century DC
This panel offers three different views of African American-led grassroots efforts to claim a place of equality in the city’s social life, public spaces, and civil affairs.
Friday, April 1, 2022 at 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Enlarging the (Color) Field: Rethinking the Washington Color School
The artists Cornelia Noland, Alma Thomas, Kenneth Victor Young, and Mary Pinchot Meyer are among the women and Black artists often excluded from discussions of Washington’s historic art scene. The traveling museum retrospective Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful showcases the work of Thomas and others, including Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland. The project has helped reinvigorate scholarly interest in the Washington Color School. Grouped primarily on the basis of a confluence of style, period, and geography, this constellation of color field artists emerged in the nation’s capital in the late 1950s and flourished into the 1970s. The panel highlights previously underappreciated artists by critically reexamining the coherence of the Washington Color School as an artistic category and by exploring the diverse perspectives of artists practicing multifaceted approaches to color field painting and sculpture in postwar Washington.
Friday, April 1, 2022 at 4:30-5:45 p.m.
From “Slum Clearance” to “Mixed-Income”: The Serial Displacement of Black Washingtonians
Black residents make up just 46 percent of DC’s population—down from over 70 percent in the 1970s. This panel addresses how new development and gentrification displaced Black residents from their homes and communities over the course of the 20th century. The presentation will begin with the big picture via an overview of the online exhibit Mapping Displacement, launched in 2021. Panelists will then home in on the role of alley clearance in dispersing long-standing Black communities and the repeated eviction of Black residents from one square block on Capitol Hill. Using Southeast DC’s Barry Farm Dwellings as a case study, the panel will highlight how anti-Black racism undergirds the transformation of public housing into mixed-income “new communities.” This discussion will provide context for how gentrification today is a continuation of historical movements that have repeatedly destabilized and removed Black residents from spaces deemed too valuable for them to occupy.
Saturday, April 2, 2022 10:30-11:45 a.m.
Capturing the Voices of Black Career Educators: A Critical Race Analysis
In Washington, DC, the largest generation of Black Career Educators has retired, and no one captured their historical career journeys and oral histories. They started teaching between the 1960s and 1980s. By the late 1990s, they were leaving the schoolhouse. They cherished their teaching careers, filled classrooms with ideas and inspirations, and found ways to counter systemic inequalities. They wrote curricula, built schools, and taught anyone who entered their classroom. For over 50 years, they were social reformers, community activists, and civil rights leaders. When Washington was burning, and drug wars were outside their classroom doors, they taught Black students. Their historical dialogues and journeys are portraits of the cities’ public education system. Segregation to desegregation and back to resegregation, Black Career Educators can speak to the impact of systemic racism and inequalities in public education. From Brown to COVID, their historical journeys define teaching pedagogy in the District of Columbia.
Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 12:00-1:15 p.m.
Belonging In DC: Special Interests and Community Formation
Communities are constantly forming and growing as individuals with unique perspectives, interests, and backgrounds assemble and share their experiences. This panel assesses the intriguing case studies of three such communities in the DC area.
Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Blockbusting, White Flight, and the Price of Housing in Two Uptown Neighborhoods
This panel chronicles demographic change in two Ward 4 neighborhoods, North Portal Estates and Brightwood Park, in the second half of the 20th century, as restrictive covenants fell and many White residents left the city. The panel focuses on the real estate industry’s role in encouraging “White flight” and debunks the baseless fears real estate agents instilled in White homeowners that the arrival of Black residents would result in a decrease in property values and overall decline of the neighborhoods.
REVIEW THE SCHEDULE-AT-A-GLANCE AND FULL PROGRAM HERE.
To request other reasonable accommodation, including ASL interpretation and CART for sessions not indicated above, please contact the DC Public Library's Center for Accessibility seven (7) days in advance at 202-727-2142 or by emailing DCPLaccess@dc.gov. These services were made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
The DC History Conference is co-presented by the DC History Center and the DC Public Library, sponsored by the Public History Program at American University, and organized by a volunteer planning committee.The DC History Conference is made possible thanks to grants from HumanitiesDC, as part of the "Humanities Grant Program," an initiative funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; DC Public Library Foundation; and DC Office of the Secretary. It is also sponsored by Georgetown University Press, AARP Maryland, DC Preservation League, the White House Historical Association, and the Family of Letitia Woods Brown. The DC History Center recognizes support from the DC Historic Preservation Office and Office of Planning; the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; and HumanitiesDC, as part of the "SHARP Grant Program," an initiative funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities.
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Know Your Rights: A Conversation with Peter Stephan, Thursday, April 7th at 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Peter Stephan from Disability Rights DC will present “Know Your Rights”. The program will help people with disabilities know their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This program will help further DCPL’s mission by making sure all patrons are included in the services the library provides.
Peter Stephan (Staff Attorney @Disability Rights DC). Peter Stephan joined Disability Rights DC in early 2019. He represents DC residents with disabilities to promote their access to vocational rehabilitation services, community-based Medicaid long -term care services, polling places, and public accommodations.
*ASL/voice interpreters and CART live captioning will be provided.
The program will be a virtual webinar via Zoom.
Register in advance for this webinar:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Know Your Rights webinar.
Questions? Contact the Center for Accessibility at DCPLaccess@dc.gov or 202-727-2142
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Sign and Read with Us!
Virtual ASL Story Time
Tuesday, April 12th at 2:00 p.m.
Join us on Facebook Live for American Sign Language (ASL) Story Time with Librarians Ms. Janice and Ms. Jenny! Janice will sign in ASL and Jenny will read aloud from a fun book, then teach some signs from our story, and how to sign the song “The More We Get Together.”
Even though the program is designed for ages 2-5, all are welcome. Automatic captioning will be available.
Stream on Facebook Live at facebook.com/dclibrary. Follow the Library's Facebook page to receive notifications when Facebook Live programs start.
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Collaborative Presentation on Assistive Technology, Featuring Peter Stephan and James Patrick Timony
Thursday, May 5th at 6:30 p.m.
Peter Stephan from Disability Rights DC and James Patrick Timony from the Center for Accessibility DCPL will present “Collaborative Presentation/Discussion on Assistive Technology”. The program will help people with disabilities know assistive technology resources especially in the DC area.
Peter Stephan joined Disability Rights DC in early 2019. He represents DC residents with disabilities to promote their access to vocational rehabilitation services, community-based Medicaid long-term care services, polling places, and public accommodations. James Timony joined DCPL in 2004 and helps support, train and educate individuals on the use of assistive technologies through classes, demo sessions and presentations.
*ASL/voice interpreters and CART live captioning will be provided.
The program will be a virtual webinar via Zoom.
Register in advance for this webinar:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Collaborative Presentation/Discussion on Assistive Technology.
Questions? Contact the Center for Accessibility at DCPLaccess@dc.gov or 202-727-2142
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ASL Book Club
Wednesday, May 25th at 6:00 p.m.
Do you love to read and talk about books? Are you interested in participating in an online book discussion in American Sign Language? If so, this book club is for YOU!
Come join us for an ASL Book Club on Zoom every other month on Wednesday evenings from 6-7 p.m. The next ASL Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at 6 p.m.
The ASL Book Club is facilitated by Janice Rosen, Librarian, Center for Accessibility.
To receive the link, email the Center for Accessibility at DCPLaccess@dc.gov
NOTE: Even if you do not know sign language, you are welcome to join us. Voice and automatic captioning will be provided
The book for May 25 is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Abstract:
"For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world -- until the unthinkable happens"--Publisher's description.
The book can be found in the DCPL collection in the following formats:
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Maker Talks with DCPL Labs – ASL interpreted
The schedule for April is:
Tuesday, April 5th at 3:00 p.m.
What is Laser Cutting?
One of the technologies offered by the Labs at MLK is laser cutting. Are you curious about how laser cutting works? If so, join us for a virtual program discussing the basics of how it works, what materials are used, and what kinds of machines are at the Labs.
Tuesday, April 12th at 3:00 p.m.
What is 3D Printing?
One of the technologies offered by the Labs at MLK is 3D printing. Are you curious about how 3D printing works? If so, join us for a virtual program discussing the basics of how it works, what materials are used, and what kinds of machines are at the Labs.
Registration is required for these events: bit.ly/labsclasses
Questions? Contact The Labs at DCPL at labs.dcpl@dc.gov or (202) 727-1275.
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A limited number of spaces are available for remote volunteer-led one-on-one trainings over Zoom or over the phone.
The trainings will be in JAWS, VoiceOver or a number of other technologies based on need of the student and skill set of the various volunteer trainers. We will work around your schedule. Volunteers and trainers both welcome to apply. Please call 202-727-1335 or email james.timony@dc.gov.
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