Growing Up
Roxbury
An Intergenerational Ancestral Estuary
of Living Stories
“My hope is that when people enter the space, they feel the ancestors here. It already feels like such a sacred space.”
-- Brielle Fowlkes, Archivist
More about GUR: A Video
“My hope is that when people enter the space, they feel the ancestors here. It already feels like such a sacred space.”
-- Brielle Fowlkes, Archivist
More about GUR: A Video
Welcome!
Come have some tea with us and stay a while
with our stories and
share your own.
t
All Are Welcome!
Growing Up Roxbury is a collaborative living stories project with people to share, document, archive, and circulate their stories of Black and Brown luminaries and
all people in their communities in Roxbury
and the Boston area.
This project began as the “Elma Lewis Living Stories Project,” focusing on Miss Lewis, one of Roxbury’s and Boston’s most important Black woman luminaries who worked
in civil rights, education, and the arts.
As we, in our roles as archivists, built relationships with elders and their families who are sharing their stories, it became clear that this project is a portal to hundreds of luminaries,
most of whom worked with Miss Lewis.
About
“I Sense Roxbury All The Time.”
About
Our physical exhibition and pilot website are open now
for story sharers to share feedback with archivists for careful revision. We also are identifying what elders wish to prioritize among 5,000+ multi-media documents and
who they wish to engage with them first.
Then, together, we strategize details of where and how.
We intend the exhibition and the website
to become fully public in Fall 2024.
About
Thank you for your patience, curiosity and support as we continue to do our intentional work with people
and their stories. We are tenderly preparing
documents to transition from family albums,
to digital realms and, finally, public portals.
And care for each other in mind, body and spirit
as we do so.
About
We invite you to engage with this video about
our archival mission, values, process
among 26+ archivists & 150 elders
over the last two years.
Elma Lewis Center
Part of the Social Justice Collaborative
Emerson college
Meet The Archivists
Tamera Marko
Executive Director
Helen Credle
Associate Director
for Community Engagement
Priscilla Andrade
Senior Archivist
Letta Neely
Senior Archivist Storywork Consultant
Condoleezza Dorvil
Senior Archivist
Brielle Fowlkes
Archivist
Marina Carulo
Senior Design Consultant
Joye Prince
Archivist
Fatima Swaray
Alexander Silva Carmona
Archivist & Portal Specialist
Lead Design Consultant
Ayiana Windett
Jenna Adams LaBombard
Archivist
Archivist
Melina List
Archivist
Rebecca Sherman
Archivist
Brandon Winbush
Zaryah Qareeb
Archivist & Musician
Archivist
Winelle Felix
Digital Media Consultant
Kanaja Bleach
Archivist & Space Designer
Abu
Chuhan Tong
Archivist, Specialist with
Formerly Incarcerated People
Archivist
Adora Brown
Archivist
Estephanie Vazquez
Archivist, Artist, Ambulance Nurse
Nikki Hester
AZ Hackett
Archivist &
Anti-Racist Pedagogy Specialist
Archivist & Editor
Dani
Yueqi Cheng
Archivist, Photographer
& Filmmaker
Archivist Apprentice
Coco Rosenberg
Archivist
Mika Rose
Story Weaver, Poet
Sophie Canon
Archivist & Soundtrack Viber
Luciano Salazar Yepes
Archivist
Deborah Bernat
Senior Archivist & Story Sharer
Maya Wright
Archivist
Jabari Asim
Humanities Advisor, Author
Meet The ELC Team: Click Here
Stories
Black Nativity: Langston Hughes’ Boston, 53 Consecutive Years
Dr. Elma Ina Lewis:
Art is The Guts of the People!
More
Stories
Happy 100th Birthday!:
Video Letters
Elma Ina Lewis Interviews
Barbara Ward
Louie Bluie
Stories
Beverly Love Rock: Black Nativity
Desiree Springer: Black Nativity
Rap for Miss Elma Lewis, 2024
Happy 100th Birthday!:
Video Letters
Barbara Ward
Stories: Happy 100th Birthday Miss Lewis!
Allen Furie
Larry Blumsack
Betty Hillmon
Sandra Gaither
Stories: Happy 100th Birthday Miss Lewis!
Barry Gaither
Helen Credle on Sundays with Malcolm X in Harlem
Story Circle at FIREWATER Poetics, Elma Lewis Center, 2023
Barbara Ward: Autobiography
Louie Bluie: Painting Illustrations
Ripples of impact
I think the people who are involved in it, you can tell that they all sort of have this energetic pull to it … that’s it’s deeply important for us. … It’s given me a found family with the people who work here at the Elma Lewis Center,
it’s given me skills, and it’s just sort of reaffirmed what I knew about archiving and how important it is … seeing the reactions of people in the community .. this is everything to them and to be able to see that and witness that just sort of reaffirms everything I thought I knew about archive.”
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“The feeling of this project or where I would feel it on my body or how my body would physically react to being in this project is that it sort of feels like the work that we’re doing is a weighted blanket, like it’s heavy, it conforms to your body, but it’s still extremely comforting. Like it isn’t a weight that is uncomfortable or that makes you tired or that you’re carrying too much… the work that we do here is important and so it does have a weight but because of the joy and the community that’s in it
- - Fatima Swaray
Ripples of impact
“I intended to come in here for a few minutes. I felt so comfortable here I stayed two hours. What a wonderful moment to meet young people who care about our history and to see my community so lovingly presented. I will return to the Miss Elma Lewis Kitchen and bring a photo of her with my family to put on the wall here. I feel I could stay in here and share stories for a long time.”
-Elder Story Sharer
“When I first walked in they were very welcome. They even put up a sign saying Welcome. They cared about our feelings. I learned about history and art and Roxbury, where I have lived all my life. I got to write a review for a children’s book. I told them about my interests. They were real listeners.”
i
Shante McCorvey, 8th-grader
“My hope is that when people enter the space they feel the ancestors here. It already feels like such a sacred space.”
- Brielle Fowlkes
We'd love
to Connect with you.
Full Website &
Physical Story Portal Space
Open August 2024
address
148 Boylston St, Boston, Massachusetts 02116
Phone
+1 617-824=8526
Email
tamera_marko@emerson.edu
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