Presented by Hopkins at Home, Sheridan Libraries, and Friends of the Johns Hopkins University Libraries

Joseph Plaster is joined by archivist Tonika Berkley and 2023 Tabb Center Fellow Nicoletta Darita de la Brown to discuss the exhibition "Be(longing): Unveiling the Imprint of Black Women Hidden in Plain Sight".

Inspired by her explorations with archival materials related to Ethel Ennis, Billie Holiday, African American real photo postcards, and other special collections at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, de la Brown's exhibition contained video, photographic self-portraits, and site-specific performances which addressed culturally significant and deeply introspective questions: How many Black women are living in archives? What happens to us when we are invisible? How can I feel seen, and safe, as a Black woman?

The Tabb Center's Public Humanities Fellows are non-institutionally affiliated organizers, artists, cultural workers, public historians, and knowledge-creators who mobilize materials from the Sheridan Libraries’ rare book, manuscript, and archival collections to strengthen and support their existing community-based work. These artists, curators, and organizers work to creatively reinterpret or add to the Sheridan Libraries’ collections, which span 5,000 years of unique objects and texts, from ancient cuneiform tablets and Egyptian papyri to 20th-century African American photography, U.S. suffrage movement records, and LGBTQ print culture materials. Fellows will create new perspectives on these collections by interpreting them in transformative ways. To learn more about the Public Humanities Fellows and apply for its second cohort of fellowships, click here.

This program was in conjunction with the 4th annual Black Alumni Weekend, Wednesday September 11th through Saturday September 14th.