You’re invited to join us for our Community History (CH) Showcase, an online event designed to help New Jerseyans learn more about the NJCH Community History program as well as participate in a conversation about the ongoing projects and impact of the nine members of the CH ’21 cohort.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021 from 1:00pm to 2:30pm

To register to attend the Showcase, click here.

Who should consider attending the Showcase?

• Individuals interested in applying to 2022 Community History program
• Individuals interested in doing Community History work at their own organization
• Individuals interested in learning more about how a community history project can bring people together around a common effort and learn more about themselves and others
• Individuals interested in learning more about storytelling, memorialization, and place and how these themes intersect with community history

The Showcase will feature an overview of the CH program as well as discussions led by CH ’21 participants. These interactive conversations will explore three concepts: storytelling, memorialization, and place.

Storytelling

Storytelling can be a powerful tool to build community. Sharing individual experiences through storytelling preserves the individuality of perspective while also developing common experiences. Projects in this category use stories as unique cultural artifacts that pass on personal, historical, or cultural events to others and can help to build a sense of community and shared experience.

Cohort discussion will be led by:
1.  Raices Cultural Center: Stories of Ancestors, Stories of Healing
2.  Piscataway Public Library: Telling More Authentic Piscataway Stories
3.  Trent House Association: Great Migration Oral History Project

Memorialization

The events and people that a community chooses to memorialize reflect the values and voices within that community. These projects consider what it means to memorialize, how communities can play a larger role in decision-making around memorials, and how we think about the public memorials that currently exist.

Cohort discussion will be led by:
1.  Enslaved African Memorial Committee: Revelation – The Hidden Story of the Enslaved African Presence in Bergen County 1700 – 1920
2.  Salvation and Social Justice: AME Church in NJ Justice Technology Trail and Documentary
3.  Old Mill Hill Society: Revolutionary Conversation: Whose History and Whose Freedom, anyway?

Place

Projects in this category center on the significance of place in providing a tangible link to stories about a community’s history, connecting those living in a certain place today to the lives of individuals who lived there in the past. This focus on place emphasizes the significance of where the past took place and the role this location played in the past as well as in the present.

Cohort discussion will be led by:
1.  Clinton Hill Community Action: Clinton Hill Photograph Collection History Project
2.  Community Partnership for Egg Harbor Township Schools: Egg Harbor Township – a Documentary
3.  East Trenton Collaborative: Community History Project

Questions? Comments?  Contact us.  programs@njhumanities.org or 609.695.4838