Know Your Place: Black Leisure as an Expression of Freedom and Citizenship



​This project researches how race and place work together in spaces of leisure, particularly at the shore. I will study how ideas of Black freedom and citizenship, or national belonging, express themselves in communities of leisure, to examine how and if practices of segregation still cause displacement and dislocation at the shore. The long term goal of this study is a book project and digital humanities mapping website complete with interviews about Black beaches, lakes and resorts across the United States.

The Philadelphia Clef Club: A Continuing Legacy 

In partnership with Scribe Video Center and the Philadelphia Clef Club, I produced and facilitated the creation of the documentary, The Philadelphia Clef Club: A Continuing Legacy. Originally famous for it’s Sunday jam sessions as the social arm of the Black jazz union 274, the Philadelphia Clef Club was one of the first ever facilities constructed specifically as a jazz institution that grew from being a hub for local jazz musicians to become special for its unique professional and mentorship style education program led under Mr. Lovett Hines. Located in South Philadelphia today, the Philadelphia Clef Club has produced a wide variety of artists in various genres who bring with them a Philadelphia jazz specific approach and style to their music today-- one built on collaboration, practice, care,  support and mentorship with other professional artists. As South Philadelphia is rapidly changing due to gentrification, preserving Black artistic stories become vastly important.  

Atlantic City Zine Project with Mariana Smith

I teamed up with artist and Stockton professor Mariana Smith to create zines on the narratives of Atlantic City with my freshman seminar, The Urban City. Through community voices, we learned about the city aesthetically underneath the casino narrative. With the help of 48 blocks, The Atlantic City Art Foundation, The Atlantic City Public library and various residents, we dug into the history of the city from the perspective of its' residents.  

Jacob Lawrence Art Classes in Atlantic City

Valeria Marcus, South Jersey artist, facilitated monthly Jacob Lawrence art workshop with Atlantic City residents. Born in Atlantic City, he was among the best-known 20th-century African-American painters. This collaboration was funded by the Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University. 

Contesting The American Dream: Race, Privilege and Inequality 

In 2017, I created a Social Justice in the Humanities professional development for K-12 teachers as part of the Why Humanities Matter series at Stockton University. The theme was Contesting the American Dream: Race, Privilege and Inequality. There are available curriculum here and other resources you can use in the classroom as well. 

Memorandums of Place, Language and Self Workshop with Artist Beth Lewis


​In February of 2018, Philadelphia-based artist Beth Lewis and I facilitated a community arts workshop on the intersections of place, language and self. Together, we created auto-biographical boxes through assemblage and created a space for women to discuss ourselves with one another. 

​South Jersey Community Work

I started working with the Black Lives Matter Movement and the New Jersey Organizing Project in South Jersey. With BLM, our particular chapter has facilitated monthly community forums since November of 2015 on a host of different topics including family, sexual and domestic violence, school to prison pipeline, fair housing, white privilege, and media. With New Jersey Organizing Project, my students and I canvassed Atlantic City and Ventnor Heights collecting data from Hurricane Sandy victims. The final report can be found here.  We helped to run community meetings, participated in phone banking and completed some data entry. In January of 2017, I won Stockton University's Faculty Community Engagement award for my efforts with both organizations. 

​Education and Advocacy

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 I have worked with several Philadelphia-based advocacy and community arts organizations such as  the West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhood Schools, Public Citizens for Children and Youth’s Picasso Project and Art Reach to learn the power that funding our schools, fixing crumbling infrastructures, collective art making has on strengthening bonds, learning, identity, building unity and promoting anti-violence.  Beyond this, I have also acted as an advocate for saving arts education in our school district at the School Reform Commission, writing letters to the editor, and participating in research and evaluation projects that interview both art teachers and students participating in particular art programs. I was interviewed by the Press of Atlantic City about the use of art for social change here.  ​

Camp Sojourner Girls Leadership Camp

​I am on the board of the Camp Sojourner Girls leadership camp which provides year long programming for girls ages 7-17 consisting of workshops, events, trips, activism, community service and summer camp. Girls learn how to be strong and confident leaders, for example, through organizing an annual Sojourner Truth walk in West Philadelphia, attending youth workshops at the US Social Forum, and volunteering at Bartram’s Garden. In April of 2016, I along with another board member facilitated a confidence workshop for girls and it was a great success! The first part of the workshop, girls created collages of what makes them great. The second part of the workshop, I led them in activities designed to improve their eye contact, stance, walk, and talk to convey a sense of confidence. Stay updated on events we are doing: http://girlsleadershipcamp.org.