There comes a time in the life of any new non-profit when the board turns over. I'm told that this is typical around the two year mark, which was the case for Iowa Black History Research Collective. I am so grateful to each of our founding board members for taking a leap and signing on … Continue reading Black History Research Collective Board 2.0
Back From Hiatus
Whew! It's been a while. Where have we been? What have we been up to? Why did the site go dark? Where have we been: On a personal note, last October, our family lost our cousin, Candace. Less than a month later, my dad passed away. It became important to take time and make room … Continue reading Back From Hiatus
The Purpose of Racism
“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work." - Toni Morrison Earlier this month I had BIG PLANS to do a weekly blog on some of St. Paul AME church's notable members as part of the congregation's 150th anniversary celebration. I did two. Then I started … Continue reading The Purpose of Racism
James B. Morris, Sr.
Our celebration of St. Paul A.M.E. Church's 150th year continues. Today we're taking a look at Mr. James B. Morris, Sr., a man who absolutely did *all of the things.* James B. Morris was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 15. 1890. His parents had both been enslaved. One of his earliest memories was of … Continue reading James B. Morris, Sr.
Gertrude Rush
This month, St. Paul A.M.E. Church celebrates 150 years. We're going to celebrate with them, and take a closer look at some of the congregation's most influential members and their contributions to Black life in central Iowa. Today we'll kick off our series with Gertrude Rush. Mrs. Rush caught my attention as the only woman … Continue reading Gertrude Rush
What’s Next?
We had an internship. We learned some stuff. What's next? Digesting and sorting Evelynn and Amani's work to look for trends and other areas of exploration. Tooling our internship to work with Des Moines Public Schools Silver Cord program, an opportunity for students to be recognized for completing 200 hours of community service during high … Continue reading What’s Next?
How We Work (part 4)
We continue our discussion of applying Agile principles to historic research on this sunny Monday. Today we're talking about lessons learned, and the Agile ritual of a regularly scheduled look-back. The lessons learned exercise is one of my favorites. Each week, Amani, Evelynn and I take a look back at the week and hash out … Continue reading How We Work (part 4)
How We Work (part 3)
In today's edition of "How We Work," I am going to talk about the Agile concept "Definition of Done." What does it mean, "Definition of Done." Well, it's how you know you're done. In software development, whatever you were assigned to do is supposed to do something at the end. Does the thing do what … Continue reading How We Work (part 3)
How We Work (part 2)
In today's edition of How We Work, I'm going to talk about how we apply the Agile concept of "the backlog" to historic research. The backlog is basically the pile of work that is ready to be worked. Our backlog is housed in Trello, a free project management software by Atlassian, and has been a … Continue reading How We Work (part 2)
How We Work (part 1)
One of my old teachers used to tell us that organization was the key to success. 16 year old me found this cheesy and annoying. 46 year old me knows it's true. I chose an Agile-like structure for a variety of reasons, the first of which, is that Agile is familiar to me. Agile is … Continue reading How We Work (part 1)