Urban North Carolina Project

As an expansion of our “Beyond Bricks and Mortar” project, Joyner Library is working within the Eastern North Carolina community to share a missing piece in the history of an African American Community displaced in the 1960’s and 1970’s, targeting a group that has been historically under-served. This oral history project, online and traveling exhibition, and accompanying public workshops will work to engage students, ECU community, and the larger community of Greenville, NC in historical awareness of race relations and urban planning during this period.

Upcoming Events

Urban Renewal and the North Carolina Landscape

A Drive-In Symposium

Friday, April 24, 2020

Honorariums are available. – Please contact us if you are interested in attending and would like to present your research or community’s project!
Please contact Heather White at whiteh@ecu.edu or (252) 328-2870 for more information

_{The area near present day Town Common in Greenville, NC before and after the Shore Drive Redevelopment Project. (Image from ECU Digital Collections)}

Friday, April 24, 2020

Joyner Library hosts the Community Symposium “Urban Renewal and the North Carolina Landscape”

Joyner Library’s Urban NC Project Symposium will facilitate a larger historical, cultural, and analytical framework working to encourage long-term collaborative partnerships through the observation and discussion of urban displacement in North Carolina.

The Drive-In Community Symposium, “Urban Renewal and the North Carolina Landscape” will facilitate discussions related to the scholarship surrounding Urban Renewal and its historic as well as ongoing effects on North Carolina communities.

We invite scholars from across North Carolina to present their related projects in short “lighting rounds” during the morning sessions. Afternoon sessions will be formatted as round table conversations considering opportunities to work together to tell these stories on a larger, collaborative state-wide scale. From this event, our goal is to develop a comprehensive listserv for ongoing discussions and create a foundation for future collaboration.

https://library.ecu.edu/deck/urban-nc-project/

Call for Participants – Sign up!

Past Events

Zena Howard – Urban Design as Urban Healing

Zena Howard, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C

Thursday, October 10th at 6pm
ECU’s Main Student Center
Free & Open to the Public

Zena Howard is the visionary designer of spaces including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and Greenville’s Sycamore Hill Gateway Plaza.

Presented in partnership with ECU’s Office of Equity and Diversity, the City of Greenville, the Friends of Joyner Library, and made possible in part by a North Carolina Humanities Council Grant.

About Zena: Zena Howard is a Principal and Managing Director of Perkins & Will’s North Carolina practice. An award-winning architect, strategist, mentor and team builder, she is known for her success leading visionary, complex, and culturally-significant projects including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

Zena is an advocate for diversity within the architecture profession, a field where minority and women professionals are historically under-represented. She is a founding member of Perkins+Will’s Diversity + Inclusion Council, an associate professor of architecture at North Carolina State University College of Design, and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. public service sorority.”

Significant Greenville & ECU – Zena designed the Sycamore Hill Gateway Plaza, a 2 million dollar project, now in construction. The documentation from Joyner Library’s Beyond Bricks & Mortar project serves as the historic interpretation featured in the space.

Workshops

Be on the lookout for additional workshops in Fall 2019 & Spring 2020

Oral History Workshop

Join us for a two hour workshop to expand your knowledge of oral histories through specific training programs, examples, and project planning techniques. A short discussion and Q&A period will follow. Presented by Dr. Lu Ann Jones, National Park Services staff historian, specializing in oral history project planning, oral history research methods and training, and research support through the NPS.

Genealogy

Genealogy Workshop

Curious about your family history? This workshop will teach you how to get started with researching your family tree. It will also address some of the challenges faced with doing African American genealogy and will talk about tools like DNA tests and strategies to get past those brick walls. Presented by Jennifer Daugherty, head Librarian of the North Carolina Collection at Joyner Library, East Carolina University.

Join us March 23^rd from 10-12 at the Inter-Generational Community Center located at 1100 Ward St. Greenville, NC 27834.

Map Your History Workshop

Map your history with accessible, easy-to-use digital mapping tools! Join us for a half-day workshop to learn what tools are available, identify the right tool for your needs, and understand how to set up a project, and use your own materials to tell a map-based community story! Presented by Dr. Anne Whisnant, author and consulting historian and Director of Research, Communications, and Programs for the Office of Faculty Governance at the UNC Chapel Hill.

Join us April 27 from 10am to 12 noon at the Lucille W. Gorham Inter-Generational Community Center located at 1100 Ward St. Greenville, NC 27834.

This project was made possible and supported through a North Carolina Humanities Council Large Grant awarded to Joyner Library.