With just a few photographs within his collection, Polite relays the rich history of his family with intimate glimpses into his family circle including images of this mother and father when they were young. “Genealogy is abut family records but I think it’s important to have pictures too.”  Marc Polite has becoming the caretaker of [...]

Voza Rivers has been instrumental in the spread of Diasporic culture through the arts for over thirty years. The Producer of Sarafina!, which brought voices of South Africa to Broadway; Chairman of the Harlem Arts Alliance; Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the IMPACT Repertory Theatre, and heavily involved in many other organizations dedicated to black [...]

Donna Cashman and Shannon Danzy bring a mother daughter perspective to uncovering one’s family history as they share family photographs with Thomas Allen Harris, and us, at the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR) Roadshow held at the Harlem Stage in New York City. Inspired by a dusty shoebox found in an old closet,

Arianne Edmonds reveals the stories of her family history to Thomas Allen Harris during the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR) Roadshow held at Harlem Stage. Like many American Families, the Edmonds have worked

As a student in Jamaica, Albert Chong discovered photography almost by accident. He recalls how he was quickly captivated by the magic of the medium. Albert Chong (b.1958) is an artist and photographer from Kingston, Jamaica. His work explores family history, ancestry and identity, and has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world. [...]

Michael Reese shares his stories of photographic discovery with Thomas Allen Harris during the DDFR Roadshow in Atlanta, GA.  Using the family photos that he has collected from various relatives over the years, Reese captivates his audience with tales of his family’s early history. A highlight of Reese’s presentation are stories of his father’s growing [...]

Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People is a two-hour film that will explore the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present. Award winning filmmaker, journalist, artist,

Collage artist Ekua Holmes lovingly holds a large, framed black & white portrait she took of her grandfather Commodo Hendricks, at the DDFR road show in Boston, MA.  “I see love and compassion in his face,” she remarks to Thomas while describing one of several pictures from both Hendricks’ and her own personal collection against [...]

Dominique Smith was one of our volunteers at our second DDFR Roadshow at theSilverDocs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland. We were impressed by her enthusiasm for the project during the three days in which she helped scan hundreds of family photographic archives from the local community. During the last day, we invited Dominique to [...]

Award-winning journalist, professor and author, Pamela Newkirk joined us for the DDFR Roadshow @ Brookyn Public Library, where she shared some of the photographs that have inspired her. Her father ran a small antiques shop,where he collected numerous photographs featuring Black subjects. Growing up, Pamela was always intrigued by the images from times long past [...]