With ten writers, in ten regions, America's elders make history

Today, the Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project becomes available to the public for the first time.

The stories of Black, Latine, Asian, Indigenous, and queer elders in America have been inadequately preserved by institutional archives, and award-winning writer Jacqueline Woodson has taken it upon herself to address the gaps in our collective memory.

In a moving letter written about her mother, who lived through the Great Migration, Woodson writes: “Her past was a silent, painful memory that she rarely shared. Like so many coming of age during Jim Crow, the horrors of the south were filled with stories that were ‘left’ in the south.” In the letter, Woodson describes returning to her mother’s home in Greenville after her death and finding extraordinary stories of survival and greatness in otherwise ordinary people, like her mother.

Launched in 2020 by Woodson’s nonprofit, Baldwin For The Arts, in partnership with Incite, I See My Light Shining: The Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project set out to capture and honor stories like those of Woodson’s mother. Inspired by the Federal Writers’ Project, the Elders Project sent ten prolific writers (named Baldwin-Emerson Fellows) across America to capture oral testimonies, photographs, and letters collected from over 200 elders.

Focusing on ten regions, the Elders Project examines topics including the emergence of social justice movements, gender and diversity politics, housing inequality and displacement, and stories of protest, rebuilding, love, and liberation. In their interviews, narrators chart the trajectories of their own lives against the changing social, economic, and cultural landscapes of the last century.

Author Eve L. Ewing’s collection—narrated through interviews with 20 elders—explores Black migration to and within Chicago, from the Great Migration to the legacies of displacement within the city. Writer Jenna “J” Wortham’s collection explores first-person accounts of queer pleasure on East Coast waterfronts, as well as the ways that these locations have become a site for queer exploration, expression, resistance, and ultimately, survival. The project’s ten collections have different geographic foci, but share a common interest in migratory trajectories and identity formation.

At Incite and the Oral History Archives at Columbia, Mary Marshall Clark and Kimberly Springer co-directed the project. Madeline Alexander project managed, navigating the complexity of ten simultaneous oral history projects in ten different regions. Alexander worked with Chris Pandza to develop an accessible, navigable, and vibrant digital archive. Today, this archive became available for the first time on a dedicated project website.

Louisiana-born Pasadena resident and healthcare worker Natalie Owens, second from left, with neighborhood friends. In her interview with Robin Coste Lewis, Owens charts her own life experiences against the changing social and cultural fabric of America, describing her marriages, family dynamics, education, while offering an important glimpse at 20th-century Black life in Los Angeles.

To celebrate this achievement, the Elders Project is hosting a panel, art show, and celebration at the Center for Brooklyn History on May 19th at 5PM ET. The event is free and open to the public.

In the coming months, the Elders Project will also host regional events corresponding with the collections’ geographic foci. To stay current with the Elders Project and other Incite news, subscribe to our mailing list.