Welcoming a New Season!

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

Dear Readers,

Happy National Arts and Humanities Month! I trust that fall 2023 is off to an amazingly brisk and colorful start!

I shared my last blog post just before the official start of spring, and I am grateful for another online opportunity to share some of the photographic memories that I have been gathering since then. Just looking at the above photo from a late July 2023 visit to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, for example, still makes me smile–and sing some of the sacred songs that the Fisk Jubilee Singers helped make famous in the 19th century.

In this new season of life, it is my sincere hope that you will find many picture perfect things to smile and sing about that relate to the study of African American history and culture.

Dr. Regennia N. Williams

Students from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University perform during an April 2023 Jazz Appreciation Month concert.

I really enjoyed tenor Steven Weems’ May performance at the Cleveland History Center.

I was so glad to see Stephanie Phelps and other community members at the Cleveland History Days celebration in June.

Dr. Portia Maultsby is still the reigning queen of African American Music History, and I am glad that she and other great scholars were in Nashville during the Association of African American Museums’ annual conference.

I am always filled with pride and inspired by the stories of sacrifice and courage associated with the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Memphis, TN)

Dear Cleveland and Vel Scott, You Rock!

Cleveland’s historic Antioch Baptist Church in celebrating its 130th anniversary in 2023, and I joined organist DeSean Lawson and vocalist and director Leesa Jackson at one of our celebratory events in August

This was an interesting and thought provoking exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Frederick Burton, author of Cleveland’s Gospel Music, at a Pre-Juneteenth / Black Music Month event at the Rock Hall.

Pianist and vocalist Mother Helen Turner Thompson participated in a gospel music history event last June at the Rock Hall.

I visited the Akron Museum of Art for the first time this summer, and I really had a great time.

This is Felice Hairston (and Fred Burton, in the background) at the Gospel Music Historical Society’s August 2023 “All White Affair.”

Just when you think no one is watching, an anonymous photographer snaps your picture at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

(left to right) Sr. Vicky, Mrs. Phillis Fuller Clipps, and Sr. Rita after Mass at the St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Movie Night!

A planning session with Dr. Doretha Williams (left, National Museum of African American History and Culture), Kwanza Brewer (educator and leader in the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers –and gourmet popcorn.

Memories of my new favorite meeting space . . . ThirdSpace Reading Room in Cleveland!

The National Museum of African American Museum (left)! Much more about this great institution later. #NMAAHC

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Praying Grounds Collection Will Benefit from Humanities Grant to Cleveland State University Library

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
The “Praying Grounds” Collage for the Cleveland Memory Website.

By Regennia N. Williams, PhD

Earlier this month, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Praying Grounds: African American Faith Communities, A Documentary and Oral History Project would benefit from a recent American Rescue Plan Humanities Grant to Cleveland State University’s Michael Schwartz Library. The library plans to “use the American Rescue Plan funds to process, digitize, and promote . . . Praying Grounds, which contains oral histories, audio visual materials, ephemera, and research materials.”

Launched in 2003, Praying Grounds was a CSU-based project through the spring semester of 2015, when I left CSU and moved to Maryland in 2016. All materials collected through 2015 were donated to Library Special Collections.

The 2021 online description for the funding initiative suggested the following, “With funds from he National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the American Library Association (ALA) will distribute $2 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to help anchor libraries as strong humanities institutions as they emerge and rebuild from the coronavirus pandemic. The purpose of this emergency relief program is to assist libraries that have been adversely affected by the pandemic and require support to restore and sustain their core activities.” In February 2022, the ALA announced that 200 libraries would receive grants of $10,000 each.

According to Marsha Miles, Assistant Director for Collections and Resource Management, a portion of the CSU grant will cover costs associated with hiring a graduate assistant to work on the Praying Grounds Project during the summer of 2023. Congratulations to Marsha and Amanda Goodsett, Performing Arts and Humanities Librarian, on the receipt of this grant award.

For more information, please visit the library’s blog at https://researchguides.csuohio.edu/blog .

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Helen Turner-Thompson and the Power of Words and Music

Posted on March 30, 2024 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

By Regennia N. Williams, PhD

When I was informed of the passing of Rev. Helen Turner-Thompson (January 7, 1931 – March 5, 2024), I immediately thought of the times when she graciously agreed to share her oral history with me or other individuals who were working with me.

In 2004, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rev. Helen Turner-Thompson in her home for The HistoryMakers, one of the nation’s largest African American video oral history projects. The original interview is housed with others for this project in the Library of Congress. This screenshot is taken from The HistoryMakers website. For more information, including video excerpts from the interview, click HERE.

In the 2003 studio interview for the Praying Grounds Project at Cleveland State University, the 2004 HistoryMakers interview in her home, and the 2021 telephone interview with the members of the A. Grace Lee Mims Arts and Culture Oral History Project, she let everyone know that she had both contributed to the art of Black sacred music and been influenced by the contributions of other artists.

(Above) Rev. Helen Turner-Thompson and her vocal and instrumental ensemble posed with me for this Juneteenth 2021 photograph at the Western Reserve Historical Society. (Photograph courtesy of Regennia N. Williams.)

Hers was definitely a life well-lived and carefully documented, and numerous interviews, concert performances, church services, articles, book chapters, and books provide evidence of the value of her work. Those of us who knew her benefitted greatly from her contributions, and she will be missed. Thanks especially to the HistoryMakers, the Cleveland Memory Project, where the Praying Grounds Collection is housed, and the Gospel Music Historical Society, where she served on the governing board, students of African American history will continue to benefit from her rich legacy for years to come.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Community Curation and Digitization Activities Have the Potential to Make Every Month Black History Month

Posted on December 26, 2023 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

Pictured above (left to right) are the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Washington Monument. (Photographs by Regennia N. Williams.)

By Regennia N. Williams, PhD

For reasons that are obvious to everyone with an interest in African American history, the first quarter of the calendar year can be incredibly busy. Between the commemorative events related to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in January and the month-long celebration of Black history in February, there is seldom, if ever, a shortage of thought-provoking programs for audiences of all ages. For residents of Greater Cleveland, however, an already rich season of arts and humanities programming is about to become even richer.

Beginning in January 2024, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will partner with local businesses, faith communities, cultural arts organizations, educational institutions, neighborhood groups, and individuals to promote the preservation of African American history at the local level. The partnership may continue for several years, and it has the potential to improve access to African American archives in research institutions, and make every month Black history month! 

Thanks to the Robert F. Smith Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History, Clevelanders will soon be able to reap the same partnership benefits that residents of Washington, DC, Chicago, New Orleans, Nashville, and other communities have already enjoyed. Residents will participate in workshops, work one-on-one with museum professionals from the nation’s capital, learn more about their own collections and materials that are available in local library and archival collections, and view and discuss the “gOD-Talk” documentary film, “a groundbreaking project led by the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life in association with the Pew Research Center.”

Dr. Doretha Williams is the director of the Smith Center, and I am pleased to serve as the local program director for the Cleveland partnership. ”MLK, Movements, Millennials, and More: From ‘We Shall Overcome and the Civil Rights Movement to #BlackLivesMatter and ‘A Place for All People'” is the theme for Cleveland’s January launch. Site visits and other program activities will begin on Wednesday, January 24th with a tour of the Severance Music Center and the archives of the Cleveland Orchestra and will conclude on Saturday, January 27th with a “Community Curation Summit Meeting” at the city’s historic East Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Pictured below, this local landmark was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

The African American Archives Auxiliary (AAAA /”Quad A”) of the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS), which is a Smithsonian Affiliate, and African American History Initiatives at WRHS will serve as the official hosts. The RASHAD Center, Inc., Black Girl Media, the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (GCUFF), and the JT Lynch Jazz Ensemble are among the other local partners. This NMAAHC partnership is the first of its kind for Cleveland, and local groups are understandably thrilled to be part of the upcoming series of events.

Dr. Doretha Williams is the director of the Smith Center, and I am pleased to serve as the local program director for the Cleveland initiative. Admission for all public programs will be free, and registration will begin on January 3, 2024.  Day, evening, and weekend events are planned, so please watch for more details here next month. You are also invited to click on the links above for more information about the work of NMAAHC and the Smith Center, or send an email to rashadcenterinc1@gmail.com for more information on the NMAAHC-Cleveland partnership.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Our March 2023 Newsletter is Now Available on ISSUU!

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

By Regennia N. Williams

You are cordially invited to read the March 2023 edition of our Traditions & Beliefs Newsletter on ISSUU. This publication includes articles on the Ohio Humanities Council-funded “Greenstone Church Oral History Project,” which features first-person narratives of current and former members of Cleveland’s historic East Mount Zion Baptist Church and the Euclid Avenue Christian Church; recent programs focusing on the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and visual evidence related to RASHAD’s support of concerts of Black Sacred music in 2022-2023. ENJOY!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Dr. King / Rabbi Heschel Presentation Video Is Now Available on YouTube

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

Hello! If you missed the our tribute to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in January, please know that the video recording of the Zoom event is now available on YouTube. If you would like to watch it, please click HERE.

Thank you for your interest, and enjoy! –Regennia N. Williams, PhD

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Join us for the January 19, 2023, “Reading about and Reflecting on the Work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel” 6 PM Event!

Posted on November 25, 2022 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

Regennia N. Williams, PhD

You are cordially invited to join me for a free Zoom discussion about the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. This event will take place at 6 p.m. (EST) on Thursday, January 19, 2023, during the week of the MLK holiday. The discussion will focus on As Good As Anybody (a children’s book), and selections from A Call to Conscience and No Religion Is an Island. (See images in this post for more information on these titles.

Those who are planning to participate, may also want to review Duke University’s online summary information on Rabbi Heschel’s manuscript collection and Stanford University’s online information about the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute prior to the discussion. Here is the Zoom login information:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83377982159?pwd=c2xoT1NDMkVRTlpFM2VtR3hBZTdiZz09

Meeting ID: 833 7798 2159

Passcode: 260292

Thank you!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s a New Season for RASHAD!

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

By Regennia N. Williams, PhD

Juneteenth 2022 signaled the start of a sun-drenched new season in an ongoing celebration of African American history and culture that included church histories, oral histories, a film festival, museum exhibits, and more. In a similar fashion, Greater Cleveland’s snowy 2022 Veterans Day weekend signaled the official end of my extended summer and the start of a fall-winter holiday season that promises to be as enlightening and exhilarating as the previous season.

Please know that you are cordially invited to review the following photographic memories from my post-Juneteenth through Veterans Day season. I look forward to sharing new posts related to activities that will begin during the 2022 Thanksgiving celebration and continue through Black History Month 2023. Thanks, always, for your interest in the history and cultures of Africa and the Diaspora.

The roof of Cleveland’s St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church is shown here on a beautiful day in July 2022. The church is observing the centenary of its establishment from April 2022 through April 2023.

Pernel Jones Jr., President of the Cuyahoga County Council, and Regennia N. Williams are pictured at a September 2022 Assembly for the Arts breakfast for elected officials.

State School Board member Meryl Johnson (left) is shown here with Regennia N. Williams in September 2022. Both are members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Iris LeFleur ((left) was the guest lecturer for the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival’s 2022 “Black to the Future” / Afrofuturism closing night event in September.

(left to right) Virginia Dawson, Regennia N. Williams, and Carol Philips-Bey have agreed to join Jeanne Madison in co-authoring a scholarly article on “Forest City Hospital and the Medical Associates: Race, Place, and Community-Based Healthcare, c. 1957-1978” (working title). The three co-authors were photographed in Cleveland’s UnBar Cafe.

The Rev. Dr. John Humbert (left) and the Rev. Dr. Brian Cash are shown here after Dr. Humbert’s interview for “The Greenstone Church Oral History Project” at the East Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. Cash serves as East Mt. Zion’s pastor, and Regennia N. Williams is the oral historian for this project.

Regennia N. Williams (left) is shown above with Damian Goggans, one of the narrators for the Western Reserve Historical Society’s A. Grace Lee Mims Arts and Culture Oral History Project that Williams directs. Goggans, a guitarist, is an alumnus of the Cleveland School of the Arts and is completing his undergraduate studies a the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

An exhibit featuring a hologram of the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. (left) opened at the Maltz Museum’ in the fall of 2022. Rev. Moss, who served as one of the Civil Rights Era lieutenants for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is Pastor Emeritus of Cleveland Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, and he was one of the Maltz Museum’s founding board members.

Autumn leaves at Cleveland’s Western Reserve Historical Society.

Award-winning writer and educator Nikki Giovanni (left) delivered the Friday, November 11, 2022, keynote address at the conference for the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the National Congress of Black Women. Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell serves as the president of the Greater Cleveland group.

Nathaniel Williams, Sr. (1930-1978), a US Army veteran, was one of several service men and women honored during the 2022 Veterans Day Weekend activities.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Her Path: Following in the Footsteps of Mrs. Joan Southgate

Posted on July 3, 2022 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams (left) and Mrs. Joan Southgate.

Regennia N. Williams, PhD

On June 18, 2022, I had the honor of speaking with Mrs. Joan Southgate, the activist-author of In Their Path: A Grandmother’s 519-Mile Underground Railroad Walk (2004). As fate would have it, we both chose to walk through Cleveland’s Rockefeller Park during the Association of African American Cultural Gardens’ Juneteenth celebration.

I find it difficult to believe that it has been 18 years since Mrs. Southgate completed and wrote a book about her amazing journey across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada–just as many of our enslaved ancestors had done in their quest for freedom over a century ago. I was not at all surprised, however, when she began to share valuable Black history lessons with a child who had also visited the park on that beautiful Saturday afternoon.

We are all blessed to have someone like Mrs. Southgate in our midst, who will help us discover paths that lead to freedom and hope for a better future. If you have not already read her book, I hope that you will find the time to take a look at it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Celebrate “Cleveland History Days” June 24 – July 3!

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director

Dear Friends of the RASHAD Center,

If you missed the opening events for the 2022 Cleveland History Days celebration, please know that you still have time to attend lots of other great programs. Please click HERE for more information. Special thanks to Sandra Morgan, granddaughter of inventor Garrett A. Morgan Sr., Attorney-Actor Peter Lawson Jones, Garrett A. Morgan III, Patrick Shepherd, and other participants and guests for supporting the opening day activities at the Cleveland History Center. –Regennia

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church: Celebrating 100 Years of Service to African Americans and Cleveland’s Fairfax Community

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio.
(Photo courtesy of Regennia N. Williams.)

By Regennia N. Williams, PhD

On April 24, 2022, “Divine Mercy Sunday,” members of St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church officially launched the celebration of its 100th anniversary. A century earlier, in response to action on the part of a group of African American petitioners, Bishop Joseph Schrembs of the Diocese of Cleveland formally declared “the establishment of a parish for the Colored Catholics of Cleveland” during an April 11, 1922, meeting. That parish was Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, and the parish continues to serve congregants and residents of the city’s Fairfax community. Some photographs from the centenary celebration’s kick-off are included below. For more information on the parish’s rich history, I invite you to visit the website for the Diocese of Cleveland HERE.

Dr. Regennia N. Williams and The Most Reverend Bishop Edward Malesic on Sunday, April 24, 2022, following the anniversary service at St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church. (Photo Courtesy of Regennia N. Williams)
Sr. Juanita Shealey, CSJ, long-time member of St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, is shown here at the anniversary celebration on Sunday, April 24, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Regennia N. Williams.)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment