Resillient
Life has been very busy for me on “The Hill” (Alabama A&M). Last week was restless to say the least. I had a ton of engineering work to complete, along with managing my responsibility in the dormitory as an RA. I also had to make time for my work in the archive. This week I was able to make a sizable amount of progress with promoting the archive. I met with students one on one to help them access, and navigate the archive. I was not sure what type of responses I would get from their exploration, but I was happy to hear that the students were enjoying themselves in the archive. Students were able to use the archive to learn more about their hometowns, organizations of interest, institutions, and areas of study.
Below are a few testimonials:
Student one: The video I watched was very informative and gave me more insight about James Baldwin from a perspective of a person who actually knew him. I used to look for more videos about James Baldwin and his contribution to black society so to be able to find many more videos about him is definitely something I'm excited about. I am sure that this will leave me more insightful about him and his work.
Student two: It’s very accessible. I really love the transcript provided on the side of the video. I was able to find stories about the founder of my institution. I was also able to view stories about History Makers from my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama!
Student three: This is such a great resource! I didn’t know we had access to this. I was able to hear more about the black history of my hometown Denver, Colorado. I got to learn more about The Five Points, which is a popular black community where I am from. I never got the chance to know what it was like before I was born. I also really appreciated the cool search functions like using the map to filter my search. I got to see how Colorado and Alabama are connected in different ways. 10 out of 10!
This past week, I was able to learn about a phenomenal black woman. Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She was interviewed by Angela Bassett: actress, director, producer, and friend of Mrs. Graves.
Denyce Graves is a native of Washington D.C. She is the product of a single parent household, functioning at its best. She was the middle child of three. Her mother was said to be very structured and flexible as she had to fill both roles of parenting due to Denyce’s absent father. Denyce recalls her mother playing football and superman with them as well as providing tender love and affection. Graves also recalled her mother being strict when she was a child, and she jokingly stated that her mother is consistent with that even today. I found that joking yet serious remark commercial.
In the development of her career, Graves was trained at numerous schools for the arts. She attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Oberlin College, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. This allowed her to gain a lot of experience and exposure. She was also coached and influenced by women like Hellen Hodom and Marian anderson. She also starred in many Opera’s across the world
During Graves’ career, she hit a hard point. In the year of 2000 she experienced a long term hardship. The vocal cords that afforded her the surplus of opportunities that she enjoyed were damaged due to physical and emotional stress. They bled and caused eating troubles. During this time she ended up losing a lot but Mrs. Graves is resilient. She continued to take care of her child while taking over a year to nurse her body back to health. I would have never thought that vocal cords could be so detrimental to someone's life!
During Graves’ interview, she stated something that grabbed my attention. She said that one thing that she learned over the years was to be yourself. She was able to recall hearing the voice of Leontyne Price, and not missing a single detail about her individuality through the expression of her music. Mrs. Price is an African American, southern, opera singer. She is currently 94 years old.
