History Center Seeks Photos, Documents On African American Life In San Diego

Speaker 1: 00:00 Calling all historical pictures and documents relating to African American life in San Diego from the 1850s on as part of the San Diego African American museum of fine arts. Third annual keepers of the culture exhibit the museum is partnering with the San Diego history center to scan as many historical photos and documents as possible into the collection of both institutions. Joining me to talk more about this major effort is the executive director of the San Diego African American museum of fine arts guy 80 Finney and Elsa Vidya of the San Diego history center. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Thank you. You know, before we get into the effort to scan all that material, can you tell us more about the keepers of the culture event? Speaker 2: 00:43 Yeah. This is our third annual keepers of the culture and it really has gotten to be very important. We've exposed hundreds of people to the African American culture through this event. It's a Saturday, February 8th, from a five to 8:00 PM. And just to tell you in the past who we have celebrated, we did a professor Chuck ambers who founded the uh, African American museum in old town. Uh, Harold Brown, the founder of the San Diego civil rights museum. We've honored Willie Morrow of the hair comb history, the Han Blevins who has, uh, was founder of the Cooma festival manually the Brown, the international newly known sculptor and Makeda dread, uh, the Chan, the founder of the world beat museum and can come out Kenyatta, the Grammy winning producer. And this year we are proud to honor the common ground theater. It was originally called the Southeast community theater and its mission is to produce classics and new works by and about people of African American descent that entertain, educate, and connect with the audience of all ages. And is the second oldest theater in the United States. Wow. They also have Starla Lewis who is a poet, author, professor, chairwoman mentor, mother and life coach. She is the founder of the celebration of everlasting love, C E L L, sell a consulting form. And then finally of the family of dr Robert misses and Dr. Robert Matthews, they are servants of this community. They started the parade, the African American corroborate and, and any number of other things they've done. Speaker 1: 02:22 Wow. So many people, uh, to celebrate there. How did the idea to scan all of these historical documents first come about? Speaker 3: 02:29 Well, we have a couple of exhibits at the San Diego history center that are upcoming in the spring 2020 and they are the Nathan Harrison exhibit and an additional exhibit about African American history in San Diego. And so what we want to do is we want to make sure that we reflect and that we focus and that we tell the history of that community, the African American community. So it'll be two exhibits. The core, the main one would be Nathan Harrison, who was the first African American homesteader in the County of San Diego in the mid 1850s. So it's really exciting because we're partnering with the, um, dr Seth [inaudible], who is a professor of anthropology here at San Diego state. He's done an excavation in the past 15 years. And so what he's gathered from the excavation will be on display at the history center at the night, Nathan Harrison exhibit. But what we want to do is we also want to tell the community, the history of the community, um, to the present and maybe in the past 10, 20, 30, 50 years. Speaker 3: 03:31 And so we want people who come to the history center to see the history of the African American community as well. And that's why we need all these historical documents and photos. And so we want people to come out to the history center on February 8th. The S it's a Saturday. It's a same day that we have the event of keepers of the culture. So at four 30 at the history center in Babel a park. And what we'll do is we will scan the documents, the photos that people come in. And so as soon as they are scan, they will be returned to, um, the owners of course. And so we will not keep anything. Um, it's basically documenting history. And this is fantastic because we'll be documenting history, we'll be preserving history and we'll be able to share it with the rest of the community so that they learn more about San Diego history. Speaker 2: 04:21 Because I was going to ask, you know, the pictures and documents will be part of the keepers of the culture event, but will people be able to see them after that event is over? Speaker 3: 04:29 So the possibility is, you know, depending on what documents they bring and if they have a connection and then they have a, a big part of African American history in San Diego, there was a very good um, opportunity that they would be on display. So you know, they could come back, um, and look at it on an exhibit in the San Diego history center. Speaker 2: 04:49 And so, I mean here it is 20, 20 and we're trying to get a clear picture of what African American history has been like here in San Diego. What have been some of the obstacles to telling this history prior to today? The reason that the San Diego African American museum of fine art exists is to make sure people remember, is see, learn from their culture. And so some of the obstacle is that the copulation of African Americans is this is getting smaller and smaller and we have less and less of a presence. It was a rich presence of African Americans in the past that is starting to not there. They're losing it because there's no one to talk about it. They don't see it. So this is a real chance to give people a boy history, his story lesson about African Americans. And so the scanning becomes part of that history to allow people to see some of this rich history that may be going away and we want to, we want to preserve that. That's why we exist. That's why the American museum exists. And I think this is a very wonderful thing to happen with this scanny event. And Elsa, can you tell us about Nathan Harrison, who was the first African American in San Diego County Speaker 3: 05:59 in the mid 1850s you all will feature him in an exhibit this spring. What can people expect to see there? Well, what's really interesting about Nathan Harrison, he is the first African American to come to San Diego County and, um, as a homesteader. And so, you know, that's, that's really impressive. And what's interesting is that a lot of people don't know about the African American community or even the first African Americans in San Diego County. And so Nathan Harrison obviously is one of them, but there's several others up in Julian. And so what we want to do with this is tell the, the, the history of his life. And, um, dr Seth Mallory is from San Diego state who's been doing the excavation on his property on Nathan Harrison's property for the last 15 years, has discovered incredible artifacts or objects from his site. And so on. Many of those will be part of the exhibition. And you know, some of our listeners may not know that this, that San Diego has an African American museum of fine arts. Can you tell me more about that and, and how people can visit? Speaker 2: 07:01 Yeah. So, um, there's never been a museum with walls. And so we have collaborated with almost all the major museums in San Diego and we'll continue to do so until we have our own walls. And we're open to that, by the way. But that's how it came about. But we really love really love working with the San Diego history center. In fact, with all of the museums that we've collaborated with, they just have the best feel for making sure that we are heard as African Americans. So to bill and to the San Diego history center center, kudos for the relationship. Speaker 3: 07:35 Well, I know there are a lot of people looking forward to learning more about this part of history. I've been speaking with gaiety Finney, executive director of the African American museum of fine arts and Elsa Vidya of the San Diego history center. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you so much. Speaker 4: 07:55 [inaudible].