With the assistance of Tamara Kelly, Uncrowned Queens Institute intern, we are beginning to compile the contents of the next book in the Uncrowned Community Builders Series. This book will focus on the Uncrowned Kings of Western New York. Ms. Kelly, an undergraduate student, majoring in Sociology and African American Studies, has spent the last semester doing the research for this volume.
The Uncrowned Queens co-founders met with Community Action Organization CEO, L. Nathan Hare on November 7th to discuss plans to implement the second Uncrowned Community Builders affiliate with the CAO. Thanks to Mayor Byron D. Brown’s offer to fund two kiosks, one at the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library and a second at a CAO site, we will have two UCB Affiliates in the Buffalo/Western New York area. The Institute will be working with the CAO’s after-school program for high school students to develop a digital literacy, family history and self-exploration program, using technology and the extensive history on the Uncrowned Community Builders websites. The proposed program will make use of the Institute’s innovative technology to promote career pathways in computer programming and engineering. The program will be initiated in early 2009.
“Uncovering the Past to Preserve the Future: A Decade of Progress” is the title of a series of events being planned by the Institute to commemorate our tenth anniversary. Founded in 1999 as a focus group of the Women’s Pavilion 2001, the goal of the focus group was to develop a program to commemorate and celebrate the activities of African American women from the time of the Pan American Exposition to 2001. The Uncrowned Queens website was initially launched on February 15, 2001. The community response to this event and subsequent activities, focused on gathering, preserving and sharing the histories of African American community builders of Western New York convinced Drs. Brooks-Bertram and Seals Nevergold that a permanent organization was needed. The Uncrowned Queens Institute was founded in 2002 and became a non-profit in 2003. We are grateful to our founding Board members: Dr. John Staley, Ms. Pashion Marshall, Ms. Lillian Bertram, Ms. Alanna Marrow, Ms. Sylvia Wright, and Mr. Derrick M. Byrd, Jr., who have been our stalwart supporters from the beginning. Read more about the extensive programs that we have developed in the last ten years on the Uncrowned Community Builders: About Us page. More...
In November the Institute will formally establish a partnership with the State University of New York Press. The Press’ Executive Director, Dr. Gary Dunham met with the UQ co-founders, Drs. Brooks-Bertram and Seals Nevergold during the summer to discuss details of the partnership. In addition to marketing the current titles of the Uncrowned Queens Series, the Press will also digitize the four volumes. The Institute will also work with the Press to identify future publications, some of which will be written by Seals Nevergold and Brooks-Bertram.
In April, 2008, the Institute initiated the Uncrowned Community Builders Affiliate Program. An Uncrowned Community Builder (UCB) Affiliate is any organization, e.g. an educational institution, museum, community-based organization or municipality that supports the mission and vision of the Uncrowned Queens Institute and agrees to replicate the Uncrowned Community Builders Model, in part or in its entirety. More...
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