May 3: Spelman College Archives to House African Voices

Spelman College Archives to House African Voices Magazine

The Spelman College Archives will be the new repository for African Voices, a literary magazine devoted to publishing emerging writers and visual artists of color from the diaspora.

Founded in 1992, African Voices Communications, Inc., a nonprofit arts institution, publishes one of the few surviving print magazines documenting Black art, literature and culture.

Past editions of the magazine, along with organizational records, videos and digitized photographs that span three decades, will be preserved by Spelman College, alongside a historical archive of the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series, the first Academy Awards qualifying film festival dedicated to providing opportunities to women of color in the film industry.

Through this partnership, which will be funded by a grant from the New York Community Trust, the Archives will also have access to an extensive list of 5,000 films produced, directed or written by women of color since 1997.

"I am elated for the donation of the African Voices collection to the Spelman College Archives, and for the ongoing collaborative relationship. This partnership will amplify the work of the African Voices staff, board, the creative artistry of the contributors, and the depth and breadth of the Black diasporic cultural experience overall," said Holly A. Smith, Spelman archivist. "The connection will also facilitate important research on the experiences of Black women and Black communities nationally and internationally. Spelman’s archives will be a wonderful and careful steward of these materials for long term access and preservation of this critically important collection."

Spelman Students Create Games and Immersive Experiences at Cross-Cultural Impact Jam

Spelman students Angela Kihiko, C’2021, Lorre Jones, C’2022, and Anetha Evans, C’2023, joined more than 60 students from 18 different universities and other countries in March to participate in a Cross-Cultural Impact Jam hosted by Unity Play, a popular game engine that allows users to create interactive games online.

During the week-long program, students from Canada, the United States, Senegal and France collaborated to create games and immersive experiences around the theme of inclusivity. They also participated in activities that explored how to design for social impact, and workshops on the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the games industry. The Spelman scholars were then grouped with students from other countries to develop a prototype experience in Unity Play around the theme of inclusive design.

Kihiko, Jones and Evans participated on three teams. Kihiko's team, "On the Flip Side," won second place.

By the end of the program, each scholar had a portfolio piece published on the Unity Play platform, and gained insight on how to encourage equity and inclusion in the game industry.

All game prototypes are available on the Cross-Cultural Impact Jam Showcase, hosted by Unity.

Documentary Filmmaking Students Screen Senior Thesis

The first graduating class of Spelman’s Department of Art & Visual Culture presented their documentary films during a virtual screening on Thursday, April 22.

The films, created by seniors Brittany M. Campbell, Alston-Simone E. Bowman, Lauren C. Moseley, Jasmine McCaskill and Zoe S. Watkins, demonstrated how each scholar embraced and employed the real-world training they received from the program, said Ayoka Chenzira, Ph.D., division chair for the arts, founding director of the Digital Moving Image Salon, professor and award-winning filmmaker.

"The class of 2021 documentary film majors are more than just the first class to graduate with degrees in documentary filmmaking. They are pioneers," said Dr. Chenzira. "As pioneers, the artist scholars worked to produce the films in the midst of a global pandemic and nation-wide shut-down. We are very proud of them."

Through a new grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, students were provided with film equipment to complete their projects while learning at a distance during the coronavirus pandemic.

Spelman Alumna Recognized For Her Social Justice Work by Wheaton College

Stacey Abrams, C'95 received the Wheaton College 2021 Otis Social Justice Award.

The award was presented to Abrams during a virtual event on Tuesday, March 23.

Following the awards presentation, Abrams, along with Joe Wilson Jr., artist-in-residence in Wheaton’s Department of Theatre and Dance, discussed the powerful and transformative roles storytellers hold in society. For much of the talk, they discussed the many ways through which creative work strengthens civic rights and impacts fair voting access.

The Otis Social Justice lecture series was established in 1959 through the generosity of philanthropist Henry Witte Otis. Eleanor Roosevelt was among the earliest Otis lecturers in 1962.

Marian Wright Edelman, C’60, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, was a previous award recipient.