About
Credits
The Documenting the Modern School project, which led to this website, started in 2016 with collaboration between Karen D. Taylor, Founder and Executive Director of While We Are Still Here, and Ansley T. Erickson, Associate Professor of History and Education Policy and Co-Director of the Harlem Education History Project.
In 2017 and 2019, Teachers College graduate students in a research seminar on Harlem’s educational history learned to conduct oral history interviews at a multigenerational reunion organized by Karen D. Taylor, and at later gatherings. Interviewers included Yianella Blanco, Ansley Erickson, Kelsey Hanf, Joshua Heitkamp, Matthew Kautz, Dominique Lester, Laura Montanari, Irene Oujo, Shellina Shidnia, Samantha Reed, and Karen D. Taylor. Mike Tyner and Joel Vargas recorded video and sound. Rachel Klepper edited interview files, Noël Um audited transcripts, and Khadijah Akeem organized and confirmed permissions. John Fleming, Esther Cyna, Damaris Dunn, Barry Goldenberg, Rachel Klepper, and Jean Park worked with Modern School alumni during the multigenerational reunion and later events to make digital copies of their personal collections related to the school.
Modern School community members April Bowie, Melanie Edwards, Deidre B. Flowers, Diana Lachatenere, and Cherilyn ‘Liv’ Wright reviewed interview themes for the 2019 interviews and discussed plans and ideas for this website. Modern School alumni participated in “tagging parties,” organized by Khadijah Akeem and with facilitation from Deidre B. Flowers, to develop metadata for the items contained here. Participants included Yvonne Daniel, Melanie Edwards, Diana Lachatanere, Robin Jones, Barbara North, Everard Rutledge, Daphne Skeeter, Olivia White, Cherilyn (Liv) Wright.
Working from their discussions, Khadijah Akeem, Nelson Luna, and Ansley Erickson developed tags for all items here, with guidance from Archives for Black Lives.
In draft form this website was reviewed and edited by [LIST]
Nelson Luna, Karen D. Taylor, and Ansley Erickson contributed original essays here. Edited versions of previously published work by Deidre B. Flowers and Daniel Perlstein are included as essays as well.
The project was supported by Tina Campt through Barnard College’s Harlem Semester, an action grant from HumanitiesNY, the Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, and by the Center on History and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.
[LOGOS to come here - WWASH, TC, HumanitiesNY, IUME]
Terms of Use
[NEED TO DRAFT. KEY POINTS INCLUDE ONLY NON-COMMERCIAL USE, NO DOWNLOADING IMAGES OR VIDEO (this is blocked by a couple of features on the website but is also technically possible for more advanced computer people)
Recognize that copyright and ownership of the items here stays with the people who created them - narrators of interviews, writers of documents, photographers. For permission to reproduce, to be granted for non-commercial use only, email harlemedhistory@tc.columbia.edu.]
How to Cite
Please cite using the following templates:
Documents
Cherilyn ‘Liv’ Wright, “My Speech,” June 16, 1969. The Modern School: Independent Black Education in Harlem, 1934-1998, www.modernschoolharlem.org.
Photographs
Annual class photograph, grade 5, 1970. The Modern School: Independent Black Education in Harlem, 1934-1998, www.modernschoolharlem.org.
Oral Histories
Cami Bethea Oral History Interview, April 21, 2017. The Modern School: Independent Black Education in Harlem, 1934-1998, www.modernschoolharlem.org.
Essays
Karen D. Taylor, “Essay Title Here,” 2021. The Modern School: Independent Black Education in Harlem, 1934-1998, www.modernschoolharlem.org.
This Website
This website uses Wax, a minimal computing (minicomp) framework for the creation of static web collections and exhibits led by Marii Nyröp. The project is currently maintained by Marii Nyröp at New York University and Alex Gil at Columbia University Libraries. Ansley Erickson built the site, with extensive and patient help from Alex Gil.