ICYMI: The Black Beyond Data Reading Group hosts free, virtual, monthly meetings focused on exploring ideas around community-based data analytics (CBDA), a collaborative approach to data that involves community members in the collection, management, and analysis of data in their communities

The aim of the Black Beyond Data Reading Group is to gather people (researchers, faculty, community activists) who have an interest in Black community-based data analytics to critically research and study social issues to initiate transformative change in Black communities.

This month, in place of our regularly-scheduled Black Beyond Data Reading Group, please join us for Who Owns Black Data: Slavery & Data, hosted on March 28-29, 2024 in Baltimore, MD by the Black Beyond Data Ecosystem!

What: A gathering. A palenque. A conversation. A refusal.
Where: 📍Johns Hopkins University 📍Morgan State University 📍Virtual
Why: This historic convening will gather a distinguished group of scholars, librarians, activists and archivists to discuss, elucidate, and provide public answers to the question: who owns and controls the Black historical and cultural record? 

Keep reading for a summary of what's in store! ⬇️

Thursday, March 28 (10-11 am) @ Morgan State University

“Liberation Seeds: Baltimore Youth Centered Community Organizations Share Lessons Learned”

Community Workshop facilitated by Muse360 x African Diaspora Alliance

(Martin D. Jenkins Hall, Room 512-514)

Founder of Muse 360, Sharayna Christmas and Co-Founder of The Youth of The Diaspora, Moriah Ray, share their experiences working with youth and young adults teaching African Diaspora history. Both organizations use a variety of methods including the creative arts and funded international Diaspora exchanges. The organizers will share lessons learned and the impact of creating and implementing African-centered coursework as a mental health intervention for Black youth. Christmas and Ray will facilitate a guided conversation about the importance of youth-centered community organizing and bridging the gap between academic institutions and grassroots organizations.

Thursday, March 28 (7-9 pm)

@ Morgan State University

OMELORA: A Night of Films in Service to Our People

(Martin D. Jenkins Hall, Room 100)

The OMELORA Film Festival is a night of films in service to our people.

The preservation of stories throughout the Diaspora and the creative telling of them through film is part of what keeps us alive through time and space.

These short films span different genres and time periods but together these filmmakers help us to understand the legacy of not only slavery and data but also resistance. These films are reminders that we have found ways to reclaim our power against all odds, connect with nature, and use our creativity to carve out new ways of being and living when nothing else seemed possible. Featuring artists and filmmakers from Baltimore, Chicago, and the Caribbean this festival brings answers to century-old questions. It is with great pride that we present these films to you and we ask that you watch them with an open mind and heart.

Friday, March 29 (9 am - 5 pm) @ Johns Hopkins University

Public Symposium - Who Owns Black Data: Slavery & Data

Scott-Bates Commons, Salons A&B 

(3301 N. Charles, Baltimore, MD)

DATA - 9:15 to 10:30 am

SLAVERY - 10:45 am to 12 noon

REPARATIONS - 2 - 3:15 pm

NEXT STEPS - 3:30 - 4:30 pm

Friday, March 29 (6-9 pm)

@ NoMüNoMü 

Keynote Conversation & Bombazo

(709 Howard St, Baltimore, MD)

Please join us for a concluding keynote conversation led by Jennifer Morgan (New York University), Dorothy Berry (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) and Bilphena Yawhon (Archive Liberia) and a bomba workshop and bombazo hosted by Semilla Cultural.

All events are free and open to the public. Join us!

Please abide by COVID protocols and enjoy the VIRTUAL experience if you are feeling ill! Masks will be required for the duration of all events; masks will be provided if you forget your own.

Sponsored by the Black Beyond Data Ecosystem, the Diaspora Solidarities Foundation,  the Mellon Foundation, Morgan State University, the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University, the JHU Center for Africana Studies, the JHU School of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities, the JHU Program in Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies (LACLxS), Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries and Museums,  National Historic Publications and Records Commission, NoMüNoMü; African Diaspora Alliance, the New Generation Scholars/Muse360, and Black Femme Supremacy Film Fest.