Sharing Stories and Preserving History in Cincinnati's West End, Over-the-Rhine and Beyond
Annual Spring (virtual) Luncheon
March 24, Noon- 1 pm
Click Here to Register. Virtual link will be sent automatically.
Presented in partnership with the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, Over-the-Rhine Museum, Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, and University of Cincinnati Public History Program
Hear from four upstanders, Keloni Parks (Ke), Dr. Anne Delano Steinert, Prof. Laverne Summerlin and Dr. Rebecca Wingo, preserving history in Cincinnati’s West End, Over-the-Rhine, and beyond through oral history projects, museums, and community-based history projects. This discussion, facilitated by Holocaust & Humanity Center CEO Sarah Weiss, will illuminate the vital work of making history publicly accessible and of carrying forward the stories of diverse community members.
Keloni Parks (Ke) is a Branch Manager at the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, and was born and raised in Cincinnati. She attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) for visual art, but after graduating from MICA, she decided to pursue librarianship, realizing that she’d be able to help people and be creative. Ke is currently serving on the board of the Mercantile Library, and is interested in history (especially Black and urban history), and always trying to figure out how she can better serve the community.
Anne Delano Steinert is a preservationist, educator, and historian with over two decades experience working with the urban environment. Steinert is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the history department at the University of Cincinnati where she studies public history and the history of the built environment with a focus on late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Cincinnati. She is the founder of the Over-the-Rhine Museum and curator of the Look Here!, Schools for the City, and Finding Kenyon Barr exhibitions. She was the co-creator of the New Deal Neighbors oral history project which focuses on Greenhills, Ohio and has also taught at Xavier University. She is currently researching UC’s founder, Charles McMicken and helping to create a new center for community-focused public history and urban planning collaborations at UC.
Rebecca Wingo is a scholar of the Indigenous and American West and the Director of Public History at the University of Cincinnati. Broadly, she studies houses: homesteads in the West, houses replacing tipis on the Crow Reservation in Montana, and the use of eminent domain to displace Black citizens for highway construction. She recently co-edited a volume called Digital Community Engagement: Partnering Communities with the Academy that seeks to explore the best practices and ethical challenges of academic and community partnerships. (It’s AVAILABLE FOR FREE ONLINE.)
LaVerne Summerlin: Professor Summerlin is a professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a BA in English from Edgecliff College and am MEd in English from Xavier University. She served as the co-director of the Urban Initiatives Language Education Program bringing Black and Appalachian literature into the Cincinnati Public Schools for over ten years. She is the recipient of several awards for teaching excellence and community service including the Dolly Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Cincinnati. She grew up in the West End has just published Gems of Cincinnati’s West End: Black Children and Catholic Missionaries 1940-1970 about the role of Catholic schools and churches in the development of African American leaders.
What is an Upstander?
Upstanders are individuals who stand up for others and their rights. They fight against injustice and unfairness, and they use their character strengths to inspire action and become the best of humanity today. They are willing to sacrifice. Anyone can be an upstander, and now is the time to be one.
The Cincy Upstanders Project is part of a series from the Holocaust & Humanity Center. Sarah Weiss from the Center will join us to run the zoom event.
Questions? Contact Sean Pollock