{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/sx6445kp1g/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Oral History Interview with Dr. Tamara Butler"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/212/original/LOHI_aviarybanner2.jpg?1741032082","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2025-05-29"]}},{"label":{"en":["Interviewer"]},"value":{"en":["Childress, DaNia, 1991-"]}},{"label":{"en":["Interviewee"]},"value":{"en":["Butler, Tamara, 1984-"]}},{"label":{"en":["LCDL Collection"]},"value":{"en":["Director's Cut Oral History Project"]}},{"label":{"en":["Contributing Institution"]},"value":{"en":["Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Tamara Butler, born in 1984 and raised in Johns Island, South Carolina, discusses her tenure as the Executive Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture as well as her career as an educator and professor.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Media Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral Histories"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Topical"]},"value":{"en":["Archives and education;African American leadership;COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023;Museums and community"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Geographic"]},"value":{"en":["Charleston (S.C.)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject - Geographic County"]},"value":{"en":["Charleston County (S.C.)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date Digital"]},"value":{"en":["2025-05-29"]}},{"label":{"en":["Digitization Specifications"]},"value":{"en":["Mp4 deriviative audio and video created with Davinci Resolve. All archival preservation files are mp4s."]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type IMT"]},"value":{"en":["MovingImage"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright © College of Charleston Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr. Tamara Butler, born in 1984 and raised in Johns Island, South Carolina, discusses her tenure as the Executive Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture as well as her career as an educator and professor.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright \u0026copy; College of Charleston Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Lowcountry Digital Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Lowcountry Digital Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/212/original/LOHI_aviarybanner2.jpg?1741032082","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/311/835/small/arc_1209_ButlerTamara.mp4_1780506687.jpg?1780506689","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - arc_1209_ButlerTamara.mp4"]},"duration":4313.408,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/311/835/small/arc_1209_ButlerTamara.mp4_1780506687.jpg?1780506689","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-cofc.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/311/835/original/arc_1209_ButlerTamara.mp4?1780506678","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":4313.408,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Tamara Butler Interview Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nGood afternoon. Can you state your full name, your date of birth, and your place of birth?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=9.0,15.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nTamara Butler and I was born July 15th, 1984, Charleston, South Carolina.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=15.0,22.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nWhat was your professional background before you came to the Avery Research Center?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=22.0,25.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSo I was, before I came to Avery, I was an assistant/associate - I just got tenure – so, I was an associate professor of African-American Studies and English education at Michigan State University.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=25.0,40.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then what was the political climate growing up in Charleston and then when you returned? Political and social climate?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=40.0,49.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI don't know. So when I left Charleston - I left Charleston as an undergrad, do this is 2002 - I came back in 2006 - and so even coming back at that time, I'm not quite sure what was going on in the world. I think we were getting ready for, we were getting ready for Senator Obama, because he was senator at the time of my graduation, possibly going into becoming a candidate for a president. Cause I know he became president once I was in grad school. So I was say in Charleston, we were just dealing with the same kind of issues of land-grab developers. I think a lot of folks were concerned about whether or not the next group of leaders were going to be the kind of folks who were going to take up for community members - if we were going to be able to have any say so, especially out on John's Island of what was going to happen to our communities as an unincorporated area. So - political climate was a little tumultuous, I guess you could say.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=49.0,119.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nIs John's Island incorporated now, or are you still fighting to stay unincorporated?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=119.0,124.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nIt's unincorporated; I think they would like to be a town or a city, and at this point it's impossible, due to laws, for it to do that. So you have Kiawah Island and Seabrook Island. On one side, you have the City of Charleston has annexed a variety of parts of John's Island. And so you have quite a few parts of John’s Island that it feels like it's already been pulled into Kiawah Island. And then there's just a few parts that are still under county legislation.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=124.0,159.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then you went to school at Xavier, and then you said you were working on tenure at Michigan State. How would you say those two different places are different from Charleston?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=159.0,169.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nYeah, so I would say, going to undergrad in New Orleans, New Orleans and Charleston are very similar. I know folks - like the state of Savannah is our sister city - or Richmond, but I think New Orleans and Charleston are very similar in the kinds of issues that they're facing. So in ‘89 is when Hugo came through Charleston. So that was my first hurricane experience. And then in 2005, I was a senior at Xavier when Katrina came through. And so that kind of displacement and disruption of life, you saw it all over again in New Orleans, what we already seen in Charleston. Living in Columbus was a very different experience. I ended up in Columbus because of faculty members at Xavier who made a recommendation: if you want to do Black studies, then you should go to the Midwest. And so it was a very different experience.\n\nI never really, though I should, know musically the influence and impact of black lives in the Midwest; it really didn't register until I moved there. And so even being in Ohio for seven years, what I learned was that there's so many community members who are working together. They're also dealing with issues of gentrification and displacement in Columbus; they have a high population, a large population of folks from Somalia and Ethiopia and Eritrea, so that was also another conversation around diaspora. So I think - but the other part that I did love about living in Columbus is the amount of Black southerners who came there for grad school. So it was an exciting time to be in Columbus.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=169.0,264.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then what are some of the advantages of being from Charleston?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=264.0,267.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSome of the advantages of being from Charleston? I mean, it's just who we are. (Laughter.) I think some of the advantages of being from Charleston is thinking about you're rooted. One of the advantages is also thinking about the idea of - so going back to the question about even thinking about Michigan - being from Charleston helps you understand...you understand landscapes differently. For example, when I was teaching in Michigan, I was talking about slavery and I was talking about the afterlife of slavery and realizing, I have students that plantations were never part of their K-12 curriculum. So to explain slavery and the concepts of plantations to students where, like, “You went where for a high school trip? Or where for a middle school trip? Where are people having weddings?” So the advantage for me is I think you have a very grassroots, up- close-and-personal experience of black histories and black stories. So whether it's recognizing that you're living in a port city like Charleston, that you are descendants of sharecroppers, you're descendants of enslaved individuals, and you're also people who have survived - you're descendants of people who survived - Jim Crow terrorism, and all those folks live in a place like Charleston and have built Charleston. So for me, I would say an advantage has been that I've had the opportunity to think about history much differently and that it wasn't just about textbooks, it was about a very lived experience.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=267.0,365.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nIn your research, you mentioned focusing on Black girlhood and education. How has that informed the programs and outreach that you work on?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=365.0,373.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSo, since I've been at Avery, I haven't done as much with Black girlhood programming, but definitely, before I came, I was working a lot with the Women of Color Initiative at Michigan State, and trying to ground our understanding of Black girls in play, getting Black girls to kind of sever the tie between Black girlhood and adulthood so that we don't continue to adultify, that we don't adultify Black girls, we don't see them as troublemakers or that we don't see them in this kind of purity culture. I think that limits a lot of our understanding of Black girls. And so one of the things that I probably would say that I've brought into my work here at Avery is this idea of play. So just thinking about the programs that we put on that are less about formal lectures and book talks, but more about getting people to do a little bit more play, a little bit more celebration, re-engaging the fact that for me, especially Charleston is a place where I grew up, so it's part of my girlhood and part of my childhood. And so just reminding us that those are things that we need to reconnect to as much as we also need to stimulate ourselves intellectually as well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=373.0,450.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nThen what was your process in gaining funds for building renovations and maintaining funds for programs, collections and exhibits? How do you balance all of those different funding sources?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=450.0,461.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI don't. (Laughter.) I think one of the things that I've done that I do here at Avery that I think has been helpful is I've just, it's been a return home. And so through that work, the balance comes through when you think more about community members, reconnecting to Avery, some folks reintroducing themselves to Avery, knowing that as a place that they could invest in, knowing that it is a place that they could have not only their collections, but also their funds, that it is rooted in this community, it's built and stands on their stories. And so for me, I've been trying to really drive home - and sometimes I don't have to do that - that I'm a homegirl, I'm literally from this place - and that I want to bring in stories that reconnect the Sea Islands to the Peninsula, that connects the peninsula to settlement communities in additional counties. And so for me to balance those has been to encourage everybody to donate. So it could be – we'll take your $5, we’ll also take your $5,000. We will also take your $5 million, right? And we will invest it in programs to bring more people into the space, process collections, as well as put on programs. So just helping people understand that has been most of my work, and understanding the differences between all the Avery's people's stories related to Avery - just differentiating them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=461.0,550.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then what was your vision for Avery when you first started?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=550.0,554.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSo when I started, I remember I gave a job talk in 2019 for this job. And in it, I have a picture of the Peninsula, and I'm like, when you kind of zoom out and look at the Charleston Peninsula, looks like a heart. And so for me, I wanted Avery to be the same: I wanted it to be the heart of the island of Black island studies. I wanted it to be taught the heart of how we think about Black history. I wanted it to be the heart of how we engage in the South. And so a lot of the work that I've been interested in, and the vision for Avery has been that we are the premier institution for Black island studies, whether it be South Carolina Sea Islands or be Black islands connected to Africa, or islands in the Pacific, islands in the Caribbean. That's what I am hoping we can have those conversations so that we can be more strategic in our approach to problems of climate change. So we can be aware of problems of how do you preserve your history? Since I've been here, various communities, that never stops - Caribbean communities have experienced hurricanes. And so it's like, how do you preserve that history? How do you save it, when you're dealing with constant natural disasters, with migration and movement?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=554.0,636.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then how did you manage Avery during COVID and how did it affect some of your original plans beginning your tenure in 2020?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=636.0,642.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nYeah, COVID was a challenge because we didn't have many in-person programs. So for us, COVID resulted in more virtual, so we did a virtual Black History Month program in 2020; I also think we probably did one in 2021. We really used that opportunity to, also, update the building. So during the time that we were closed, we installed more equipment in our Senator McKinley Washington Auditorium, so we could have hybrid programs and virtual programs, so that people didn't disconnect from Avery in that time that they couldn't come into the building. I would probably say the other part was thinking about as we transitioned out of COVID - even though I still feel like we're still in the wake of COVID, as we transitioned out of it, was trying to get people to remember that they can still connect and socialize. So our first couple of events were small to just get people out of the house and in person with one another. But I think for the most part, it was really our virtual and hybrid programs that the staff had already started before I came, but really ramping those up so that people still felt engaged and still felt connected. The limitation for me was just the idea that we still had to figure out how do you keep people engaged when they are constantly in front of a computer or it's TV as their way of interacting with one another. So trying to just have more innovative programming, informative programming as well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=642.0,738.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nOkay. Is that how you came up with the “State of the Avery”?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=738.0,741.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nYes. So the “State of the Avery” was an opportunity for me to say, “Hey, I'm here.” And it was also an opportunity for us to figure out ,what do people need from Avery in this moment? Because we know that buildings were closed, people weren't really going to places of worship, they weren't going to concerts - or maybe they were, and they shouldn't have been - but we know as a result of that, how does Avery continue to serve community members? And so during the state of the Avery, it was like, “This is the vision: we're all connected in these various ways, even though we physically cannot gather.” And so in that presentation, it was kind of sharing my vision, but it was also asking and asking community members, “What do you need?” And knowing that our researchers, especially globally, were still accessing our digital collections, and so really emphasizing that libraries, archives, museums need funding to continue to provide those materials and access in these times of social distancing as well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=741.0,810.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then, what role has social media and online programming played in expanding the work of the Avery?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=810.0,816.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSocial media was our lifeline. I think our social media presence really increased. We started to see the birth of more platforms. So, TikTok pops up around the other side of COVID, or probably before that, that might just mean I'm an elder millennial, but also you have Instagram, so people are already sharing images. But for us, we were using those platforms to, also, do some interviews. So we did a conversation with our outreach and public programming coordinator; she talked with the founder of Honeypot. And so being able to have those on Instagram, we also had a couple of events that we did in partnership with the Gibbes to bring Arianne King Comer in conversation with Dr. Camila Martin. And just getting those opportunities to amplify, because that's what people wanted. You know? People wanted to see posts; they wanted to see information. We saw an uptick in an interest in photographs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=816.0,880.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nAnd so it was also during COVID that we found a grad student, two of our grad students, but specifically Joshua Parks, was seeing this traction of black and white photos on social media and people interested. So at that moment we're like, well, maybe we can't need to share just flyers, but we can also share some of our collections that people haven't seen or collections that people can't access because they can't come into the building. So it's social media that really helped us think differently about how do community members want to engage Avery, and then who is Avery for that is not just for the graduates and the descendants of the graduates, but it's also for community members who are just interested in Black history, and learning more about themselves and about others.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=880.0,929.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then with that, how do you balance social media and getting people still in the doors? People are like, “Oh, I can just go online.” How do you still, we want people to see the building and interact physically with our archives?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=929.0,940.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nYeah, I think so one of the things that we found is we would post, so Erica Veal, at around this time, makes a transition into being faculty. And so one of the things that we do is we ramp up sharing the photograph collection. And so in doing that, we're like, “Oh, do you want to see more of these photos? Then come into the building, schedule an appointment. Do you have materials that you would want to share? That you want to donate, so that we can find out who's in your photographs?” I think it's balancing. The two has been, we have a variety of virtual programs or hybrid programs, especially for community members who may not be able to come into the building, but we also want to have programs for people who can, and reengaging our school district to come back in and bring their teachers, re-engaging the teachers so that they know what we can and cannot offer. But also just making sure that people know, “This is just one photo out of a collection of thousands of photographs. So can you come in and help us identify who some of these individuals are?”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=940.0,1001.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then can you discuss the Avery Digital Classroom?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1001.0,1004.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nThe Avery Digital Classroom was, once again, it started before me, so it was really the work of Daron Lee Calhoun and Courtney Hicks figuring out how do we offer lectures, how do we offer book talks, things that teachers could use because they were also teaching during COVID. So any kind of digital conversations all available on YouTube that they could then use in their classrooms, or if there's a vacation Bible school or an afterschool program, they have access to those conversations to authors and artists without necessarily the expense. So sometimes it's a little expensive to get a writer to come and talk to your group, but you now have that available. So the Avery Digital Classroom was an opportunity for us to reconnect to K-12, but also any community educators as well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1004.0,1056.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then what role does the Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture play in your administration?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1056.0,1062.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSo the Avery Institute has been pretty pivotal in helping me understand a lot of institutional memory. So what has been the connection between the community, the birth of the Avery Research Center, and then also who are community members who have been invested in the work of Avery, and then who are some populations and demographics that we haven't talked to? So what you'll find with the Avery Institute helped me understand the most was that there are a variety of folks who are committed to making sure that Avery continues. The Avery Research Center continues also expanding our collections. So learning that some of our collections that hadn't been processed we're like, “Well, who's this individual?” So being able to have a conversation with the Institute and the Institute board members, it's like, “Oh, this George Lee collection that we've had, and it's been unprocessed? We've taken the initiative to start processing it, under my leadership.\n\nAnd what we found is that Mr. Lee was actually an Avery alum. So just adding into those stories. And so the Institute helps in that regard in thinking about who are community members and organizations that we haven't quite talked to or who have been committed to Avery, and we might've lost their interests or we might've gained new interests. So they've really been helping me navigate through the community, but also navigating the institution as well, especially since they were pivotal in the birth and the connection between the College of Charleston and the eventual birth or rise of the Avery Research Center.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1062.0,1162.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then during your administration, unfortunately, some of our North Star -  some of the key supporters of the Avery - have passed away. How do you keep their legacy alive and continue their vision?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1162.0,1171.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI think it's through our programming. You know, a lot of our North Stars – so, there's some North Stars that I did not get the chance to meet before they passed. And so it was in, or it is in 2025, we opened an exhibit that included our North Stars. And so, though I attended high school with Ms. Lucille Whipper’s grandson, Jasiri Whipper, I don't think I ever had the chance to meet Ms. Whipper - but I did hear her name often. I knew that she was very pivotal in the birth of Avery as the Avery Institute, but also the Avery Research Center and the International African American Museum. And so for me, we try to keep her whole legacy and her life work alive, but just make sure people know her story so when they come in, they're usually interested. A lot of our researchers are like, “Oh, I'm interested in civil rights and I'm interested in Septima Clark's papers.”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1171.0,1226.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nAnd I'm like, “Okay, that's great. Also, while you're here, let's also look at the work of Ms. Lucille Whipper.” And so, Senator McKinley Washington was actually the pastor - served as an interim pastor - for the church I grew up in, at Hebrew Zion. And so I know him and Mrs. Beulah Washington well. And so for me, it's also trying to build those bridges between, for example, the Black Presbyterian Church, the Sea Islands, and organizations that he and his wife are both a part of, and making sure those collections land here. James Ebers Campbell - you never know how connected you are to individuals. Mr. Campbell, A, worked with my mom - used to come to Rural Mission a lot, and so my mom, when I came for my interview, saw Mr. Campbell, was like, “I haven't seen him in years.” And so just thinking about he's been influential. My best friend’s, my best friend's mother, Ms. Cecilia Byers, was also really close friends with Mr. James Campbell. They were on his email listserv, and so she would forward me those emails, along with - she was really good friends with - Dr. Myrtle Glasgow. And so just knowing that those individuals deeply, maybe they've been shaping me all along the way, Ruth Rambo, I had the chance to meet.\n\nShe was one of the spunkiest, but most committed artists that I got to meet. I enjoyed having lunch with her. I'll never forget when Ms. Rambo were grateful for her for the reading circle, the Consuela Francis Reading Circle, when Ms. Rambo stopped me and said, I need a list of all the Black literature that people need to know that they need to read. And I was like, okay, cool. I said, well, there's this account on Instagram that makes recommendations. And she was like, “Not to mean no disrespect, but I'm not interested in what some Instagram influencer has to say about this. I want to know what the American Library Association has said or what ASLA has said or what the NAACP or any of these black organizations that work with libraries have told us.” And then of course, for me, it's the kind of North star that I got to meet much later, Cynthia Rie Smith, and we threw her 100th birthday party here.\n\nAnd to see a room filled with students and family members and community members who she's touched was a reminder that Avery has a larger reach and a deeper - deeper roots, than what I think most of us know and understand. I think that speaks for all of our North Stars, including those that might not be recognized on the wall, but have passed on and have walked on. And I think for me, our work is making sure that people know those collections exist, the people know the impact of those individuals on this community. So we try that in our daily practice and through our exhibits.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1226.0,1418.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then who would be some of your personal North Stars that are helping to continue to guide you professionally and personally?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1418.0,1425.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI think my biggest North Star will probably be - and so, I'm going to go “dead” and “alive”. I'm going to go with - currently alive - is Dr. Valerie Kinlock, is one of my biggest North Stars. She's a Charleston graduate, she's a graduate of Burke High School, ad we met when I was a doctoral student – actually, when I was a master's student - at Ohio State, and just watching her journey and her commitment to Black education all along the way from the time that we met at Ohio State until the time that she took on the position of the 15th president of John C. Smith University. I just remember being in her office and her saying this, that one day I want to be the president of HBCU. I was like, “Okay.” I was like, “I don't know if I want that responsibility.” It sounds like a lot of work, but watching it in real time, she handles it with grace. She's definitely a homegirl in the sense that she's from here. And she always understood the assignment was to make sure that you, you never jeopardize your reputation. You always move with integrity. And one thing that she does that I am working on is she always makes people feel like she has all the time in the world for them.\n\nMy other North Stars professionally will probably be people like the graduate Mrs. Linda Dingell Gadson, who graduated from the College of Charleston. She's one of the graduates that the Legacy Scholars celebrate. And so she was the executive director of Rural Mission. And so she was probably my first introduction to nonprofit leadership. She's community oriented, and I think that those are, there's things around how do you lead as a Black woman, how do you lead from your heart? How do you lead an organization that constantly gives, but you still got to find ways to fundraise. And so she's a North Star and then professionally, a North Star that also stands out for me in addition to Septima Clark, who I’ll come back to, is my mom. My mom is a North Star because she is a person who I truly believe I can't do half of the work I do without her.\n\nSo I'm like, “I want to interview the senior citizens,” and she'll be like, “Okay, let me talk to them.” And so they trust her. And so between Nancy Butler and Kathleen Green, who's her sister, my aunt, the two of them teach me the politics and the ethics of being community oriented, of being community centered, of caring about people. And then my final North Star, if we're going to go with individuals who are deceased, is Septima Clark. She's an educator and she's a North Star in the sense that she literally led me back home. There were so many instances where I'm talking to folks and they're like, “Oh, you're from Charleston? Do you know about Septima Clark?” Even my mentor, when she got tenure and promotion, every faculty member that puts a book into the library. And so her book of choice was Freedom's Teacher, which is about Septima Clark. And so just thinking about how her story continues to not only guide educators like myself back home, but also welcoming so many researchers back to Charleston and into Avery to learn more about additional Black educators that were cultivated here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1425.0,1654.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then you mentioned the Sea Islands, and wanting to be connected globally. You mentioned the different hurricanes, but how do you connect some of these issues with Charleston to larger issues taking place nationally and globally?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1654.0,1665.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nYeah, I think the Race and Social Justice Initiative – which, once again, it predates me, but it's the carrying on of Dr. Patricia Lessane - now Patricia Dockery's - legacy of thinking about, how do we look at issues of housing? How do we look at issues of healthcare and educational disparities? And so for us, Avery tries our best. It really was through what we saw around the disparities report, that took off. So you see local organizers and activists looking at a lot of the materials that came out of the disparities report, and so for us, I think one of the drivers is to make sure that we think about what's going to be, not just Avery's response, but how do we have a conversation about, for example, the state of Black studies or the challenge on anti-DEI, all of the things that you need to be studying in order to make sense of how we get inequities in the first place. And so I think we're still at the - I won't say we're at the helm because I think there's so many people that we're working with - of really bringing attention to the way that Charleston is a microcosm for these larger issues around education, around migration.\n\nOne in particular I find to be a challenge is what's happening to public schools. And so as we think about legislation that is saying that you cannot teach, teach about, I don't even know what - can't you teach about that, that we're banning books. I think the challenge for me in that is that we're leaving, we're opening the door for a lot of disinformation and misinformation. And so Charleston, because of our own histories, however contested and nuanced and complicated, what we're doing here in Charleston reflects the kind of challenges that teachers are facing. How do we push back? How do we continue to offer accurate and information as well to our students, to our educators so that we can avoid this idea of misinformation, but also how do we continue to empower our public school teachers so that they can teach the truth.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1665.0,1812.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nOn a follow up, that you've mentioned public schools and you've also done community hours with Burke High School and you took a group of students to Jamaica with you: how important is it to support the youth?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1812.0,1822.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nIt's very important. I think the other part about being from Charleston is that that's one thing youth have, at least that was my experiences. I've always been supported. So growing up, a few experiences that I've had, my family always sent me to New York for the summer, and then as a result, I went with my aunt, my aunt's church to visit all these different places. I went to Hawaii in the eighties and nineties. I went to Virginia Beach, and got to go to Canada; later I went to Mexico. So I bring these up not as a brag, but I'm coming from a working class family, and so it's community that afforded me these opportunities- and so I want to do the same for our youth. The same thing when I was in high school - we took Black college tour trips and had a chance to see not only HBCUs, but historic Black sites.\n\nThere was nothing more powerful than going to Memphis and watching 16, 17 year olds walk through the Lorraine Motel and cry, because you talk about it in your, and you see reading in your textbook and you understand that MLK, Dr. King, was assassinated, and to be able to walk out on the balcony or walk past the room where he was, or even if it is a replica of that hotel room, it's just the idea that you get to touch history as not just something that people have constructed in a textbook and made it easier for you to digest. And so for us to engage our youth, it's always about putting history within - I wouldn't even say arm's reach. It should be right under your fingertips. I was excited to have this group of students, the Legacy Scholars and other first year students go to Jamaica and have light bulbs go off in freshmen, first year students.\n\nSo William Jenkins is a legacy scholar who is also a political science major. My favorite moment was when we were in a community and our tour guide told us that we were in an area where Marcus Garvey was born. And so to have him light up and be like, \"I remember, this is who Marcus Garvey is, and this is, you know, he’s part of - he was pivotal in - the UNIA. [” For me, I want to keep making those connections. It's not just about memorizing facts for the sake of putting them on as answers on exams, but instead it's about understanding that history is alive and it informs our current moment. And so any way that we can engage young people, getting them out of the country, getting them to another city is exciting for me because it reminds us that the world is literally a classroom and that's where our students should be learning.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1822.0,1996.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd what is the Avery Family Reunion?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1996.0,1999.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nThe Avery family reunion is a culmination of ideas. So a growing up family reunions were a big deal every July, everybody came from everywhere to show up to John's Island around July 4th, it was my oldest aunt's birthday. It was around that time. And so it was a good time to celebrate. A lot of the Butler kids, children were born. My great-grandmother's kids were born around the summer, so they just tried to mush everybody's birthday. And so for us, it was like family reunions were a time to bring in not just blood relatives, but also kin, just best friends, cousins, boyfriends, girlfriends, partners - and so when I saw that, again, when I went to Ohio State, they did an event called the Family Reunion - Family Affair - outside of the Dr. Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center. And so it was an opportunity to bring all the Black and brown student organizations together for them to know that the Hale Center was a place for them to study, to have programs to work.\n\nAnd so when I came here, I knew I wanted the same thing for the College of Charleston for all students, but especially Black and brown students, to know that this is a place that you can study. It's a place that you can work. It's a place that you can come into conversation with community members. And I wanted it to have to feel like a reunion. And so we also designed t-shirts. The very first family reunion, we offered COVID vaccines. So Courtney Hicks, who was our public programming coordinator, coordinated to have an organization, a group of nurses come in and offer vaccines. We had food out in the parking lot, but just a reminder to students that at the time it was a reminder to College of Charleston students that we were here. And then over the years it grew so that we could reconnect our legacy to the birth and the work of Burke High School. So it's a major celebration that kicks off the school year, and it's a chance to also make visible, again, the organizations and resources that are available to students and that are also available to community members. So it's one big celebration. People usually see it and they think that it's the actual Avery family. And I'm like, “No, it's this, the proverbial Avery family.” So it's kin, it's graduates, anyone who's supported us, and even people who don't know who we are. So just, it's a welcoming-in of people, every year.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=1999.0,2165.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd what was the first year at the Avery Family Reunion?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2165.0,2168.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nThe first Avery Family Reunion was May 2021, and we held it right here at Avery, in our parking lot and front yard.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2168.0,2178.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then what role does the Avery play in supporting Charleston residents?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2178.0,2184.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSo for us, there's a few different ways. So I would say at one level, we provide a space for community members to come in and kind of, we're kind of like a crossroads for community members who are just intellectually curious and then intellectuals who are also trying to reconnect or connect with community members. So we offer a variety of those kinds of programming. We like to think about offering a historical context for Charleston. So our programs highlight that. We also help community residents in our partnerships. So it's really - for example, I think our strongest partnership is with the Lowcountry Action Committee that was co-founded by Joshua Parks and Erica Veal and a few other community members. And they've been pivotal in providing a food drive. So they do a food drive every month, and so we're usually the housing space for that, for the food, and then the distribution space where they assemble it on Saturdays and then take it out into the community.\n\nEven before then, Courtney Hicks used to work closely with the Joseph Floyd Manor to ensure that those residents had access to the food, that they had access to COVID vaccines and other resources. So we try to be that kind of a hub. And we also help community residents and think about where does your materials go? Where does your family history live on? And so we've been fortunate enough to have families donating everything from diplomas to yearbooks, but also knowing that your stories are safe here. And I think in a time when there's so much change and development that one of the ways you can really help community members is through programming that tells them their stories are important and that the story should live someplace where they can be cared for, such as Avery.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2184.0,2295.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd do you encounter any barriers in implementing your goals of Avery with the notion, “This is how we've always done it”?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2295.0,2302.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nSometimes, but I think I'm a little bit of a... I think I can be a little persuasive. So, sometimes I feel like there have been, whenever we get to a moment of “This is how we've always done it,” I like to watch the “This is how we've always done it”. So I want to see how you've run a program; I want to see how you've opened up a space, how you've engaged with community members, and if it feels like it's still effective, if it feels like it's something that the community still accepts, then we'll try our best to ride with it. But we also know that times have to change. And so for example, one of the things of “This is how we've always done it” is coming in and witnessing, especially after COVID. COVID was a test of “We can do different”. And so I know before I came in, my staff shared and others have shared, Avery was always open.\n\nWe could call insert staff members' name and they'd open the building for us. We'll be here, we can be on a weekend, we could be here on Sunday, we could be here on Monday, we could be at 9:00 PM. And I was like, “But what does that do for the wellbeing?” There are some staff members who love that; Avery was their joy, and I love that for them, and I don't want to take that away from people. I also know that there has to be boundaries, and my staff has a lot of dreams and a lot of other interests. And so as a result, one of the pushbacks to “This is how we've always done it” is, like, we're just not open on the weekends. We're cutting back on... We try to implement a more streamlined system to book self-guided tours, so that you're not always given a guided tour, because the minute that we take a staff member away from their email response and program planning, then now they're giving a tour for a group for two hours. And when are they going to get those two hours back? They're going to work at midnight to send emails and respond to people. So for me, I won't say it's about work-life balance, it's just about really making space for staff to figure out what are those professional dreams and desires and things that they want to use that workday to accomplish that's not just about opening and closing the building seven days a week, but it is about, one thing that I've seen that I've really enjoyed is staff getting to travel more.\n\nOne thing I've seen is more international travel with my team or conference presentations, just the ability to talk to wider audiences and deepen their knowledge and their skills without necessarily just being here. And so this is how we've always done it. I think COVID came and smashed that for everybody, and we have to come up with a new way of doing things. And for me, it was about making sure people got to live their life that was not always attached to work, especially because we lost so many people during COVID, essential workers, community members who just had to be someplace all the time contract. The COVID complications of COVID resulted in loss of life. And I didn't want anyone to feel as though this job meant you had to be available all the time, that you have loved ones to care for, you have other things you want to do. And so getting away from the, this is how we've always done it to getting to, we're open to doing things a new way.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2302.0,2517.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then how do you manage staff changes?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2517.0,2520.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nOh, managing staff changes is trying to have a conversation with staff and really asking them what happened, especially so if staff are leaving because they've found a new position somewhere, I love that for you because that means that you have outgrown this space. It's just like butterflies in a cocoon. You've done everything you think you can do here and you've moved on. And I want that for everyone. I think no one should have to feel as though they cannot, that there's no one in line for their job. They're the only one who can do their job. So with staff changes, it's been a little bit of a challenge because Avery faculty and staff already wear 90 hats. So when we lose a staff member, that's two more hats they get to put on. But one of the ways that we've navigated is it's really been thinking about how do we reactivate grants?\n\nHow do we equip our students to take on some of that work? And also just scaling back. Maybe we can't put on 15 programs in a month because we don't have a coordinator, but maybe we can do this other thing. Partnerships have also helped us with staff changes as well. And so we've also scaled down. I understand, under previous directors, they were associate directors, and associate directors of this, and coordinators for that. And so just really figuring out what can we do, what is essential to the mission of Avery and also to the climate we're in. I don't think that in 1990 you needed a social media manager; your marketing director looked very different. This person was doing mailers; now this person is building you Canva templates, this person is trying to build you digital billboards. So the staff changes, for me, has also had to figure out how do we make sure our current staff reflects our current and somewhat future needs?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2520.0,2639.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then how were you able to get to Eugene Sloan collection?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2639.0,2643.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nThat collection was all Aaisha Haykal. Aaisha, Aaisha Haykal is our manager of archival services, and she has been tracking that collection for years. And so I think it went up for a bid. It went up on for sale. Avery did not have the money to purchase it, and to this day, we still don't have the money to purchase such a large collection. But what ended up happening is the Berman family who owned the collection, we made a reach out. I think it was really Aaisha who made the reach out, and it was between us and another organization in the state of South Carolina of where should it live. And so I really want to say hands down, it is our archival and interpretation team, especially under Aaisha's leadership as to how we got it, because it is Aaisha who built a mini exhibit of all the things connected to civil rights that were already here at Avery.\n\nSo thinking about the photographs from the hospital workers’ strike, other artifacts around civil rights that are looking at - my brain is tugging away - the sit-ins, my gosh, the Crest counter. And so just thinking about all these pieces that we already have, and knowing that our graduates were pivotal in civil rights organizing activism and movements, it was just a minor convincing. And so when Ms. Lisa Berman came, and we gave her a tour, and we talked about our mission and we talked about our graduates, and we talked about all of the places where King is already fit into, it's really the community organizing that makes King's visit to Charleston even possible. He needed someplace to stay, he needed some transportation, he needed protection. So Charleston community members had already played that role. And so I got a magical phone call one day and she was like, “I just want to let you know that I am very excited about what you all are doing at Avery, and we look forward to gifting this Sloan collection to the Avery Research Center.” And so it was really all Aaisha's watching the collection over the years, making the connection to the Berman family and ensuring and securing that they were clear that if it was one of the missing puzzle pieces in the story of Charleston, the Civil Rights Movement.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2643.0,2799.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd as a follow up, do you face any challenges with the larger institutions like the Smithsonian, you’ve got IAAM, in collecting?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2799.0,2808.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI don't think we face a challenge; I think it's, for us, it's being clear about our differences. I think each institution has a collecting, has a mission, and has a vision for, and a scope of what they collect. I think for Avery, it's been a conversation with our archivists of what needs to live here. We're running out of space and not so much a challenge, but the interest of the International African-American Museum, it brings many people to Charleston. And so folks are like, “Well, I want to do research. I want to get my hands on the archives. I want to touch the thing that's behind the plexiglass at the museum.” So folks are coming to us and they're like, either they want to donate the materials - they're like, “Oh, my family's from Charleston,” - or they're looking for relatives. And so for us, it's like, can we keep up with the demand?\n\nFor right now, we're looking at, a lot of folks are interested in lack church records. People are interested in Black institutions. Right now we have a very small collection of yearbooks, but people are looking for relatives in yearbooks of schools that are no longer around. And so it's not really been a challenge with those institutions. And right now we're also in a climate where we know that the federal government is dismantling exhibits, and so, where do those materials live? Are they going to stay on display there? Can we work out a negotiation where maybe you can't display it at the Smithsonian, but you can display it at the Avery Research Center? I think we're hopefully opening up the door to opportunities where... I would prefer those things stay permanently installed where they are. But if there are Black institutions that can pick up the torch, pick up the mantle, and be a place for people to still see those artifacts and tell those stories, then let's do it. I say Avery is really a partner in this historic moment of collecting and of promoting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2808.0,2923.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nThen what would you do if you had access to unlimited funding stream to the Avery?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2923.0,2929.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nOh, okay. Unlimited funding. It would be transforming the building next door. So 123 Bull Street. My vision for it when I saw it, and because I have done a variety of fellowships, is to make it a place for artists, for visiting archivists, for fellows who want to come and stay on the Peninsula for five weeks, two weeks, they want to come and take up our archives. When I was at Michigan State, we used to have a residency program with the Women of Color Initiative, and they would stay in the dorms. There were some really fancy dorms on campus, but I was like, what would it look like as an artist? What vision would you have if you stayed on the property? And you literally have to walk back and forth the footsteps of our educators and our students. And so with unlimited funds, I would love to transform that into studio space, living space for creatives so they can come and use the archives. They can walk the streets of Charleston and not have to worry about housing.\n\nAnd that at some point, I would also love to be able to have, if I had unlimited funds, an offsite shared archival storage so that we can expand our collections. We're limited by what we can collect. In Michigan, they have the largest quilt collection. Imagine what we could do in Charleston if we had the space to collect quilts from the Lowcountry, but also from across the diaspora. We could collect larger artifacts so that we could share it between International African American Museum, Avery, Special Collections, maybe even a section for Black churches and other institutions. But that would be my vision as well as the two more visions I would have would be travel. So being able to get our students to travel abroad more is one vision that the funds would come from Avery. And so it would give us a chance to really dig into a museum fellowship program where our students are going to London because obsessed, so they could go to see the British archives, but also the Black archives in Brixton, and understand what are their challenges, sending them to places in the Caribbean, sending them to places in Europe and across the globe to understand how we're all in this work of how we all need museum professionals are kind of like my big things.\n\n If I had unlimited money, that would be the thing. And then the last part would be to take my staff. I want to send students abroad, but I also think I've seen a transformation in what my team can do when the funds are there for them to travel. And I think we can make more connections to share Avery more. And it's a different kind of professional development that I think Avery could really benefit from.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=2929.0,3109.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd then what are saying your greatest accomplishments and challenges are, while at Avery?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3109.0,3115.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nGreatest accomplishments is keeping Avery alive, well, and opened during all the political turmoil and changes. The other part that I would say has been exciting is bringing in different age groups into Avery. I know Avery at one point had its Avery Scholars, and so it really looked at K-12 students. And I know that we put on a lot of programming. That's all for the intellectual development of individuals. But what I've also noticed is when you say Avery in the community, there's an age gap. And so there's a generational gap. And so when you're talking to folks who are under the age of 50 but younger, but might be over the age of 18, some of them are like, “I think I know Avery. I think my grandmama went there or my auntie went there.” But it's very rare that people think about Avery as a living archive, as a living museum, as a living program space. And so one of my biggest accomplishments that I love is seeing people in my age coming in and finding, getting their hands in the archives. We did Southern Sonics, and it was a conversation with Bun B in the fall of 2024.\n\nAnd the amount of people who came to that event reminded me that everything Avery does has to be intergenerational. It has to feed the curiosity of artists, of creatives. One of my favorite stories that comes out of it is an Avery alum, not Avery alum, a college Charleston alum whose son saw that we were doing Southern Sonics on Instagram. Their daughter ordered Bun B's album, UGK's album. Once they saw that they secured tickets. And the whole family came to that event because the dad is a huge Bun B fan, huge UGK fan. And so for me, I was like, that was a whole family in one space having a conversation about the South. And I think that's the other thing that I think is an accomplishment, is reminding us that the South, in the words of OutKast, “the South has something to say.” And so that's my hope, is that we will continue to fuel these kinds of intergenerational conversations.\n\nThe other accomplishment I thought I'm excited about is hosting the South Carolina Consortium of Black Studies. So OASIS, Organization of Africana Studies In South Carolina. So all the Black studies programs were here for a day. And so to see faculty and staff and students in a space talking about the state of the future of Black studies, and I've been to that conference over the past couple of years, I've been here, I think we schools well over 90 people into our auditorium for a day to have very engaged conversations. So I'm like, “We are still a hub for talking to about Black studies.” The challenge has been, I'm helping people understand that Avery and I can't meet every need. And so there are things that Avery used to do that people want us to return to. And I'm hoping that we can equip community members to maybe bring some of those back to life.\n\nBut the other challenges is also just thinking about funding. Where are we going to get funding from? And I don't think it's that funding doesn't exist. We just need new outlets. We need to be in conversation with some new types of donors, activate some new types of passive yet engaging income. What does our partnership looks like with local businesses? What does our partnership look like with our tourism industry? We are a site that is free and open to the public, but we don't make any money from that. So how can we ensure that that is also a way for us to continue to grow and expand? So my biggest challenge is just making sure people understand we still need money - “We like the kind that jingles, we appreciate the kind that folds,” kind of thing - but we're also a group of folks who are always interested in talking to a variety of generations. And that Avery is here for all generations and for all people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3115.0,3394.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nIs there an exhibit and program that stands out to you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3394.0,3399.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nAn exhibit that stands out to me was one that actually wasn't ours. It was K. Melchor Hall, brought in an exhibit that was about freedom, and imagining – envisioning - freedom. And so it was kind of a collection of art around the idea of Black feminist thought. And so to have that curated in the space, and it stands out because in the middle of the floor, one artist had built something that reminded us of a Kongo cosmogram and then created, and then had this huge mannequin, like, black mannequin - literally the color black - and had covered her in symbols to make us think about freedom. And so that exhibit makes me think about a program we did called “Across the Archipelago” that we hosted in the fall of 2024, where it was literally the thing I had envisioned of a conversation around Black islands. So it was the Mellon Grant, it was the Mellon Grant, the final iteration for the Diaspora Stories lab.\n\nAnd I loved that moment because - I talked about a Kongo cosmogram in this exhibit, but also one of the artists that came, her interest was in a Kongo cosmogram in the Avery Auditorium. One of the images I clearly remember was a huge Kongo cosmogram in the floor of the auditorium. So her conversation reminded us of that. There was a gentleman from New Orleans who spoke, and Daron Lee Calhoun II stood next to me; he said, “He sounds like Mr. Campbell. He reminds me of Mr. Campbell.” And then he said a phrase and Daron was like, “I have to walk; I’ll be back.” Like that was something that Mr. Campbell would've said. And so there was that. Mr. Campbell had passed not too long ago. And then there was one more moment where we had a conversation with writer M. Jacqui Alexander, who was from Trinidad, and the amount of emotion that erupted in the room as she's talking about ancestors equipping you to do the work.\n\nAnd all of these individuals from the diaspora who were like, “I think I'm doing the right thing. I feel like I'm on the right track.” And so to have that kind of affirmation, it was just a room of descendants who were doing the work of tracking down history of telling stories. And so to have all of these kinds of moment culminate in that space, which is a reminder like Avery is meant for that, right? It is meant for you to reconnect to history. Avery is meant for you to reaffirm the work that you're doing is what you're called to do. I cannot tell you how many times Black women, in particular, who are on a self-guided tour, but sometimes I interrupt them, have said, I've never been here before, but something told me to come here. Someone told me to come here. I feel like I'm supposed to be here. And so the across the Archipelago event reminded me of all those moments of people who came to Avery, who came to Charleston to do the work they were called to do.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3399.0,3610.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nAnd what do you think is an under-told aspect of the history of the Avery Research Center?\n\nSpeaker 2: Say it again?\n\nSpeaker 1:What do you think is an under-told aspect of the history of the Avery Research Center?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3610.0,3623.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI'd probably say an untold aspect are two things. So one is the story of our bricks is very under-told. I think we highlight 'em and we bring them up in the tour, but it's not something you experience until you show up here. And we're like, “these are handmade bricks.” And they're handmade bricks. One of my favorite things to tell about Avery is, I believe that it's a bookmark, right? It's a bookend. So the handmade bricks remind us that we're at the end of slavery and that the people who built it, who created these bricks, I'm not sure if they ever thought that these bricks would be transformed into a school that would outlive them many years on influence so many lives. And then there's a case that we have where we have artifacts from slavery: I shackles, neck brace, slave tags, and I have to remind people, I'm like, “Avery survived all of those things.”\n\nAnd I think we tell so many stories about how it was a place for education, but I think an under-told story to me is that it survived, right? The building, we know that churches were bombed through Jim Crow terrorism, that houses were burned down, crosses were set on fire in people's front yards, bullets riddled buildings. Avery stood through all of that - minus the fact that the roof got smacked off during Hurricane Hugo, but the building itself still stands. And so I think for me, that's probably one of the most under-told stories, is just the building itself as a testament to Black life, Black resilience and the work of Black hands. It’s - We still here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3623.0,3737.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nWhat do you want visitors to leave with after visiting the Avery Research Center?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3737.0,3742.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI want people to leave with new eyes. So you are looking for things in the city that you never thought you should look for. So people have left and I'm like, “You should be interested in fingerprints. Where are they in the brick?” You should leave here with a sense of remembering that this is a blueprint for how we survive; I tell that story often. Folks are like, “What are we going to do, now that DEI is out of the way and we're living in basically a fascist time?” And I'm like, “We've done this before. And Avery is a testament to that.”   And so if you do nothing else, my hope is that you really study how Avery managed to survive in all of its iterations. And then the next thing is you think about how's your family going to survive? So what are you going to do to make sure their stories are continued to be told?\n\nAre you going to go home and label pictures? Are you going to go home and take photographs? Are you going to print out all the pictures you've posted to Instagram? Are you going to have a conversation with your nieces and nephews and grandkids and community members? Are you going to introduce somebody else to us? So when you leave Avery, I don't want people to leave here heavy with the, “I can't believe that happened!” I don't really want you to leave with that, but I want you to leave with a sense of, with there's a little spark in you to do something, right? Whether it's you go home and catalog photos, you post on Instagram that you went and had a great time, be even better if you sent me a check to say you want to invest, but that you just feel motivated to do something so that we all survive this moment somehow.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3742.0,3856.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nWhat do you want your impact to be with the Avery?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3856.0,3861.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI just want people to know that we're here. My biggest thing has been constantly running into community members who are like, “I heard of that place - ain't never been there.” Or, “Yeah, I've been to a museum, I've been to ‘em all.” And I was like, “No, I don't think that's true,” because it's a different kind of experience. And so my impact is that I want people to just engage the world differently. Folks come, visitors come to Avery and they're like, “What is there to do at Avery?” We don't have interactive slideshows and sound cones. But I was like, “I think that's how history is. You just sometimes kind of stumble upon it, and you need a minute to reflect upon what happened here when you walked down the street.” There's not always a signpost, but you know that something impactful happened here. And I said, when you go to the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial or the Lincoln Memorial, you don't go there looking for signs to read.\n\nYou just go, “What happened in these spaces?” And so I want Avery, I want people to think of Dr. Butler and her team did their best to connect as many generations as possible to this place, and that they have a different understanding of history. That's not about every time I go someplace I need to do something, like I need to slide something across the floor in order to understand history. No, you just need to be there. You just need to be in the space. And so that's what I'm hoping my impact will be. And I'm hoping more of my impact will be that I raise a gazillion dollars for Avery fine. But most of all, it's just that generations continue to engage the space.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3861.0,3976.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nOkay. And before I ask my final question, is there anything you would like to add about your tenure at the Avery Resource Center or your leadership or something you would like to go more in depth on?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3976.0,3991.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nNo. Oh.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3991.0,3994.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nOr highlight that you're proud of?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3994.0,3999.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nI think sometimes I forget that I've done things here. When it comes to Avery, I would say a thing that I probably want to highlight is just, it makes me sad. I was like, “Oh no, I'm going to cry.” It's like watching students evolve into their full selves. At Avery this year marked this spring marked the first year that I watched. I was like, dog, I've been here for five years. So I watched a full graduating class and I was like to watch Avery be a place where students bloom. They come to life, they realize that history is not in a book, that it very much informs their life. And so I was like, I have some great students, undergraduates in particular, grad students are great. Love y'all to death, but when you can watch the full. So I'm a person who loves plans, the full blooming of a student. I was like, we did that. We inform the growth of the student. And that matters to me because most of the students I've worked with who've been here are not African American Studies majors. They're not history majors. And so I'm just like, oh, this stuff makes sense to you. You know that you're surrounded by history in the making. And so I've been really excited to know that Avery has played that role in so many students' lives.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=3999.0,4097.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nThank you. And this is my final question.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=4097.0,4099.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nOh, great. Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=4099.0,4101.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nThe Avery Research Center recently received funding from the Mellon Foundation and recognition of the hundred 60th anniversary of the Avery Normal School and the fourth anniversary of the Avery Research Center under the goal of recognizing an institution's liberatory legacy. In your opinion, how would you describe the liberatory legacy of Avery and how can we continue to tell the history of the Avery normal school and the Lowcountry?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=4101.0,4125.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nThat was a long paragraph. And so I would say liberatory legacy, so that, that's what I envisioned. When we wrote the grant, I was like, I'm an educator with a catch title. And so I think the thing I want people to remember is that it's not just about, when we think of Avery, it's not just about the schooling itself and the teachers and who taught here and that we're trained here. It was also liberatory legacies in terms of the civic engagement, the social awareness, the community engagement and concern that Avery Heights had and that anyone connect to Avery still has. So whether it be through the Avery Institute and the board members, whether it be through the Avery Research Center and the staff, that all of those individuals are community minded. And so liberatory legacies is also about that. Avery is a space where people continue to push for justice.\n\nWe continue to push for equity. And so the Mellon grant was an opportunity to pull some of those stories out of the archives and amplify them. And it was also an opportunity to remind people that Avery, that education in all of its forms has the ability to liberate. So not education as in just what you're learning in the book, but how you think about how you critically engage information. How is information created, how to tell fact from lie, being able to decipher all of that. And so for us at Avery, the Mellon grant was an opportunity also for people to pop open the complexities of what does it take to bring these stories to the forefront so you could use them. People are like, oh, “$2 million is a lot of money.” I'm like, “Yeah, but not when you have a lot of work to do.”\n\nJust thinking about you need a director, you need somebody who does marketing. You need an educating coordinator, you need archivists. You need all of those folks to bring these things to the light. And I think when we talk about liberatory legacies, it's the same. We need educators, we need archivists, we need activists. We need lawmakers and legislators. We need all of those people to play their respective roles in ensuring that people have access to their rights, that people have access to truth and information. And so that's what I'm hoping will continue that people will know that Avery has always played that role and that all components of Avery are also continuing that as well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=4125.0,4299.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"DaNia Childress\n\nThank you for your time, Dr. Butler.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=4299.0,4301.0"},{"id":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835/transcript/94355/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tamara Butler\n\nThank you for your time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lcdl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3724/collection_resources/172904/file/311835#t=4301.0,4304.5"}]}]}]}