#reflections from 1619

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EDNA CLEMENT SWAN

“I believe that the way to freedom for us as a people of color is economic. My philosophy is that you cannot continue to ask the slave master or the conqueror or the colonizer...or whatever you want to call those people who are in control, to give up their control. People very rarely are to give up the throne, for anyone. And one of the continuum with us as a people...is that we continue to ask the rulers who are over us...to help us. Help us get freedom, help us have civil rights, help us in our schools...but clearly where they say the signs of a person in saying that, keeps doing the same thing over and over again...just the same results. We as a people of color continue asking for our freedom.”

Edna Clement Swan is interviewed by Lina Chang over the phone at the Central Library on February 14th, 2020.

To learn more about the organisations mentioned, click below. 

The Ladies Room 

Go Fund Blackness 

Black Wall Street Money 

Southerners On New Ground

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To hear the full interview, click here.

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FRANGENA JOHNSON

“The only thing I want is, our people to know that we made a hell of a sacrifice. Our ancestors made a hell of a sacrifice for us to continue to be here as a people...as a people of color. They made a sacrifice, and because they made that sacrifice we cannot continue to move backwards and let them down. We have to move forward and to be able to take care of our young so that we won't be systematically enslaved. Those are my last words...to stop being systematically enslaved.” 

Frangena Johnson is interviewed by Lina Chang over the phone at the Central Library on February 5th, 2020.

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SAUNDRA SIRMANS

“I want to know more about my parents. I want to know the tribe that I came from. I want to know...yearning to know...that foundation. Because I believe when you know where you're coming from or where you came from, you kind of know what makes up who you are. Because there's a deep sense for me that I love to write. Were there scholars in my family...were there writers in my family? You know, how did they feel about education. What did they do? But I feel... the older generation...my mom and her parents and her parent's parents probably didn't even want to speak about the things that have happened. I know that on both sides of my family we did have slavery. And I know for a fact that my dad died and learned the name Sirmans. There's a Sirmans Georgia and there's a Sirmans plantation that existed at one time. So when you learn these things, you want to learn more.”  

Saundra Sirmans is interviewed by Lina Chang over the phone at the Central Library on January 30th, 2020.

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BILAL NDONGO 

“All things are vaguely related...how I feel about the 400 years... I'm just like, I'm here now. I have to just make things that kind of  just hinges on people's understanding of themselves and their place in society….and play around with the cultural context like that’s it. Just poke fun at the nuance but also make people aware that there is nuance to a lot of these things...and if somebody sells you certain identities as well, then that means that you have to miss out completely on all of the nuance...it’s a disservice to yourself in like real people in the real world.” 

Bilal Ndongo is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Brownsville Library on January 22nd, 2020.

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ROBERT ANTHONY GIBBONS

“One summer I had to go to Georgia with my grandmother...and my grandmother wanted me to know some of my ancestors...some of the people in my family. And I didn’t know that part of Georgia was not well lit, it didn’t have a lot of lights, it didn’t have a lot of paved roads. But somehow she found...her way back through the country after being away for all those years. She found her way through those bushes and through that underbrush, and took us to that place back there...and we stayed there the entire day. I always remember...how did she know that, how did she find her way back through that part of the country? And we sat there and we cleaned all those grave plots...and she said this is your ancestor...and she began to track the stories for me. And my grandmother wasn’t formally educated, but she knew her history. And I don’t know how important that is, but I was like twelve years old. And she was telling me how important this was, that I know who these people are...this is your ancestor, let’s clean these graves up, let’s put this respect back in their humanity...it stuck with me all my life, and I still remember that.”  

Robert Anthony Gibbons is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on January 15th, 2020.

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JENNIFER R. WILLIAMS

“I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture...June 2019, which is a few months ago and it was a powerful experience for me. I met some friends and we met in Washington D.C. and we visited the museum together...we had tickets for two days...and it was awesome. I knew a lot of our history, but I didn't know many of the things that I learned there...so much so that when I came back home, I live here in Brooklyn New York...this video project is like a vision video account of my experience at the museum. And I’ve been working on it since June, it's now January 2020...and it’s coming together beautifully...and it’s a love...it’s a labor of love, that’s all I can say.“ 

Jennifer R. Williams is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on January 8th, 2020. 

Image still from video, courtesy of Jennifer R. Williams.

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RAS OMEIL MORGAN

“Those who have migrated to the United States within the last, I would say 60 years... because roughly around 1950 after The World War II, a lot of migration happened from the Caribbean...and those immigrants have embedded themselves in what’s the fabric of the United States of America. However their contribution may not be as much highlighted as it should be, and for us to know that the Africans who are in America and the Africans from the Caribbean…we are one, we are one in our ancestral link to the continent of Africa...and we are one in our experience of colonialism and imperialism via the european colonial powers.” 

Ras Omeil Morgan is interviewed by Lina Chang at the Central Library on December 17th, 2019. 

To learn more about his 1619 project, click here.  

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To hear the full interview, click here.