Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Spring 2024 Commonwealth Institute for Black  Studies newsletter. I am excited to share our latest activities with you. We believe that Black Studies is for everyone. The insights we discover and share are intended to benefit our local and global communities for years to come.

CIBS (we pronounce it “sibs”) is the research and outreach arm of the program in African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. It emerged in 2020 as we grappled with the next steps in supporting all our constituents on UK’s campus, in Lexington, and beyond. We incubate and showcase the ideas of our researchers, respond to the questions our neighbors share with us, and provide hands-on experiences for students.

I'm pleased to bring you news of our collaboration with the Fayette County Clerk and Blue Grass Community Foundation, the Digital Access Project (DAP). Our Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative, led by Dr. Vanessa Holden, has already digitized close to 100,000 deeds and county records that shed light on enslaved people in the Bluegrass. As you can read in a recent Chevy Chaser/Southsider article, these records will eventually be fully searchable and transcribed so that anyone in the world can access them at any time. And, as you can watch in the Blue Grass Trust deTour video that stars our students, partners, and colleagues, this is a project that will forever change what we know about our community.

We also highlight our first CIBS Graduate Fellow, Ariane Ribeiro Santana, an M.A. student in Africana History. Ms. Santana joined the program in the fall of 2022 after completing her undergraduate work in Brazil. She researches Black international activism in the early 1960s. Though this era is more commonly associated with the famous southern US civil rights campaigns, Ms. Santana has found that some in the Black Freedom Struggle sought solidarity with people of color outside national borders.

And there’s more! You will find out below about a new study on the Black history of Mammoth Cave National Park, as well as recent CIBS Affiliate accomplishments. 

We could not do our work without the support of you, our community. Thank you for engaging with, cheering on, and caring about CIBS. If you would like to make a financial contribution, you can do so here. If you want to stay connected to our events and projects, keep an eye on us at cibs.as.uky.edu. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram (@commonwealthuky).

Warmly,

Anastasia C. Curwood, Director

Smiley Pete Publishing highlights how CIBS and the Digital Access Project are preserving history by digitizing local records related to African American history. Read more.

Introducing CIBS fellow and Africana Studies graduate student Ariane Riberio Santana. Ariane graduated from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil) and is currently a second-year M.A. History student. Read more.

The Digital Access Project team and UK History students collaborated with the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation for a fascinating look at the history of John Wesley Hunt and his historic Lexington home, Hopemont. Watch here.

In 2023, the Director of CIBS, Dr. Anastasia Curwood, and Le Datta Grimes, Ph.D. were awarded a grant from the Department of Interior to produce a comprehensive study of Black life and history at Mammoth Cave National Park. Read more.

CIBS Affiliates are doing amazing work across disciplines, including anthropology, literature, politics, psychology, history, and more. Read more about some of their recent accomplishments!