2023- Present, Principal Investigator (PI), Outsider Preservation Initiative, Presidential Initiative of the Andrew Mellon Foundation. A four-year program investing in commemorative practices and storytelling projects. I manage research and program staff to create a web portal, community of practice, host symposia, develop new pedagogy, and make grants to descendant-led place preservation projects.

Commemorating Black place preservation and persistence across places and time, focusing on the creation of Black settlements and towns. OPI activities, research, and grantmaking highlight the roles culture, performance, storytelling, and heritage play in descendants’ approaches to preserving, revitalizing, remembering, and protecting freedmen’s settlements (also known as Freedom Colonies, Black Settlements, Black Colonies, Black Towns, and Freedom Communities.)

Descendant community members are, for this initiative, descendants of community founders, institution builders, and early residents of historic Black settlements founded between 1865 and 1930.

This Mellon-funded initiative expands the mapping, technical assistance, and storytelling work of The Texas Freedom Colonies Project by engaging with places and communities in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Louisiana, California, Texas, and Nova Scotia.