2019 Wikipedia Conference - Presentation Notes.

Notes on some of the Wikipedia articles I have written that have historical significance for the African American community and others.

P.W. Chavers this article tells the history of Chicago during the period around 1919 and 1929 and the development of a Black Metropolis.

Harlem Renaissance Ballroom and Casino early Harlem history and community development.

St Nick's Pub, history of music creation that started in New York.

Connie Williams (Trinidadian), this article tells the history of an immigrant woman that played a significant role in intellectual life in Greenwich village.

San Juan Hill - New York, this article adds to the narrative of West Side Story, and the African American community that was there before Lincoln Center.

Timbuctoo, New York - tells the story thru the Wikipedia article about an early African American settlement in the Lake Placid area of New York.

Guinea Town settlement, Hyde Park, New York this article cites early African  American settlement.

Jitu Wesui Wikipedia article documents African American community development and community control efforts in NYC 50 years ago.

Notes:

• Give presentation to talk about Wikipedia articles that I have written that have historical significance. 

• Sharing joy - Writing Wikipedia articles has helped me in developing research skills, knowledge, and self educating.  I don’t keep this knowledge to myself. I post articles that I have written online  using social media platforms, and to my google group. 

• Exploring topics, a theme, a time a place, an individual. Gathering information (that is like gathering pieces of a puzzle that tell a story. Exploring and discovery, the facts assembled tell a story.

• When the focus of an article is about an individual it becomes more than an individual, in the fact finding process of collecting information and references. 

Examples:

• P.W. Chavers - This article while writing, researching and gathering information told the history of significant period in African American history in Chicago. A history about Chicago that we don’t regularly hear about in mainstream media. Chicago built a strong economic community that was called Bronzeville (1919-1929).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.W._Chavers

 

• St Nick’s Pub - While working on this article I found some amazing information about Harlem, the Stride piano technique, and its’ creators. I learned how a few individuals came together, and developed a  technique for playing the piano. {list the names}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nick%27s_Pub

•  Harlem Renaissance Ballroom and Casino - This Wikipedia article is another example of early Harlem history and community building. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Ballroom_%26_Casino

• Connie Williams (Trinidadian) - This is one of my favorite Wikipedia articles that I wrote. It tells the history of an immigrant woman who came to New York City in the 1930s and opened a literary cafe in Greenwich Village. Not only did she have a literary cafe but she nurtured young American artists at the beginnings of their career. One of the most noted writers was James Baldwin. This article broadened the narratives and source material about James Baldwin, and was able to tell the story about how a Black woman created an environment for growth and creativity. Not only did Connie she own a restaurant, she also promoted and brought Trinidadian culture (Calypso) to America. Calypso was a style of music and narration that was used in Trinidad during the oil field strikes in the late 30s. What is interesting is that in the early labor movement organizing in New York City calypso music was also used. Some of the same artists that Connie promoted performed for labor causes and issues. This article I think debunks stereotypes of Black immigrant women. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Williams_(Trinidadian)

• San Juan Hill, New York City 

San Juan Hill was an early African American community in New York City. This Wikipedia article documents the history of African Americans before the migration to Harlem. It tells how Urban Renewal and New York City urban planning forced African Americans from living in area which we know today as Lincoln Center area. Most of us are familiar with the movie and musical ‘West Side Story’, but we do not know that the area where the story takes place use to be an African American community. In fact the area had the largest concentration of African Americans and Caribbeans before Harlem. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Hill_(Historic_New_York_City_Neighborhood)

• Timbuctoo, New York - This Wikipedia article documents the history of an early African American settlement that was in the area of today’s Lake Placid. It is an article that connects the rural to the urban, abolitionist,  the underground railroad, John Brown, and Gerrit Smith. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuctoo,_New_York

• Guinea Town Settlement, Hyde Park, New York. Guinea Town was an African American settlement in the 1790s to 1850. The settlement is the oldest freed Black and runaway slave community in Long Island from the 1790s-1800s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_town,_New_York

• Jitu Weusi - This article documents African American history 50 years ago in Brownsville, New York City and Harlem. The data tells the story of a community movement for self determination and community control. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitu_Weusi

Future Project Idea - Timbuctoo, Blues Festival

To bring Wikipedia articles off the page, by having events to further knowledge. One specific article is the Wikipedia article about Timbuctoo, New York. For the past three years there has been a Timbuctoo, Blues festival at Lake Placid, New York. The idea is to create an urban/rural interaction with history. Many African Americans, and others living in NYC know very little about African American history in the rural areas in New York. I have had email exchange and a couple of conversations with the organizer of the Timbuctoo blues festival. We are working on ways so that people from the city can attend the Blues festival in September of  2018. The founder of the Timbuctoo blues festival wants to bring the blues festival to New York City. We discussed organizing for next year to bring the festival to NYC. We discussed that this year I will work on bring two people with me to the Blues festival, and that next year I want to expand and bring more people from the New York City area to Timbuctoo, Lake Placid. 

Visited Lake Placid in October 2018 and attended Timbuctoo Blues Festival with Carmen Collymore. 

We took photos to be uplifted and obtained new information to be added to Timbuctoo Wikipedia article.

The Wiki field trip stirred some new interests for new articles. We learned a lot about Piedmont Blues and Blues on the ride home from the trip to upstate NY. Carmen definitely showed an amazing interest in Wikipedia, etc. She invested time, energy, and money into going to Timbuctoo New York, and Timbuctoo Jersey for events and learning the history from experience. We have plans for group projects and Wikipedia articles and to learn more about Wikidata.

As I learn from research and writing articles I share what I learn.