6abc Loves the Arts: “Voices of the Community” On View Through Sept. 26 At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — “Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation” explores the history of two cities.

“And what that looks like in both Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” says Brianna Quade, Community Engagement Coordinator for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. “So different examples of like community organizing, oral history, music, organizations.”

Quade also co-curated the exhibition, working with two other co-curators, Faye Anderson and Shamele Jordon, to uncover the past.

Anderson is the Director of All That Philly Jazz, while Jordon works for the Lawnside Historical Society.

“There’s some really cool things here and hopefully brings back some memories,” says Quade.

Four themes are highlighted, including ‘Black Joy,’ which looks at the development of Lawnside, New Jersey from pre-emancipation to entrepreneurship.

“So the development of Lawnside up until its incorporation in 1926,” she says.

Another theme is the ‘Message in Our Music.’

“And that’s going through over 200 years of Black music from about the 1770s to the 1970s, starting with slave songs and sorrow songs up until protest music of the 1970s,” she says.

There are photos of musical artists, like Billie Holiday.

“A lot of them performed at the Stage Door Canteen, which was in the basement of the Academy of Music, and at the time it was a segregated space,” she says. “So just kind of that juxtaposition of freedom, but segregation as well.”

The third display case is titled ‘Fulfilling America’s Promise.’

“That is about the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, starting with its founding and then looking at some of the activities of the local chapters in Philadelphia,” she says.

And ‘All Power to the People’ looks at community efforts and activism at the grassroots level.

“People in Philadelphia working to preserve their history through educating, through sharing that history, passing it on, so it’s not forgotten,” she says. “We need to know what struggles our ancestors have faced and how they have resisted against that and have pushed forward.”

Quade says that if people know what happened and preserve it, “we can hopefully face a better future.”

“Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation” is on view through September 26 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

For more information:

“Voices of the Community: Local Black Preservation”
Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Historical Society of Pennsylvania
1300 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107