Final Reception for eBlackChampaign-Urbana Interns!

Since June 7, 2010, six African-American high school and community college aged youth have worked as interns on the eBlackChampaign-Urbana Project, a collaborative project to use digital technology to enhance access to, to aggregate and to find uses for dispersed informational sources on local African-American history. Our goals with this project are to: a) celebrate local African-American heritage; b) ensure that the memories, stories and struggles of local African-American history are preserved and accessible in our digital society; c) excite local residents about the possibilities of using digital technology to revolutionize community life and community memory. Help us celebrate the accomplishments of these six interns! Join us at the Champaign Public Library, Robeson Pavilion Room C, 200 West Green Street, Champaign, Illinois, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday, August 13. Drop in when you can if you can’t make the entire reception. We will have: a) presentations by the interns about the work they did and the the things they learned this summer; b) an overview of the eBlackChampaign-Urbana project – its accomplishments, its goals; c) an overview of eBlackCU into the Fall and beyond, and how you and your community organization(s) can become part of this project. Digital Memory is for everyone, not just African-Americans. ALL can use the technology that excites to digitize and broadcast their stories of community history in Champaign-Urbana. We would like to see this project grow – and everyone can contribute! Examples of how you could contribute: a) Digitizing ALL local school yearbooks, past and present; b) Making documentaries on your local and family history; c) Digitizing family, church and community organization scrapbooks, photographs and newspaper clippings. All of these projects could be done with technology you either own or could have access to, with our assistance. So join in and participate! Pizza and pop will served for individuals who RSVP by contacting Noah Lenstra, eBlackCU project director, at nlenstr2@illinois.edu or 815-275-0268 by Thursday, August 12, at 5 p.m. We hope to see you there! Noah Lenstra