Chil­luns’ Croon inve­sti­ga­tes the­mes such as absen­ce, remem­bran­ce, spi­ri­tua­li­ty, and mor­ta­li­ty among for­mer­ly ensla­ved peo­ple in Wil­son Coun­ty, North Caro­li­na. This work pro­vi­des an inti­ma­te por­trait of an Afri­can Ame­ri­can com­mu­ni­ty and expres­ses songs of hope, equa­li­ty, and chan­ge for new gene­ra­tions.

I con­duc­ted exten­si­ve research on the Wil­son Coun­ty area and esta­bli­shed a rela­tion­ship with Lisa Y. Hen­der­son, cura­tor of the archi­ve Black Wide-Awa­ke, who pro­vi­ded access to docu­men­ts of genea­lo­gi­cal and histo­ri­cal inte­re­st rela­ted to Wil­son County’s Afri­can Ame­ri­can com­mu­ni­ty. Then, as pho­to­gra­pher and histo­rian, me and Lisa Y. Hen­der­son selec­ted files to inspi­re the ima­ge­ry essay.

The archi­ve Black Wide-Awa­ke, cura­ted by Lisa Y. Hen­der­son, inclu­des a wide ran­ge of files: the­se inclu­de pho­to­gra­phs, fami­ly dia­ries, and plan­ta­tion records, as well as new­spa­per clip­pings of obi­tua­ries, town cri­mes, and social even­ts. The archi­ve spans from the mid-1700s throu­gh the era of sla­ve­ry in the 1800s and the segre­ga­tion era in the 1900s, to con­tem­po­ra­ry docu­men­ts detai­ling new local acti­vists who seek to resto­re and pre­ser­ve their Afri­can Ame­ri­can lega­cy.

Chil­luns’ Croon also incor­po­ra­tes docu­men­ts such as old trans­crip­ts from the Fede­ral Wri­ters Pro­ject (FWP) which fea­tu­re inter­views with for­mer­ly ensla­ved Afri­can Ame­ri­cans. Toge­ther, the­se docu­men­ts reveal old spi­ri­tual beliefs and sto­ries of love and loss from the periods of sla­ve­ry and segre­ga­tion in the Uni­ted Sta­tes.