Preserving the Her-story of the United Order of Tents in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
A student-led event featuring activists and faculty collaboration.
Date: April 30, 2019
Time: 2:15–3:30 p.m.
Location: Occidental Lounge, Student Center, Brooklyn College
In this Research Expo, Brooklyn College students and faculty will report back on their collaboration with the Brooklyn-based organization The United Order of Tents. The Tents is a benevolent organization founded in 1867 by Annetta M. Lane and Harriett R. Taylor, two formerly enslaved black women. It grew as a secret society helmed largely by black churchwomen committed to community betterment. In New York, the Tents were rooted in Bedford Stuyvesant at 87 MacDonough Street, a home whose obvious disrepair, intriguing façade, and long history in rapidly gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant interested faculty in the departments of Anthropology and Archaeology, and History, as well as community members.
In 2018 the Friends of the Tents began as a loose association of people interested in learning more about this history and supporting the Tents' preservation attempts and vision for their historic home. In spring 2019, some of these faculty will explore the potential of student research projects, oral histories, and archaeological excavation around preserving and documenting the history of the Tents in Brooklyn.
Featuring
- Dr. Robyn C. Spencer, Brooklyn College, Visiting Endowed Chair of Women and Gender Studies; Visiting Associate Professor of History
- Dr. Patricia Antoniello, Brooklyn College, Anthropology
- Dr. Kelly M. Britt, Brooklyn College, Urban Archaeology
- Safiya Bandele, emerita Founding Director of the Medgar Evers College Center for Women's Development
