Mothers' Maiden Name
Thursday, October 15, 2026 · Time TBA
A genealogy, oral history, and storytelling workshop — tracing family lineage through the maternal line.
Sign Up — Mothers' Maiden Name
Thursday, October 15, 2026 · Time TBA
A genealogy, oral history, digital archiving, and storytelling workshop. Participants trace their family lineage through the maternal line and learn how those family histories connect to the larger histories of the African Diaspora.
Upcoming workshop
Mothers' Maiden Name
Thursday, October 15, 2026 · Time TBA
Mothers' Maiden Name is a genealogy, oral history, digital archiving, and storytelling workshop. Participants trace their family lineage through the maternal line and learn how those family histories connect to the larger histories of the African Diaspora.
It also teaches the importance of the mother's maiden name: In many cultures, women were the keepers of stories, rituals, and linguistic memory.
Using genealogy, family records, oral histories, photographs, documents, and DNA, participants treat family stories as primary historical sources. A Teaching Violent Histories approach helps examine difficult or fragmented pasts—including slavery, forced migration, and racial violence—while centering the voices and agency of descendants.
The workshop introduces digital curation and archival practice, and culminates in a curated family-history exhibit. Completing participants receive a certificate. The work is about reclaiming names, stories, and connections so descendants can tell, preserve, and exhibit that history for the generations that follow.