Emerging Adult Program: Charging the Book and the Archive

About the Event

Inspired by two current exhibitions: Dancing the Revolution and Firelei Báez, this workshop demonstrates the practice of “Undoing the colonial impulse to measure, map, chart, conquer, own, and exploit.”

Participants will first engage in a lecture on the story of Sans Souci, a previously enslaved man turned revolutionary during the Haitian Revolution. In the historical canon of Toussaint L’ouverture and their rebellion against the institution of slavery, Sans Souci’s story is an emblem of deaccessioning the archives and using fabulation to create art. Following the lecture, participants transition into a Charge the Pages activity, in which they alchemize the pages of banned books and engage with a video essay.

About the Presenter

Dawn Johnson is a historian, emerging curator, and alchemist of modes of informal education. As a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, her methods towards education are informed by community engagement, arts-integration, and the African Diaspora. She has served as a participant in the Studio Museum of Harlem’s Education Practicum, Independent Curators International, the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, and currently as a US History teacher on the South Side of Chicago. Her museum education practices continue to be inspired by filling the vacancies of historical narratives through cross-generational conversations and extending access to archival spaces. The joy of her practice is fueled by collaboration, learning foodways, and linguistic exposure.