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The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC)

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The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC)

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The University of Chicago serves as Host Institution of the BMRC.

The BMRC is dedicated to making accessible its members' holdings of materials that document African American and African Diaspora history and culture in Chicago. The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is an unincorporated Chicago-based association of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions with major holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago.

11/03/2026

The BMRC is excited to be a partner for Ritual & Rememory Weekend. The weekend takes place on November 14th and 15th during What Shall I Do With My Dead?, an exhibition of family archives and textile art on the afterlives of migration by Raja’Nee and Jalen Hamilton now on view at Blanc Gallery. It's absolutely stunning, you all should check it out.

Our Program Manager/Archivist, Gabrielle, will lead Kitchen Table Archiving, a hands on workshop where we will learn ways to sort, store, and protect family photos, letters, and documents for generations to come. While registration for this session is already full, we hope you will check out other offerings during the weekend.

✨

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ritual-and-rememory-weekend-tickets-2003266217182?keep_tld=true

10/30/2026

We're honored that BMRC was thanked and that our work of connecting folks working on Black archives was acknowledged today at the "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" Symposium during the talk, “Unbroken from the Present to a Rich Ancient Past”: The Musical and Spiritual Legacy of Kelan Phil Cohran given by Alejandro Cueto and Penta Cohran Moore.https://music.uchicago.edu/news/uchicago-host-symposium-i-wish-i-knew-how-it-would-feel-be-free

Cohran, a musician, educator, cultural visionary and is a Chicago legend and his family is working to steward his legacy. Check out the Kelan Phil Cohran Legacy Project here: https://kpclegacy.wixsite.com/kpclegacy

10/26/2026

☄️Richard Hunt, the preeminent Chicago sculptor, was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1935. His public art has made a mark on Chicago and the world. That's why the Black Metropolis Research Consortium is ecstatic to welcome the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation as its NEWEST member! 👏

The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation "is dedicated to preserving the history of Richard Hunt's art and life through deep research and scholarship and bringing new discoveries to light."

Giving access to Hunt's archival collection is part of this mission.
A substantial portion of Hunt's sculpture, works on paper and personal archival collection is now held by the Getty Research Institute https://www.getty.edu/research/collections/collection/2T8NFA .

🔦However, the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation holds supplementary and complementary archival records that are also available to the public. https://www.richardhuntsculptor.org/faqs

Welcome Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation! 🎊

10/22/2026

Join BMRC Visual Arts Researcher Rashieda Witter for the launch of "Seeing Sounds: The Sonic and Visual Art of the Dungill Sisters," a new publication celebrating the remarkable creative legacy of Chicago’s Dungill sisters.

The culmination of more than a year of deep archival research, "Seeing Sounds" is the first publication to document the sisters’ interconnected musical and visual art histories, bringing together paintings, photographs, archival materials, and family histories to illuminate a story that has long remained underrecognized.

The evening will also mark Rashieda’s final presentation with the BMRC, offering reflections on two years of research, curatorial practice, and the process of bringing "Seeing Sounds" to life.

Free copies of "Seeing Sounds" will be available for all attendees. Join us for an evening of reflection, celebration, and community around the histories that made this project possible. RSVP here: https://luma.com/37ij2n24

10/19/2026

⚠️We have to POSTPONE the 2026 BMRC Annual Meeting scheduled to take place on Wednesday, October 21st due to circumstances beyond our control.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience and stay tuned for a new date soon! ☄️

10/12/2026

🖤Do you believe Black history should be preserved, protected, and accessible for future generations? The Black Metropolis Research Consortium is expanding its leadership team and seeking dedicated professionals across the Chicago area to help guide the organization's next chapter.

We're especially interested in candidates with backgrounds in:
• Fundraising & Development
• Finance & Accounting
• Law & Nonprofit Governance
• Community Partnerships
• Archives, Libraries & Museums
• Black Studies
• Arts & Culture

Leadership opportunities are also available, including Board Chair and Treasurer.

If you're committed to strengthening access to Black historical collections and building connections across communities, scholarship, arts, and culture, we encourage you to apply.

📅 Applications accepted through October 23, 2026
🔗 Apply online https://bmrc.lib.uchicago.edu/news/open-call-for-bmrc-board-of-directors-positions/

📸Image: A poetry study circle at the South Side community art center. United States Chicago Cook County Illinois, 1942. Photograph: Jack Delano.

10/09/2026

Who gets to decide what is remembered, and who carries our histories forward?
Sometimes it’s an archivist or historian. Sometimes it’s the person keeping the family photographs, saving the funeral programs, recording elders’ stories, or collecting books, records, artwork, and ephemera because they know these things matter.

Join OG Ugwuanyi, founder of Okrika, and Rashieda Witter, art historian, curator, and Visual Arts Researcher with the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, for “Cultural Caretaking: Archives as a Living Resource.”

This gathering is for artists, creatives, family historians, collectors, researchers, and anyone who finds themselves caring for personal or cultural memory. Together, we’ll reflect on the “why” behind what we preserve and explore archives as living resources for memory, creativity, research, and cultural stewardship.

We’ll gather in conversation, explore Okrika’s library, and think about how this exchange might continue through future open library hours and gatherings. Attendees will receive an ‘Archive in a Box’ kit to support the care of their own personal and cultural materials.

📆 Saturday, October 17 | 11 AM–2 PM
📍 Okrika | Studio 218, Flatiron Arts Building

Free to attend. Space is limited + registration is required: https://luma.com/db7p8tsj

This program is supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Ga***rd and the Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

10/06/2026

☀️We're doing history Chicago Style this morning at the Student Kick-off for Metro History Day at the Chicago History Museum !

Excited to speak with middle-schoolers from all over the city about the collections held by our members that they can search for in our Archives Portal. https://bmrc.lib.uchicago.edu/portal/

Also cool to share the space with some of our members like Chicago Public Library, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois Chicago!

10/05/2026

🌀This week, we're not centering book bans, but are appreciating the books that sustain and inspire us.💙

📙We're excited to think with this latest publication from The Practicing Refusal Collective, "Thinking from Black: A Lexicon" edited by Tina Campt, Kaiama L. Glover, Canisia Lubrin, Tavia Nyong’o, Christina Sharpe, and Alexander Ghedi Weheliye

The book is "An expansive lexicon of words, terms, concepts, and ideas that takes the multiplicity of Black life as its point of departure."
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374620080/thinkingfromblackalexicon/

Check out the entry for "Archive" and tell us what you think ! 💡

09/30/2026

BMRC Research Fellow Spotlight! 🔦Dr. Ayesha Hardison 🔦 was part of the first cohort BMRC Summer Research Fellows in 2009. She carried out research at the Harsh Collection at the Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library and later published the book, "Writing through Jane Crow: Race and Gender Politics in African American Literature." ( University of Virginia Press ,2014)

📍Today, Dr. Hardison is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana University Bloomington, and the director of the History of Black Writing Project ( ) 📓 which seeks to build lasting change in the American literary canon by recovering and preserving African American and African diaspora literary history.

Address

1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL
60637

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+17737022388

Website

http://bmrc.uchicago.edu/, https://linktr.ee/BMRC

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