 My name is Milan Jordan, and I'm Director of the Hope Crew. And Hope Crew is an acronym that stands for Hands-On Preservation Experience. The National Trust created this initiative to give people experience in the preservation trades because there was an extreme shortage in preservation trade-skilled labor. When Hope Crew partners with architecture programs, we're really looking to create more preservation-minded future architects. So this was never a model where we were looking to create new trades, people who were going to go directly into the field of preservation trades. We just wanted architects who understood history and preservation better. Our HBCU Digital Documentation Fellowships are powered by the Action Fund and act as an extension of the work to sustain HBCUs into the future. The first year of the Digital Documentation Fellowship was a partnership with three HBCUs, Prairie View A&M University, Tuskegee University, and Florida A&M University. I'm Latavia Latham. I'm a grad student at Prairie View A&M University studying architecture. The reason I chose the Whitechapel Cemetery because going to Prairie View, we kind of don't know really much about the cemetery that's on campus. And I feel that since this fall project is going to bring more students from Prairie View, this will give them a better understanding about what is actually going on in the cemetery and the history of the cemetery. Being from Chicago, I kind of just seen a lot of the tall buildings and the different designs within the building. So that kind of just made me be more interested within architecture. Then I took an architecture class in high school and that kind of just confirmed my interest in it and then I'm here now. I'm kicking off talking a little bit about the trust and some of the initiatives we have that benefit HBCUs. But the larger purpose of the orientation is to help contextualize the project that Latavia conceived of and that you guys will be working on in the next three months or so. So you'll hear about her project, fabrication, black burial grounds, and her crew in the National Trust as well too. I'm just going to give you a brief description of the Whitechapel Cemetery that's located on our campus. Through all to the tradition, Hermes and the side land as a burial site for the enslaved from both Alta Vista and the Liano Plantation all by his cousin. In 1876, the Texas governor arranged a division to establish an agriculture school with the budget of $20,000. My project that I'm doing for the cemetery is Cemetery signage. It's going to include a site plan and also it's going to include some history about the cemetery on it and we also are planning on doing a website to give students more information about the cemetery and also some mapping details and things I just did over the summer with Hope Crew. Latavia's project narrows in on possibly one of the oldest sites on campus which is the cemetery and the unmarked burial ground area. Latavia developed a project scope that would include 12 cohorts from the School of Architecture. Those students will work in teams of two to design park-like signage that demarcates the sacredness of the site or helps bring memorial to the site in some way. So what's going on today is that we are here at the Wyatt Chapel Cemetery that is adjacent to the Prairie Views campus. This is a known cemetery for descendants of the Alta Vista Plantation as well as Prairie View A&M in its early conception. We're taking a site visit today just to get the students familiar with the space that we'll be working in and representing and the signage that we'll be creating. With this project, I get to actually see my project come to life especially once we get approval to make it permanent on the cemetery. I feel like there will be a great opportunity for not only me but for also the students that's on campus. Working with Latavia was really special. You really saw her blossom and bloom in the time that we were together. She was very timid and quiet and said that she didn't like to network or speak to people in the beginning. She didn't see herself as a leader to the growth that we saw throughout this fellowship. At the end, she was taking command. She was leading people. She was making her opinions known and she really brought this project full circle. There's been some previous research done but all of the documentation and archives here have really been in dusty boxes and everything has been passed down through word of mouth. And so there could potentially be up to a thousand people buried in this area. It's a beautiful area along the creek but there are only a few headstones that remain and over the years, even in recent years, those have been broken. The fabrication process that we're embarking on will consist of a five-part workshop where I take the students through conception to full-scale prototyping. Part of what I'll teach them is designing in three-dimension in the actual Fusion 360 software which is one of the top CNC kind of all-around manufacturing softwares that's the industry standard. We wanted to do something that was very sensitive to the site. We really didn't want to do something that was going to make it stand out too much but then again it is a historic burial ground. The place where I want to locate my proposed signage will be towards the front of the entryway. There's two entryways but I want to do it down this road because this is like the main street that everyone drives. I want to put it towards the right. Lutavia was the perfect person for this fellowship. She had asked the question that a lot of my students ask in studio which is how do we design something contemporary that appeals to our aesthetic but also respect the past and the history of the architecture of the past that's important. Working with Hope Crew has actually brought a lot of light to me because I wasn't really fascinated in working with preservation or with like burial grounds or like cemeteries and I feel like this is actually important because we always was taught in class about different things the slaves went through and I just feel like being here and kind of just make me feel kind of what I've been learning all my life. My name is Gabrielle Payne. I am a recent graduate from Prairie View A&M University and I study digital media arts. The process of our fellowship we had to first do our historical research paper which was my favorite part. Not necessarily the writing of the paper but the research is really great and then we did have to come up with our scope of work and our budgeting process as well just so like hey so we do put this plan into action. How are we going to do that? For the branding book I do believe I put the start date and look at the calendar. I said September 12th. Okay great. And then you shared it. I just didn't remember. Thank you for sharing this. Okay. Yes and I would say the cemetery cleanup would be I did believe I'd say October. Olivewood Cemetery is the first incorporated cemetery for African-Americans in the Houston area. Her project has led to some beautiful research and work with the site owners the friends or the descendants of Olivewood and their work will create a logo a color scheme representative of the site for them. Well I believe this experience provided the students with another opportunity to see how the design work they do can affect different organizations and have an impact on their community. And I always tell them it's wonderful when you design something and you actually walk around town and you see it. Or you see it on a television screen. Or you see it on a flyer or a poster. It just makes you feel like the work you do is valued and it means something. So for today we will be having an official meeting with Miss Margo here and Miss Jasmine today. They are the work for the descendants of Olivewood. So Miss Margo is one of the founders of the descendants of Olivewood a non-profit organization and she owns the cemetery along with Mr. Charles Cook. He's not in right now but Miss Margo he'll be our talking representative and we'll be talking about the project I've developed for y'all which will be a branding book for the cemetery. It does not have to be so they found Olivewood in the condition of it was really covered in vegetation, trees, tall grass, weeds, all that and what they have since the early 2000s till now is they cleaned up a lot of it and they haven't had help from the government or anything like that they've been just doing it by themselves for a very long time. An opportunity like this to work with a historic site I think it gives students a good lesson in history a good lesson to see where we've come from what our people did to survive how they honored not only to live in but how they honored the dead came to this area and built a life that has kind of sustained them until now. When I first stepped on the grounds of Olivewood it was really overwhelming due to the fact that these people here I didn't even know that they were here you know and this is like a historical black cemetery I was like wow like a little part of me wishes that I was born back then so I can get to know them because most of the people there are like teachers, lawyers, doctors some of them are Freemasons some of them really built Houston and I would love to like get to know each and every single one of them and bring their story like to the light. We knew Gabby was a superstar from the beginning we're truly honored and humbled that she attributes her current job role and her current career growth to having been a part of this fellowship I'm about to start my meeting for the Olivewood branding book the final presentation with the students I'm quite nervous but I think it'll go well we'll do see how this goes. Thank you guys so much as Ms. Jasmine had said earlier this is, yeah this is hard it's hard to decide which one this is what keeps Olivewood alive it takes your living community and all of their investments whether it's time, whether it's labor, whether it's creativity it all helps to you know keep the memory of the people that are buried there alive and it helps us protect them as people when everybody comes out after they visited our website that's the first thing they're looking for is that angel so I think the one with the angel would be the one. But I think for me if it was up to me I think Alexis would end up taking it it was just the marriage of like all of these things that kind of came through. I enjoy working on this project especially working with Gabby because all the work that she has produced throughout last year which really amazed me and going into Olivewood and actually visiting the cemetery was very very helpful in creating the brand book and her being open to everyone's ideas and designs was very helpful. All righty it looks like Miss Alexis is our winner of the branding book congratulations. We're getting older but you guys are our future and so you'll be around to tell the stories we have to keep them with Olivewood on their minds so thank you so much. Thank you yes so that concludes our final presentation today for Olivewood thank you so much and y'all have a nice one. That was a good meeting that was a great meeting just finished it I love every part of it seeing everybody's work and seeing you know how happy and made the people Olivewood be was really nice I think we went really well and I know everyone's excited about you know having the opportunity to do this for Olivewood do something that's important to us a site that they didn't even know was there I thought it was really really great. The digital documentation fellowship seems to have touched each one of the fellows in a very different way we've seen them grow, evolve get professional training find new avenues of interest and really see themselves in the movement many of our fellows are interested in exploring advanced degrees, master's degrees in architecture and preservation now as well too entrepreneurship, they got a taste of what it was like to lead teams and to work independently and they really see that as a part of their future and path now as well. You know the fellows have worked so hard to design projects that are benefiting their community and I'm hoping that that continues after we leave we've given them the tools and allow them to make those connections locally with people doing preservation and we're hoping not only can we assist in that continuing but that they will personally continue the work after we leave. Working with Hope Crew actually makes me feel like I'm wanted honestly and with Hope Crew working with different HBCUs to try to get them to look more into historic preservation I feel like it's a great opportunity during this fellowship it also gave me a different perspective of what architecture is about it's not just about like buildings more you can instead of designing new buildings you can help the existing buildings or even land that's there. This fellowship made a nice lead way into doing black studies for UT Austin because they saw that and they saw my portfolio from my digital media arts program and they're like why we want you on board we don't see or know the historical black sites that have been forgotten I want to bring those lights and information.