Music to Our Ears

Last week the Banneker-Douglass Museum opened the Music to Our Ears exhibition. This exhibit is the product of a school-museum-community collaboration between the museum, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Banneker-Douglass Museum Foundation, and the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation. The exhibit tells the story of Carr's and Sparrow's Beaches, two local landmarks with rich connections to the community. Over the course of the spring semester, Education & Public Programs Manager Genevieve Kaplan worked with Southern Senior High School's African American history class to interview community members about their experiences at the beaches. While conducting oral history interviews, the students were able to get first hand knowledge of the beaches and take an active role in documenting history.

Students spent the semester interviewing family members who attended the beaches as well as community members who worked and attended the beaches. Through their interviews they uncovered stories about sneaking into the beaches, varying disciplinary measures taken by security staff to maintain the peace, the many celebrities and performers coming to the beaches, and the lasting impact these landmarks had on the lives of people in Anne Arundel County and beyond.

The students were also fortunate to be able to research historic photos and newspaper articles thanks to the Afro's Black History Archives online and the digitized photos on the Maryland State Archives's website. These images were combined by the Print and Design staff at Anne Arundel County Public Schools with text written by the students and edited by museum and school staff to create exhibition panels. The exhibit panels tell many stories of life at the beaches in full color.

The exhibition opened last Tuesday to a crowd of nearly 75 people. The students shared their research as well as took questions from the audience on the beaches. During the presentation, the students shared their reflections on the semester as well as their heightened pride in their community and its history.

This is the second year for the Music to Our Ears project. The first year involved students at Annapolis High School conducting research and interviews with the final result being a mini-documentary. The documentary will start screening in the museum in a few weeks as part of the exhibition.