HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEMORY

2. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEMORY Fundamental Questions of Human Existence Geography Speaks to Fundamental Issues of Orientation, Community and Identity Community, Identity and Memory The Historical Geographic Context of Remembering and Forgetting Sites of Memory Sources of Memory Geography and Worldview Seeing Oneself in Diasporan Context Cartographic and Visual Representations of African American History

3. The Fundamental Questions of Human Existence • What am I?-Physical/Biological Facts of Life • Who am I? Cultural Context of One’s Life • Why am I? Purpose /Raison d’Etre • How am I?Action/Praxis • Where am I? Absolute and Relative Location/Situational Context • Knowing Who You Are Depends on Knowing Where You Are

4. Geography Speaks to Fundamental Issues of Orientation and Identity • What is the Worst Feeling in the World? Being Lost • Geography is Central to Grounding Your Orientation in the World • Knowing Where You’re Going Depends on Knowing Where You Have Been • The Need for a Map • The Need for Understanding Relations, Patterns & Distributions of Phenomena That Impact Life

5. Community, Identity & Memory • Modern Notions of Identity: I think therefore I am • Traditional Notions of Identity: I am Because We Are & Because We are Therefore I am • Identity and Community Context Interwoven • Internal Dynamics of Community • External Relations Between Communities

6. The Historical Geographic Context of Remembering and Forgetting • Memory formation as a process of remembering the particulars of one’s lived experiences • in a specific place, city, neighborhood, home and or household • As we move from on place to another from one generation to the next • The forgotten past as those things, people and events that we choose to not do, remember or talk about • Generational transmission of memory, secrets and silences

7. Sources of Memory • Archival • Bibliographical • Memories of Elders and Ancestors • Family Albums, Bibles and Scrapbooks • Family Cookbooks, Clothing, Jewelry & Other Heirlooms • Stories, Songs & Myths • Legends & Lies • Legacies of Silence

8. Sites of Memory • Physical & Cultural Landscapes • Museums and Parks • Historic Landmarks of Community Life & Significant Events • Community Building as a an Act of Human Agency, Resistance & Self-Determination • Making History & Making Geography • Evolution of Historical Neighborhoods & Business Districts

9. Geography and Worldview

15. Seeing Oneself in Local/ Diasporan Context

29. Cartographic and Visual Representations of African American History