The “Vibrant Lives: Discovering Our Roots of Black Vermont” photography exhibit will be on display at the public library this summer.
By Emily Rodin, for the Community News Service
SOUTH BURLINGTON — When Rajnii Eddins and René Rentería met at Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library in 2024, neither knew the encounter would lead to an oral history project documenting the stories of Black Vermonters.
Eddins, a poet and activist, and Rentería, a photographer, had been at the library participating in a program called “Brothers Building Brothers,” a space for men to gather and discuss their identities. As they discovered their shared interests, their friendship grew and eventually sparked an idea. Eddins drew inspiration from a youth program he participated in while growing up in Seattle, where he interviewed elders about their journeys to the city and their life experiences.
Next month, a photo exhibit called “Vibrant Lives: Discovering Our Roots of Black Vermont” will open at the South Burlington Public Library. The project also features youth-led interviews of 15 Black Vermonters from Burlington and the surrounding Chittenden County.
Eddins and Rentería describe “Vibrant Lives” as a space for sharing untold or overlooked stories and fostering connections, especially during a polarizing time in history.
“It felt like a really meaningful offering,” Eddins said of the project. “Just one place for the beauty of humanity.”
“Vibrant Lives” tells Black Vermonters’ stories through video, audio clips and photographs. The interviews were conducted by Eddins’ daughter, Amina Rhoads; his niece, Nadia Frazier; and Dahlia Michoma, a Winooski student leader.
As a photographer, Rentería said he sees the portraits as a form of landscape photography.
“It’s another way to help people connect,” he said.
Eddins said he and Rentería designed the project to have younger generations interview their elders and preserve their stories.
“There’s something special in the intergenerational exchange that maybe is missing in a lot of ways in our society at large,” Eddins said.
Although everybody featured in the project was already a friend of Eddins’, he said the interviews uncovered stories and perspectives he had never heard before.
In one of the oral histories, Richard Kemp Center director Christine Longmore Hughes shares how growing up during the height of the Civil Rights movement influenced her lifelong commitment to community service. Hughes went to Burlington High School where she and her friends confronted an event called “Slave Day.”
“It was a student council-sponsored event, and people could buy a student and make them, like for a week, carry their books or come to school dressed as like a clown, or whatever,” Hughes said in the interview.
Other interviewees include Aden Haji, who came to Vermont as a Somali Bantu refugee in 2003; Marlon Fisher, the co-founder of Dad Guild; and Irene KeruBo Webster, a Kenyan Afro-jazz artist and social worker.
On June 14, “Vibrant Lives” organizers hosted a panel discussion at the South Burlington Public Library, which previewed the upcoming exhibit. It also served as a kickoff to the city’s celebration of Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans and is observed annually on June 19.
The panel featured five Vermont civic and educational leaders: Deacon Roy V. Hill, Denise Dunbar, Elise Guyette, Irene Wrenner and Jolivette Anderson Douoning. The panelists discussed topics including freedom, fairness, youth education, and memory.
Dunbar, for example, spoke about her work with the Reading to End Racism program in Vermont public schools. Through the program, community members visit classrooms to read age-appropriate stories that explore topics such as skin color to students.
The “Vibrant Lives” photo exhibit will be on display on the second floor of the library from June 30 to August 31.
“I would like to try and advocate that: Always keep noticing, always keep trying to see who’s around you, and wonder,” Rentería said.
Emily Rodin is an intern for UVM’s Community News Service through Report for America’s Local News Internship Program.
The post Black Vermonters celebrated in new South Burlington exhibit first appeared on Vermont Daily Chronicle.
The post Black Vermonters celebrated in new South Burlington exhibit appeared first on Vermont Daily Chronicle.
