Save the Date: 2027 Festival and Community-Engaged Conference
February 25 - 28
Join Us
Be part of a high‑energy gathering that blends community power, cultural celebration, scholarship, and environmental justice. Together, we’ll honor Africatown’s legacy—and help shape its cultural futures.
Here, the traditions of storytelling, spiritual practice, foodways, ecological knowledge, and communal care continue to illuminate the strength of Black descendant communities across the African diaspora.
We will engage one of the most extraordinary communities in the United States—a place where resilience, heritage, and cultural preservation have shaped more than 160 years of Black freedom. With founders including West Africans who survived the Middle Passage aboard the last known slave ship, Clotilda, Africatown stands today as both a historic landmark and a living community whose cultural identity endures despite generations of systemic neglect, environmental injustice, and economic hardship.
Dates
February 25 - 28, 2027
Location
Africatown, Alabama
Contact Us
Who Should Apply?
We welcome proposals from:
- Community members and organizations
- Scholars at all career stages
- Artists, storytellers, and cultural practitioners
- Students and emerging researchers
- Activists, organizers, and environmental justice leaders
- Archivists, librarians, and digital humanities practitioners
- Community representatives of other Black descendant communities
How Will You Share Your Story?
Proposals may take the form of:
- Presentations including question and answer sessions or other interactive components
- Panel Discussions and Community dialogues
- Workshops or skill‑sharing sessions
- Performances or demonstrations
- Roundtables or collaborative conversations
- Public‑facing project showcases
What Contributions Are We Seeking?
We encourage proposals that address Black descendant communities from one or more of the following perspectives:
Black Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Justice
- Work exploring food traditions, waterways, wild spaces, medicinal practices, land relationships, climate vulnerability, or environmental harm in Black descendant communities.
Community‑First Cultural Preservation
- Projects rooted in oral history, folklore, public art, theater, ceremony, storytelling, or intergenerational knowledge transfer.
Heritage, Memory & Sustainable Archiving
- Approaches to digital archiving, community‑controlled data, preservation of cultural assets, or sustainable models for public‑facing archives (including work relevant to the Africatown Digital Archive).
Collaborative Research Models
- Sessions demonstrating community‑directed research, shared authority, or partnerships between scholars and descendant communities.
Organizing, Activism & Community Capacity Building
- Work that strengthens local leadership, supports organizational sustainability, or addresses the challenges faced by Black communities navigating industrial encroachment, rezoning, or environmental racism.
Comparative Perspectives
- Proposals connecting Africatown to other Black towns, coastal communities, or descendant communities confronting similar histories and contemporary pressures.
About Us
Centering Black descendant practices, the conference aims to contribute to sustainable community capacity of Africatown, strengthen national recognition of Africatown’s legacy, and forge lasting academic-community partnerships for future initiatives.
The Community Engaged-Conference team assembles scholarly and community knowledge and leadership skills essential to achieving these goals. All team-members have long-term commitments to cherishing Africatown’s history and building Africatown’s future.
The architects behind the event include tenured humanities faculty from three institutions of higher education (The Pennsylvania State University, Oberlin College, and University of South Alabama), and community leaders representing both the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation, and the All Things Africatown Festival.
Our academic partners bring expertise in oral history, folklore, ethics, environmental justice, and public humanities. Our community partners bring experience in organizing and activism, with a particular focus on environmental justice and cultural resurgence.
The Collaborative Team:
- Kern Jackson, University of South Alabama
- Joycelyn Davis, Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation; All Things Africatown Festival
- Jay Fiskio, Oberlin College
- Patricia Frazier, All Things Africatown Festival
- Stephanie Jackson, Core Contributor
- Ted Toadvine, Pennsylvania State University
- Joe Womack, Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation
- And the University of South Alabama Community-Engaged Research Faculty Learning Community
This conference is a component of a grant funded by the Mellon Foundation.
This multi‑day public event is part of a grant‑supported partnership among The Pennsylvania State University, Oberlin College, University of South Alabama, the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation (AHPF) and All Things Africatown Festival, with consultation from Penn State’s Center for Black Digital Research. The conference will highlight community‑led projects, strengthen academic–community collaboration, and support the long‑term sustainability and leadership development of Africatown organizations.