https://www.danielledulken.com/pagecv daily 0.75 2022-01-28 https://www.danielledulken.com/home daily 1.0 2022-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/96272714-25a1-4dd1-b518-a174a88b24fb/0-3.jpg homepage While studying The Kingdom of the Happy Land, a nineteenth century Black utopia imaged in the mountains of western North Carolina, I attempted to locate ruins based on local newspaper descriptions and archival sources. My research led me to a narrow logging road cut into a small mountain ridge pictured above. Photograph by author, 2018. For more on The Kingdom of the Happy Land, visit my writing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/ffeae039-7721-416b-a796-c77ccdf887bb/image-asset.jpg homepage Louisiana Avenue and Emma Road mark the crossroads of Emma, North Carolina, an unincorporated township in Buncombe county four miles west of downtown Asheville. As early as the 1880s, Emma was thoroughfare connecting landowners in Leicester to the city. Today, Emma is home to a growing Mexican and Mexican American population and resources like PODER Emma Community Ownership (ECOP), a collective aimed to protect mobile home parks and immigrant workers from the city’s rapid displacement crisis. When I visited in 2018, members of the nascent advocacy group Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción (CIMA) were discussing a language library for immigrated Hñähñu (Otomi) peoples, an Indigenous tribe in so-called central Mexico. CIMA hoped to plan an Indigenous language event with the local Hñähñu (Otomi) and the ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ (Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians). Photography by author, 2018. https://www.danielledulken.com/contact daily 0.75 2022-01-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/8af1e5a2-7ff9-4967-9f67-a5bb9199ec0a/bio+pic.jpg contact - Make it stand out Danielle lives, works, and rides horses in Chapel Hill. https://www.danielledulken.com/teaching daily 0.75 2022-01-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/ab6579b1-cc99-4841-827d-6e573c3c89c5/Dulken_teaching2016.jpg teaching A guest lecture on reproductive justice for Dr. Sharon P. Holland’s undergraduate course, The Emergence of Modern America, fall 2016. https://www.danielledulken.com/writing daily 0.75 2022-01-28 https://www.danielledulken.com/writing/paymentdulken monthly 0.5 2022-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/fdfe95c0-4ab4-41ae-b97a-c8f5d1a8b7bc/oha2019.jpg writing - On payment in oral history - At the 2018 Oral History Association annual meeting, I participated in The Ethics of Listening roundtable organized by Sam Prendergast. My paper advocates for the financial compensation of storytelling labor. https://www.danielledulken.com/writing/scalawagdulken monthly 0.5 2022-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/fe185b90-54c6-4199-9754-d827468ebc55/0-2.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out An illustrated map from The Kingdom of the Happy Land, written by Sadie Smathers Patton and published in 1957. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/f6c197d0-3922-4cb4-8801-4c54b9954600/Kituwah-protection-1-1024x682.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Members of the three Cherokee tribes gather at Kituwah, the Cherokee mother town, for the Tri-Council event, 2013. Image courtesy of The Cherokee One Feather. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/8a370cfd-6b7e-47a4-9512-81e7d56b45d8/proj__MG_9479a.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Eagle Street Marketplace Apartments face the YMI Cultural Center, 2018. Marketplace Apartments is one of three new Beverly-Hanks Realty buildings surrounding the YMI Center aimed at “revitalizing the block.” The luxury boutique hotel, Asheville Foundry Inn, and the South Market Condominiums, priced around $700,000 for two-bedroom units, are located further south on Market Street. Image courtesy of snapWerx, a Charlotte-based digital image company. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/9ae1727c-d7da-41b0-8860-af770d63d88e/Ronnie-Pepper-at-Conserving-Carolina-office.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Ronnie Pepper poses at the Conserving Carolina offices in Hendersonville, NC, 2019. Ronnie argues that while Patton’s book is one of the only published histories of the Kingdom of the Happy Land, it presents serious historical limitations including a lack of evidence and a white, middle-class viewpoint. Ronnie echoes a body of scholarship on the hierarchy of textual sources and the significance of Black orality. Image courtesy of Conserving Carolina. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/7a9eabd3-0466-4d50-aefd-bbde8fc667b4/K994-8+copy.jpeg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Local Black leaders who helped purchase the YMI Center stand in front of the building, 1905. Identified left to right: Mrs. Maggie Jones (wife of the YMI pharmacist Henry E. Jones); Edward W. Pearson Sr.; Dr. Lee Otus Miller; Stanley Mc Dowell; James Vester Miller (Dr. Miller's father). Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/da8936aa-2962-462c-a9f6-20e475e96fce/0.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out A no trespassing sign posted near the site of the Kingdom of the Happy Land by new landowners and CBD manufacturers, Kingdom Harvest, fall 2018. Photograph by author. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/8006c388-df75-4faf-a6f7-8557bc38103f/K256-S+copy.jpeg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out The Young Men’s Institute (YMI) building on the corner of Market Street and Eagle Street in Asheville, NC, 1901.Commissioned by George Vanderbilt in 1892, the YMI served as a community center for the Black craftsmen who built the Biltmore Estate. In 1905, the YMI board of trustees purchased the 18,000 sq. ft. building for $10,000 making it one of the earliest Black-owned cultural centers in the nation. Over the following century, the YMI became a hub for social, cultural, civil, commercial and religious life for Black Appalachians. In the 1970s, the building was listed on the Historic Register after being slated for demolition. Soon after, the local community bought and renovated the building; it has been home to the YMI Cultural Center since August of 1988. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/4b912e3a-14ff-4546-b015-3cf67767dad9/A432-8+copy.jpeg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out The Young Men’s Institute band with their instruments, 1918. The band specialized in classical music and jazz, and many band members enjoyed successful careers in music. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/a9f3ceab-a394-4c09-8d54-3138950471bc/F462-8+copy.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Three girls read at the Market Street Branch Library in the YMI Center, 1946. The Market Street Branch was part of the city’s segregated library system. Following desegregation, the YMI library closed in 1966. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/dba94303-f741-4063-a031-e9787b9321e9/0-1.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Photograph from The Kingdom of the Happy Land by Sadie Smathers Patton, 1957. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/71499965-c35b-4fa4-a9d3-cfa5e3959bff/K995-5+copy.jpeg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out A Young Men’s Institute sports league featuring four players with “YMI” jerseys, 1910. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fc7182b58762305c0f6ac19/1642812678869-V4YZ8BJ9YVE6ECVBM34W/pg%2B17_300dpi.jpg writing - A Black kingdom in postbellum Appalachia - Make it stand out Photograph from The Kingdom of the Happy Land by Sadie Smathers Patton, 1957. Image courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Square Library, Asheville, North Carolina.