final_neh_dpp_grant_submission2019_maraffi

• • • • Project Title: Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina Gullah-Geechee Heritage Site Institution: Florida Atlantic University, College of Arts & Letters, School of Communication & Multimedia Studies Project Director: Christopher Maraffi, cmaraffi@fau.edu Grant Program: Digital Projects for the Public: Discovery Grants Application Narrative A) Nature of the request Florida Atlantic University (FAU) requests an NEH Digital Projects for the Public Discovery grant in the amount of $30,000 to develop design documents for Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina GullahGeechee Heritage Site, a transmedia project consisting of a site-specific augmented reality tour application, a portable augmented reality museum installation, and a 360degree interactive web site Augmented reality technology overlays interactive media on a live camera feed from a mobile device or a headset like the Magic Leap One or Microsoft HoloLens, so that virtual structures and figures appear to inhabit the surrounding environment We have assembled an interdisciplinary team of digital media and humanities faculty from four universities, preservation institutions, and industry leaders in emerging technologies, to develop an engaging experiential learning application for visitors to an important site related to Reconstruction-era history and African American culture Mitchelville was the first Freedman’s town in the United States during the Civil War, a central feature of the Port Royal Experiment in African American self-governance, and now a Gullah-Geechee heritage site on Hilton Head Island South Carolina Our project is to create an augmented reality tour application that will immerse site visitors in Mitchelville’s rich history and culture Tourists will be able to literally follow in the footsteps of figures from history, picking up virtual 3D artifacts to examine, and interact with historical personalities like Harriet Tubman, General Mitchel, and Robert Smalls The augmented reality tour will feature Gullah-Geechee storytelling and dance performances to make the experience more culturally diverse and authentic for yearround visitors to the park Our goal is to present Reconstruction history as both educational and entertaining for visitors to a heritage site, while digitally preserving its cultural assets for future generations, and improving attendance so the tours become self-sustaining We are collaborating with History and African American Studies faculty from University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) and Coastal Carolina University (CCU), the Mitchelville Preservation Project, and Reconstruction National Monument sites in Beaufort County South Carolina like the Penn Center to develop the humanities content of this project We plan to produce a basic self-guided augmented reality tour for mobile phones that will be freely downloadable on app stores, and a deluxe guided tour for small groups that will utilize Magic Leap headsets for a rental price of about $15 per visitor Magic Leap headsets have the capabilities to spatially map the environment in ways that can’t be done by standard mobile devices, allowing us to augment the site with 3D content in a more believable way, while using the tour proceeds to update and maintain the site technology The Mitchelville tour is a flagship project in a new educational partnership between FAU and Magic Leap, one of the world leaders in spatial computing technology, and who has offered to provide technical support for developing the paid tour app We are also working with computer science faculty who specialize in interactive media research from North Carolina State University and University of South Carolina Beaufort, and who are also partnering with Magic Leap Our Media, Technology, and Entertainment MFA faculty and graduate students will be using their multimedia production expertise to design the augmented reality experience, starting with preproduction concept art and storyboards, and a proof-of-concept for the technical approach Although this project is on the cutting edge of emerging technologies, we have the interdisciplinary team of digital artists and technologists to successfully create a new way of experiencing and learning history in Mitchelville To reach a wider audience and encourage people to visit the physical site, we will also explore creating a portable Mitchelville exhibit-installation that will demo some of the augmented reality tour scenes in a museum or gallery space Since FAU multimedia and computer science faculty already partner with the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS), Daruma Tech, and Magic Leap to teach augmented reality to high school students in the MODS App-titude Internship program, we plan to have MODS summer school students contribute to the Mitchelville augmented reality museum exhibit Ideally, we would like such an exhibit to travel widely to campuses, libraries, and museums around the country, such as the International African American Museum in Charleston To distribute the content even further to the public, we plan to design a web site that will feature 360-degree video of the site, with some of the augmented reality tour content embedded in the media, with point-and-click documentary supplements and interactive timelines We will be working with South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) and USCB broadcasting faculty and students to produce educational video in the Beaufort SCETV production facility B) Humanities content Historic Mitchelville was the first Freedman’s town in the US, even before the Emancipation Proclamation (Jan 1st 1863) during the Civil War, in Union occupied Hilton Head Island South Carolina Founded by General Ormsby Mitchel in late 1862, the town was occupied and run by former coastal slaves collectively known today as Gullah-Geechee Mitchelville, as a central feature of the Port Royal Experiment (186265) in self-governance, was a significant milestone in African-American history The Gullah-Geechee inhabitants of the town had unique styles of rhythmic dance, music, and storytelling, such as the Ring Shout, that became central to the Southern roots of African-American culture Harriet Tubman, famed Underground Railroad freedom fighter, was assigned to the Port Royal area to serve as a nurse, and while on Hilton Head Island visited Mitchelville After Reconstruction during the Jim Crow years in South Carolina at the end of the nineteenth century, Mitchelville became abandoned and forgotten as inhabitants migrated North to Charleston and beyond, but a century later renewed local research and archaeology are restoring its important legacy Today, Mitchelville Freedom Park is a Gullah-Geechee heritage site being revived by the Mitchelville Preservation Project and Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce The original site structures have long since vanished, but information outposts inform visitors of the park’s rich history, and annual Gullah-Geechee special events feature physical tours and storytelling performances To develop the content of the tour, we will be meeting with humanities and digital media faculty from four universities, the Mitchelville Preservation Project, and preservationists from related Reconstruction National Monument sites In this first exploratory phase, our objective is to develop a narrative for the Mitchelville tour that furthers the discussion started by recent critical documentaries like Reconstruction: America After the Civil War by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr on PBS, and Reconstruction 360 on South Carolina Educational Television web site These new documentaries tell African-American stories that were actively suppressed in the South through Jim Crow-era revisionist history, and forgotten by much of the rest of the nation Mitchelville and the Port Royal Experiment was one of those forgotten stories of African American self-governance that wasn’t fully covered in these other documentaries because it occurred before the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation This project is unique in several ways compared to other educational media on Reconstruction We will look more closely at Coastal Carolina history from the years 1861-1865, especially related to Mitchelville, the Port Royal Experiment, and the story of Robert Smalls, a GullahGeechee born into slavery in Beaufort, who emancipated himself and family members when he commandeered a Confederate war ship to escape to Union occupied Hilton Head Island in early 1862, and who later became a war hero and US congressman We will also take an aesthetic approach that puts a spotlight on Gullah-Geechee culture, the language, craft, music, and dance practices of the Freedman who inhabited Mitchelville, and whose coastal descendants still struggle for recognition of their impact on African American history Also, where other educational media on the African American experience during Reconstruction was done through documentary video and interactive web sites, we will use spatial computing to design an augmented reality tour experience that is intended to create a theatrical liveness that surrounds and engages the visitor in ways not possible with video Humanities Themes: Some themes we will explore in this discovery phase will be: • Theme1: As part of the Port Royal Experiment, Mitchelville and other Freedman institutions in the Sea Islands of Beaufort County South Carolina were ground zero for the first federal movement to give African Americans equal rights in the South, and are therefore an important chapter for Civil Rights in America As Reconstruction historian Eric Foner said in a recent interview, “Beaufort is like a microcosm of so many of the issues that are central to understanding Reconstruction… if you were going to look for one place where you could talk about all the issues of Reconstruction, on both the local and national levels, Beaufort is really the best spot for that.” From early in the Civil War, Beaufort County was the center of the Union Army’s efforts to end slavery in the South, and with the Port Royal Experiment of 1862 establishing the first Freedmen’s towns and schools, became a model for the Freedmen’s Bureau Reconstruction efforts in 1865 We will use local resources like the Beaufort District Collection to explore how Mitchelville and other locations around Beaufort County tie into the larger narrative of Reconstruction and Civil Rights, and work closely with our advisers to understand how Reconstruction policies “thoroughly remade and modernized America and laid the foundation for the "Second Reconstruction"— the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s and 60s Thus the post-Civil War end of slavery not only brought freedom to African Americans but also inaugurated a comprehensive and protracted reshaping of fundamental American institutions and the very definition of American citizenship itself.” (USCB’s Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era) • Theme2: Narratives on African American self-governance like Mitchelville were actively suppressed in the South after Reconstruction, along with the stories of African American heroes and statesman like Robert Smalls, and these forgotten stories of early Reconstruction are important for understanding contemporary race relations in America While stories of African American accomplishments during Reconstruction will be central to the narrative of our AR tour, we will also explore the context of how those accomplishments were taken away in the South after the Compromise of 1877, when Union troops were withdrawn and the Freedmen’s Bureau was shut down This is a dark chapter in American history, and we will confront the subject of race and white supremacy in looking at postReconstruction South Carolina, when Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and Klan violence systematically erased much of the freedoms won for African Americans during Reconstruction We will work closely with our advisers to educate the public on a period in American history that still suffers from confusion, as “few other periods in American history where such a wide gap exists between scholarly understanding and public consciousness.” (USCB ISRA), so that visitors understand what was gained and lost for African Americans, and how disinformation in the early historical narrative still misleads people today Renewed interest by contemporary scholars like Eric Foner and Henry Louis Gates has shown how relevant the “splendid tragedy” (Du Bois) of the Reconstruction-era is to contemporary race relations in America, as seen in Gates’ 2019 PBS documentary that connected current events like Charleston’s 2015 Emanuel AME church massacre and the 2017 Charlottesville Virginia white supremacist violence to Lost Cause narratives started in the 1870s and still propagated today • Theme 3: Gullah-Geechee cultural practices that incorporated storytelling, music, and dance, were how an oppressed people expressed their freedom in towns like Mitchelville during Reconstruction One of the oldest surviving practices, the Ring Shout, was a circular dance with a caller or “shouter” who tapped out the rhythm with a stick because drums were banned in South Carolina after the 1739 Stono Rebellion, where enslaved groups used drum signals between plantations to coordinate their uprising In the dance, a Shouter calls out instructions to the dancers, who then a “call and response” by singing hymns and performing dance steps in a counterclockwise circle Rhythmic forms of expression like the Ring Shout showed resilience to oppression during slavery and after Reconstruction when Civil Rights were suppressed in the Jim Crow South Oral storytelling was a way that an enslaved people who were forbidden to read and write could transmit their genealogy and customs, while singing and dancing gave those who were allowed few possessions a way to come together and express their heritage These rhythmic practices from the African diaspora were copied by white entertainers who wore blackface in popular minstrel shows as early as the 1830s, such as the Jump Jim Crow shows of T.D Rice, which by the 1870s became synonymous with racial oppression in the post-Reconstruction South But emancipation allowed black entertainers to form their own minstrel troupes, and ultimately reclaim the form from racial stereotypes that were prevalent throughout the South As Gates showed in the fourth episode of his PBS Reconstruction series, the explosion of authentic African American pop culture during the Harlem Renaissance was directly related to Southern black minstrels migrating Northward as Reconstruction gave way to Jim Crow laws Minstrel groups like the Jenkins Orphanage Band, sometimes billed as “The Famous Pickanninny Band” from Charleston, actually subverted racial stereotypes by popularizing authentic African American forms of expression at the turn of the century This was a complicated time in American history that should be better understood by the public, and we will explore how Gullah-Geechee cultural practices spread from the Coastal Carolinas to New York City to become subversive dance fads like “The Charleston”, that crossed racial lines in ways not seen in segregated American society at that time Original Ring Shout performances can still be experienced in Beaufort County at annual festivals like the Decoration Day Gullah Festival in downtown Beaufort on Memorial Day weekend Yale historian David Blight contends that Freedman founded Decoration Day, now Memorial Day, at the Charleston graveyard of 257 Union soldiers labeled “Martyrs of the Race Course” in May 1865 A procession of formerly enslaved black Union soldiers re-buried the dead from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp, with women and children singing hymns, dancing, and marching to honor the dead while dropping flowers on the new graves The graves were then moved to the National Cemetery in Beaufort, and the decorating custom continues there every Memorial Day Mitchelville Freedom Park also hosts a Gullah-Geechee Juneteenth celebration which commemorates when Union Maj General Gordon Granger emancipated the last of the enslaved African Americans in Galveston Texas, on June 19th 1865, where he said that “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” This special event includes a variety of traditional GullahGeechee practices, including Ring Shout dancing We will use these contemporary performances as reference for creating a virtual version of the dance for our Mitchelville augmented reality tour Using these themes as a guide, we plan to develop a site narrative that can be organized into a tapestry of related historical scenes that will be performed as stops on the augmented reality tour In the tour, life-sized figures will appear like ghosts from the environment to tell their story, with old structures transforming to new before visitor’s eyes We plan to add seek-and-find game elements to the interactive experience, so that visitors will follow virtual clues in the environment, such as artifacts, that will lead them to the next scene Like Disney’s Hall of Presidents come to life with realistic and accurate details, Abraham Lincoln may read the Emancipation Proclamation, and Civil War battles may surround visitors as they journey through some parts of the park Some of the historical personalities and events we will be examining as potential stops in a tour of Mitchelville are: • Port Royal Experiment, Penn School, and the Founding of Mitchelville: The Port Royal Experiment was the first attempt at Reconstruction by giving formerly enslaved African Americans the resources and autonomy to govern themselves About two hundred abandoned Confederate plantations in Union occupied Port Royal were repurposed as settlements by the Union army, while abolitionists and missionaries from the North, such as Edward L Pierce, were sent to help establish schools and towns With the largest populations migrating to St Helena and Hilton Head Islands, where they could be protected by Union troops, the first Freedman’s town and school were founded as Mitchelville and the Penn School in late 1862 Starting earlier in April 1862, during the Battle of Fort Pulaski on Tybee Island, General David Hunter, in command of the Union X Corps of the South, began recruiting and arming ex-slaves, even declaring all slaves emancipated in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida by General Order # and #11, which was immediately rescinded by Lincoln for political reasons The command of the South was then given to General Ormsby Mitchel in September 1862, who died of yellow fever only a month after arriving on Hilton Head Island, but not before giving the order to create a self-sustaining town where Freedman could build houses, have elections, and govern themselves Mitchelville was established on the Drayton plantation in Nov-Dec 1862, and grew to have 3,000 residents by the late 1860s “Individuals and families were given a quarter acre lot and material to build a home The freedmen elected their own officials, created their own system of law, built three churches, four stores and established the first compulsory school system in the state of South Carolina Education was required for every child from age to 15 and when the school district was created in 1866, there were 238 students in the town.” (Mitchelville Preservation Project) Not far from Mitchelville at Camp Sexton, the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation was done in a live-oak grove on Jan 1st, 1863 to Freedman troops and refugees We will use period photos, maps, and historical accounts to create 3D models of structures and figures who populated these scenes We may also incorporate other stories related to the Port Royal Experiment, such as the Penn School and some of the other significant landmarks of the Reconstruction National Monument in Beaufort County Not only was the Penn School the center of African American civil rights in nineteenth century, but the Penn Center became a retreat for Dr Martin Luthor King Jr and others to plan their civil rights campaigns in the twentieth century • Robert Smalls Escape from Charleston: There is a viewing platform overlooking the inlet in Mitchelville Park that could be used as the backdrop for a scene showing a virtual Robert Smalls sail up in a digital replica of the CSS Planter, the Confederate ship he used to escape from Charleston in early 1862, and then have him step off and tell his narrative Smalls, an enslaved man who worked on the military transport vessel at the start of the Civil War, made a daring escape with his family after Confederate officers retired for the evening at port We plan to use period photos of Smalls to model a realistic digital likeness for when he was a young Union war hero doing runs on Charleston out of Port Royal Sound, and was then sent by General Hunter to Washington to convince Lincoln to allow black troops in the military, which Lincoln did soon after Smalls sailed the Planter to Savannah to support Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864, and returned his ship to Charleston harbor when the US flag was raised back over Fort Sumter in 1865 We will also model Smalls as an older South Carolina Republican Congressman, “the party of Lincoln which unshackled the necks of four million human beings", and who introduced the Homestead Act and the first Civil Rights Acts As a virtual character, we will be able to show him age over the course of his story from young to old We will also use accounts of him to guide actors in recording his dialogue and movements using motion capture suits • Harriet Tubman’s Assignment to Port Royal: Harriet Tubman, nicknamed “Moses”, was the most famous Underground Railroad agent before the Civil War She helped the abolitionist John Brown, who called her “General Tubman”, to plan his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1858 After the Civil War began, in May 1862 she was sent to Port Royal area to serve as a nurse before Mitchelville was founded on Hilton Head Island, and later was the first woman to lead a raid in the war after Lincoln allowed African Americans to join the Union Army She helped Union troops to scout the area around Port Royal, where they conducted the Combahee River Raid, liberating over 750 former slaves to Hilton Head and other islands in Beaufort County Frederick Douglas said of Tubman in 1868, “Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way I have wrought in the day—you in the night The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism Excepting John Brown—of sacred memory—I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.” We will work with our advisors to find out what interaction Tubman had with Mitchelville while she was on Hilton Head Island, and we will create 3D models to show Tubman over the years, and may model others in her story like Frederick Douglass and John Brown, using motion capture animation to show scenes from her dramatic story • Gullah-Geechee Storytelling and Ring Shout Performance: Mitchelville was inhabited by formerly enslaved West Africans, or Freedman, whose melting-pot of African and Coastal Carolina culture became known as Gullah or Geechee The Gullah-Geechee coastal corridor runs from North Carolina to Northern Florida, where enslaved people worked rice fields on the Sea Islands, especially in Beaufort County Rhythmic music and dance practices like the Ring Shout were common on the secluded islands, and after emancipation, became a strong religious and secular influence of Southern African American culture University of South Carolina music history professor Julie Hubbert contends that GullahGeechee influenced ragtime music and dance practices travelled to New York City by way of the Charleston-based Jenkins Orphanage Band starting in the 1890s, and eventually spawned “The Charleston” jazz music and dance craze that exploded out of Harlem in the 1920s The band was founded by the Reverend Daniel Jenkins to take in Gullah-Geechee children abandoned to the streets of Charleston in the 1890s To fund the orphanage, he formed the children into a street band wearing donated Union uniforms and marching band instruments They initially played marching band tunes with a Gullah-Geechee influenced rhythm, and had a mock child “conductor” that danced GullahGeechee steps to the music The band became so popular that it toured England, played at the World’s Fair, and regularly toured Harlem Many of the Jenkins kids grew up to become respected musicians in the New York jazz and swing clubs Famed jazz pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith remembered in his autobiography that people in Harlem yelled “Hey Charleston, your Geechee dance!” to dancers in the clubs where the Jenkins musicians played And in those same clubs James P Johnson claimed to have wrote his famous tune “The Charleston” while watching the rhythm of Gullah dancers, and incorporated the song and dance into the hit black Broadway show Runnin’ Wild in 1923 Charleston dancing world champion Bee Jackson stated in a 1927 Colliers Magazine interview that the dance originated in Beaufort County SC C) Project format There are two main augmented reality (AR) tour applications that we are planning for this project: 1) a freely downloadable mobile app to take a self-guided AR tour of the park any time of the year; 2) a paid and guided AR tour where participants will rent ($15 per person) a Magic Leap One headset to be surrounded by historical scenes and interact with both live and virtual performers This project is unique in employing new spatial computing technology and a performative design approach to transform the Mitchelville site into a culturally rich history experience for visitors to the park While our immediate goal is to make the story of Mitchelville more accessible and appealing for visitors, our long-term goal is to develop a performative AR tour design framework that uses digital humanities and game studies to better engage visitors at any historical site Our research for this project will explore the following digital humanities topics: • Making the history of a heritage site more engaging for the public through a performative, interactive, and immersive media experience • • • Designing an interactive AR tour that is true to the aesthetic culture of the people and place, such as performing stories in the Gullah-Geechee tradition, while delivering documentary film quality educational content related to the rich history of the site (such as Civil War and Reconstruction) Presenting history as both educational and entertaining for visitors to the site, while digitally preserving its cultural assets for future generations, and improving attendance so the tours are self-sustaining and reach a wider public audience Applying a performative design approach to an AR tour app, using motion capture, spatial computing, and 3D game studies, to bring historical figures and scenes to life around visitors at key site locations, creating an AR experience that feels like a live theatrical play Even though our main humanities content for this project is Reconstruction history and Gullah-Geechee culture, our digital media team will be doing digital humanities research related to media studies to design a more engaging learning experience for the public The Performatology games-VR-AR research in our MFA lab draws from intercultural performing arts studies, Edward Gordon Craig’s concept of the Uber Marrionette, and the history of animation, in order to design virtual scenes and characters that are more expressive For this project we will also draw from games studies related to the aesthetics of player experience, especially ones that reference the psychology concept of Flow and the philosophy concept of Somaesthetics Mihály Csíkszentmihályi conducted interdisciplinary flow studies since the 1970s, but most recently the concept has been used in video game studies to explain a pleasurable gaming experience, and design interaction that encourages a state of flow in the player Where flow studies focus on engaging a player’s mind, human computer interaction studies for games have started applying somaesthetics to better engage a player’s body Interdisciplinary studies on somaesthetics has been done by FAU philosophy professor Richard Shusterman since the 1990s, and will be explored in regards to how to better design an embodied performative experience in an augmented environment when wearing the Magic Leap headset The digital media team’s task will be to interpret historical and cultural information from humanities experts into a multi-dimensional AR tour experience that is both educational and entertaining for visitors to Mitchelville Over the full scope of the project, primary and secondary materials will be used to map content onto the real-world site using spatial computing hardware and software, which will augment the park environment with historical 3D models and animated historical personalities In the first Discovery phase, we will import historical models into game engines like Unity and Unreal to test a proofof-concept of the proposed technical approach Artifacts will be digitized and new 3D models created from period photos in Autodesk Maya, and historical personalities will be animated by actors wearing Noitom motion capture suits in a virtual production studio Assets and tests created at this phase of the production will be used in our design document for the next “Prototyping” phase of the project The Mitchelville AR tour is a flagship project in an educational partnership between FAU and Magic Leap, which is located only a few miles from our Davie campus We are also supported by Computer Science faculty from USCB and NC State University who specialize in games and interactive media research, and Multimedia and Animation faculty from FAU and Columbus State University, who specialize in preproduction design, 3D modeling, motion capture animation, VR-AR interface development, and sound design This project is also supported by South Carolina Educational Television, who produced the Reconstruction 360 web site SCETV has a fully functional production facility in Beaufort where USCB faculty teach broadcasting courses, and that we can utilize for video production such as documentary interviews of humanities advisers In addition, funding from this grant will be used to employ an MFA student in the Media, Technology, and Entertainment program to help develop the design document We will also be working with FAU Theater and Dance faculty to theatrically represent scenes that involve movement and dance, such as the Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout and Civil War battles Our goal is to use performing arts principles to present authentic history as dramatic scenes that will engage a visitor like they are standing in the middle of a theatrical play D) User-generated content There will not be any user-generated content at this stage of design E) Audience and distribution Mitchelville Freedom Park is free to the public, and with special events, can have up to 10,000 visitors per year, though we hope the tour would increase those numbers The Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science has 450,000 visitors per year, so a Mitchelville augmented reality museum exhibit at MODS would have significant impact with kids K-12, and the 360-degree educational web site will have the widest reach F) Rights, permissions, and licensing For this design phase of the project, all concept art, storyboards, proof-of-concept research and development designs will be done by FAU faculty and students using open source software and freely available assets and source material, so no permissions or licensing are anticipated If we use need to use primary source material to visualize a concept, we will consult available collections from our supporting institutions like the Mitchelville Preservation Project and the Penn Center G) Humanities advisers • Stephen Engle, PhD., Florida Atlantic University Professor of History and Director of History Symposium Series, who specializes on the study of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era, and his books examine the ethnic dimensions of the period We will consult Dr Engle on Reconstruction history related to Harriet Tubman’s visit to Mitchelville, and other Civil War and Reconstruction-era research related to the South Carolina Sea Islands • Brent Morris, PhD., University of South Carolina Beaufort Associate Professor of History and Chair of Humanities department, and Director of the USCB Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era, who specializes in South Carolina history and Reconstruction We will consult Dr Morris on Civil War and Reconstruction-era research related to Mitchelville and Beaufort County June 1, 2019 Christopher Maraffi Assist Prof of Multimedia Production, MFA, MSc Media, Technology, and Entertainment MFA Program Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL 33432 Dear NEH Grant Committee, I am pleased and committed to serve as Humanities Advisor and in any other capacity as needed for the proposed NEH Digital Projects for the Public “Discovery” grant titled Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina Gullah-Geechee Heritage Site I believe that this is an exciting proposal, one which promises to bring the long-neglected story of America’s Reconstruction and the Mitchelville community to a wide audience The Mitchelville augmented reality tour project is an opportunity to bring together humanities scholars and digital media researchers to collaborate on new methodologies for educating the public about the history and culture of an important site related to Reconstruction history and Gullah-Geechee culture Employing augmented reality technology for immersing visitors in a historical scene is an important area of digital humanities research that has great potential for promoting experiential learning of Reconstruction at historical sites and museums My research on the Civil War and Reconstruction Era history in Beaufort County will enable me to contribute much to the Mitchelville narrative Besides serving on the Board of Directors of the Mitchelville Preservation Project, I currently serve as Associate Professor of History and Humanities Department Chair at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, Director of the new Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era at USCB, and direct an NEH summer institute for K12 teachers titled “America’s Reconstruction: The Untold Story.” I look forward to contributing my time and expertise wherever it will be most powerfully felt in the advancement of this exceptional project I am able to reach a limited audience of college students each day at USCB, and the reach of my published scholarship (unfortunately, as most academics will attest) may not be much wider This proposed AR tour of Mitchelville has the potential to capture the interests and imaginations of a much broader audience, and its impact on the public’s understanding of an important period of American history and exceptional location which was a part of that story promises to be significant I am pleased to be involved in such an important endeavor, and am committed to working for its success With sincere gratitude for your consideration, I am J Brent Morris, Ph.D Department Chair, Humanities Associate Professor of History One University Boulevard • Bluffton, South Carolina 29909 • (843) 208-8206 • MORRISJ1@USCB.EDU VICTORIA A SMALLS Creative and knowledgeable public educator, arts advocate, and cultural preservationist, who believes in building sustainable communities through strategic partnerships PENN CENTER, INC, St Helena Island, SC PENN SCHOOL NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK DISTRICT April 2019—Current Director of History, Art and Culture Program Development Director Assistant to Executive Director ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT (ZINN), Washington, D.C 2019-2019 Teach Reconstruction Campaign Organizer for South Carolina Promoted and supported the teaching of Reconstruction Era history to elementary fifth grade, middle and high school classrooms across South Carolina and Coastal Georgia o COMMISSION AND BOARD MEMBERSHIPS Federal Commissioner Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor State Commissioner South Carolina African American Heritage Commission Board of Directors Pat Conroy Literary Center Board of Directors Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce South Carolina Notary Public Commission Expires: 12/08/2020 o o Promoted the #TeachReconstruction campaign and Make Reconstruction History Visible project to teachers and administrators o Identified key events and opportunities for outreach Provided teacher and student support o Maintained a list of public historians, scholars and creatives with expertise in Reconstruction Era history o Compiled list of Reconstruction Era Historical Sites in South Carolina, Georgia Coordinated professional development opportunities for teachers o Presented at professional development workshops INTERNATIONAL AFRCIAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (IAAM), Charleston, SC TO BE BUILT 2021 2017—2018 Program Manager Organized, coordinated and supported essential functions for museum leadership and around IAAM’s Gullah Geechee content development Developed and coordinated the membership program and donor gifts o o o Developed and managed IAAM’s Charter Membership program o Coordinated membership launch and quarterly campaigns  Mailings, email and social media campaigns  Outreach at community events and programs o Managed the membership and donor platform on Blackbaud Reviewed and edited Gullah Geechee content for museum exhibitions Developed and coordinated museum public programs o Gullah Geechee Culture o Bunce Island, Sierra Leone PENN CENTER, INC, St Helena Island, SC PENN SCHOOL NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK DISTRICT 2012—2017 Director of History, Art and Culture Served as the cultural, historical and creative diplomat for Penn Center and provided leadership, articulated positive impacts of history, art and culture to the public, to include informational and professional development for K-12 teachers, and strategic direction for the department o Director of the York W Bailey Museum (YWBM) o Curated permanent and visiting exhibitions o Managed Penn Center’s archives, Penn School Papers, in collaboration with University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill’s Southern Historic Collection Department, and on site art collection o Presented history, art and culture outreach programs for public, civic organizations, universities and for regional and national K-12 schools and educators incorporating South Carolina Social Studies standards o Developed and implemented the Culture Keepers: Traditional and Contemporary Gullah Geechee Art Workshops for Youth 2015 2017 o Coordinated, planned, and managed the operations of the annual Heritage Days Celebration, a three-day festival to promote the history, art and culture of Penn School and the Gullah Geechee culture o Presented on Gullah Geechee artists and their art forms, Reconstruction Era, Civil Rights Movement and Gullah Geechee Culture at local and national conferences o Managed and presented institutes and symposia  Gullah Studies Symposia  Reconstruction Era Symposium  Penn Center Civil Rights Symposium  Site coordinator and presenter for the Gullah Voices National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Teacher Institutes in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017 PRESENTATION HIGHLIGHTS o Panel Presenter, Praying, Singing and Catching Sense: Praise House Traditions in Gullah Geechee Communities, Inaugural Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference, Coastal Carolina University, March 7, 2019 o Presenter, CNN’s United Shades of America, The Gullah Culture, May 2018 o Presenter and Site Coordinator, South Carolina: Rights to Ancestral Land; International Decade of People of African Descent (2015-2024), United Nations TV, 2015 EDUCATION ○ Health & Physical Education, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina ○ Early Childhood Education, University of South Carolina—Beaufort, South Carolina ○ Grant Writing Certification Program, Continuing and Professional Education, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ○ Introduction to Grant Writing ○ Needs Based Assessment & Research Najmah Thomas, Ph.D www.najmahthomas.com 843-208-8339 (O); 843-441-0657 (M) Education Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA Ph.D., Public Policy & Administration; Concentration: Urban Policy University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ MA, Adult Education and Distance Learning College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA B.A., Public Policy Teaching Experience Assistant Professor, August 2014 – current Human Services Program Coordinator, August 2018 - current School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of South Carolina Beaufort Teaching Areas: African American Studies, Human Services, Leadership Development, Nonprofit Management and Program Evaluation Research Agenda: social and economic equity measurement, program evaluation practices, and evaluating the impact of historical and contemporary public policy on underrepresented populations, especially the Gullah/Geechee community Research & Scholarship Peer-reviewed Publications: Thomas, N (2019, January) In Service of Social Equity: Leveraging the Experiences of African American Women Professors Journal of Public Affairs Education Thomas, N (2018, December) An analysis of program evaluation course content in CSHSE– accredited human services baccalaureate programs Studies in Educational Evaluation, 59, 187-194 Thomas, N., & Erdei, R (2018, April) Stemming Stereotype Threat: Recruitment, Retention, and Degree Attainment in STEM Fields for Undergraduates from Underrepresented Backgrounds Paper presented at 2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference, Crystal City, VA Jarmulowicz, M., Cavanagh, K & Thomas, N (2015) Highlighting the History of Nursing Care Magazine Gooden, S., Martin, K and Thomas, N (2007) African American Women and Poverty: Undeserving for Over a Century Journal of the Center for Research on African American Women, (2)1, 48 - 55 Internal Publications: Thomas, N., Lamkin, R and Glasson, J (2018) University of South Carolina Human Services Program – Council for Standards in Human Services Education (CSHSE) Self Study Report University of South Carolina Beaufort Social Sciences Department Thomas, N., Lamkin, R and Glasson, J (2016) Human Services Program Evaluation Report University of South Carolina Beaufort Social Sciences Department Thomas Vita, p Grants & Contracts Reconstructing Freedom: African American History Month at USCB 2019 – SC Humanities planning grant $2,000 (2018) USCB Sea Islands Institute (research grants) $2,500 (2015) & $5,000 (2018) University of South Carolina Institute for African American Research (2017 Fellow) $6,000 South Carolina Department of Social Services (foster care awareness, 2016) $135,850 US Department of Labor (workforce development, 2007 & 2008) $450,000 Virginia Department of Social Services (workforce development, 2004 – 2007) $660,000 The Cameron Foundation (research and development, 2006), $250,000 Virginia Department of Health and Human Services (capacity building, 2005), $25,000 Presentations & Workshops (2019) Promoting, Persevering and Prospering: How the Gullah/Geechee Community can Leverage a Living Monument USC Institute for African American Research, Columbia, SC (2018) Reconstructing Freedom: Penn Center, Inc 36th Annual Heritage Days Symposium Symposium convener and facilitator St Helena Island, SC (2017) Stemming stereotype threat: recruitment, retention and related-careers in STEM fields for African American undergraduates National Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in Cincinnati, Ohio (2017) Evaluation Implementation: Data Driven Decisions for Enhanced Program Results Southern Organization for Human Services, Charleston, SC (2017) African American History Month: Relevancy and Cross-Cultural Awareness on Campus National Association of African American Studies & Affiliates, Dallas, TX (2016) Panel Moderator: Race, Education, and Public Policy Understanding and Celebrating Our Shared South Carolina Story USCB African American History Month Series (2015) Culture of Care in the Lowcountry: Reflecting on the Past to Understand the Present and Shape the Future Nursing Workforce (Research Poster) South Carolina Nurses Association Annual Conference, Greensville, SC (2015) The Impact of Public Policy on Education, Labor and Land Use in the Gullah Geechee/Culture Eastern Kentucky University Honors Course, St Helena Island, SC Service to the Community Chairperson (2014-current) USCB African American History Month Planning Committee Faculty Advisor (2016 – current) USCB African American Student Association Board of Trustees Member (2016 – current) Penn Center, Inc., St Helena Island, SC Board Member (2016-2018) Gullah Daughters of Purpose, Beaufort, SC Market Manager (2016 – 2018) St Helena Island Community Market, St Helena, SC Audit Committee Member (2016-2017) American Society for Public Administration Faculty Advisor (2015 – current) USCB Human Services Student Organization Internal Review Board Member (2012 – 2014) Virginia Department of Social Services, Richmond, VA Professional Affiliations: American Society for Public Administration Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action Gullah/Geechee Sustainability Think Tank National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration Sisters of the Academy Southern Organization for Human Services Thomas Vita, p May 15, 2019 Christopher Maraffi Assist Prof of Multimedia Production, MFA, MSc Media, Technology, and Entertainment MFA Program School of Communication & Multimedia Studies Florida Atlantic University Greetings Professor Maraffi, I am pleased to submit this letter of support for the Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina GullahGeechee Heritage Site This project has the potential to educate, inform and inspire us all I currently serve as the professor for African American Studies courses at USCB, and I offer my commitment to advise and support the project in this role Moreover, as a member of the Gullah/Geechee community and a participatory action researcher, I am encouraged by your plans to ensure that meaningful engagement with members of the local community is a priority during all phases of this project I strongly believe incorporating a variety of perspectives, particularly from those voices which have been historically marginalized, will result in a wider and deeper understanding of this difficult and important topic Please feel free to contact me at 843-208-8339 or nthomas2@uscb.edu if I can be of further assistance regarding this project Sincerely, Najmah Thomas, Ph.D Assistant Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences One University Boulevard ● Bluffton, South Carolina 29909 ● 843-208-8000 801 Carteret Street ● Beaufort, South Carolina 29920 ● 843-521-4100 ● Fax 843-521-4198 An Equal Opportunity Institution Anita Singleton-Prather/Gullah Performer and Educator KnowItAll Listing IMDB Listing Beaufort Lifestyle Magazine Article SCETV Article Aunt Pearlie Sue is the creation of Anita Singleton-Prather, a native of the Sea Islands of Beaufort, South Carolina Based on her grandmother, Aunt Pearlie Sue's character has entertained audiences with Gullah-flavored folktales for over 20 years from the schoolhouse to the White House In addition to being a renowned master storyteller, Prather is an educator, historian, business woman, writer, singer, actress and director/producer She is the founder and artistic director of the musical performance group the Gullah Kinfolk As a storyteller and singer, Prather has performed at many festivals: the Beaufort Gullah Festival, Penn Heritage Days Festival, Woodlands Festival, Spoleto USA International Arts Festival in Charleston, SC and San Francisco Festival of the Sea, just to name a few She is also co-producer, writer and featured storyteller on Gullah CD’s and DVD’s She has partnered with South Carolina Educational Television to create an award-winning interactive website on their children’s Knowitall.org/gullahnet that also features her animated character In addition to her participation in many SCETV educational documentaries, Prather wrote and coproduced, Tales from the Land of Gullah and Circle Unbroken Gullah Journey from Africa to America filmed with the nationally acclaimed Gullah Kinfolk These have been broadcasted on PBS nationwide and is also the title of her award-winning DVD and a traveling museum exhibit created around her animated character This 20,000 sq ft exhibit, originated at the nation’s top children’s museum, the Children’s Museum of Houston, Texas in 2007 and has been touring since throughout the United States and Canada It was estimated, that over a million young people have been introduced to the Gullah culture through this interactive exhibit AWARDS - Aesop Fables Award National Associations of Black Storytellers 2002 South Carolina Jean Laney Folk Heritage Award 2014 Preserving Our Place in History Award South Carolina African American Heritage Foundation 2014 Rosalie Pazant Gullah Education Award 2012 Brandyfoot Award 2012 CIVITAS Tourism Award 2014 - Penn 1862 Circle 2016 Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneurship Award 2014 Emmanuel Educational Support 2018 - Lands End Woodlands River Fest Community Service Award 2017 South Carolina Women of Vision 2019 OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS - World Bank Performance; Washington DC United Nations Performance September 2016 UN Headquarters New York City, New York Arts Midwest Fest 10-week Tour Villanova University Performance The Connections Project Tour South Carolina (5-city tour) & Barbados, West Indies Festival of the Sea; San Francisco Black Hollywood; Los Angeles, CA Jamerican; Kingston Jamaica San Francisco Black Film Fest Capital City Black Film Fest; Austin TX Children's Museum of Houston 20,000 sq.ft Interactive Gullah Exhibit 2007- present (Top Children's museums in USA and Canada) “Chicken Dinner Money” story listed on Top 10 Radio Chart Award-winning SCETV Children's website: www.knowitall.org/gullahnet MEMBERSHIPS & BOARDS - Original Gullah Festival, VP Beaufort County Accommodations Tax Board ASCAP American Society of Composers, Authors National Storytelling Network National Association of Black Storytellers Founder/ Chairperson Historic Beaufort SC Sea Island Holiday Celebration OTHER INTERESTS & BUSINESSES - Aunt Pearlie Sue & Singleton’s Catering Not for Slim Only Plus-size Fashion Shows Total Gullah ‘Perience Event Planning Consortium Broadway in Da’ Backwoods Productions ASE’-Gullah Education, LLC Gullah Traveling Theater, Inc June 1st, 2019 Christopher Maraffi Assist Prof of Multimedia Production, MFA, MSc Media, Technology, and Entertainment MFA Program School of Communication & Multimedia Studies Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL 33432 Dear NEH Grant Committee, I will be pleased to serve as a Gullah culture adviser on Professor Maraffi’s NEH Digital Projects for the Public “Discovery” grant proposal titled Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina Gullah-Geechee Heritage Site My professional experience as Aunt Pearlie Sue at numerous Gullah festivals and events will enable me to be an adviser on all aspects of Gullah performance for this project I was born and raised in Beaufort, SC I am a former school teacher who continues to teach outside of the classroom I am also a storyteller and I serve as the Curriculum Coordinator for the Education of Gullah Culture through the Arts in the Beaufort County School District I hold a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Howard University and a master’s degree in education from the University of South Carolina My Aunt Pearlie Sue character has entertained audiences with Gullah-flavored folktales for over 20 years from the schoolhouse to the White House By adding performative elements like Gullah storytelling, music, and dance, the experience will be all the more authentic for a Gullah heritage site like Mitchelville The blending of all the cultures was brought here from West Africa (slavery) and then mixed with the Europeans The entry point was through the coastline and most people came through Charleston It remains so strong because we were isolated and a lot of the masters didn’t stay on the rice plantation because of malaria and yellow fever You also couldn’t get to a lot of the areas because there was no bridge Most of our people stayed on the island almost completely isolated So our way of living remained intact most of the time because of the task system When they finished their tasks for the day, they were free to practice the culture I happily support this research proposal, and if funded by NEH, look forward to meeting with professor Maraffi to discuss the Gullah storytelling and interactive performance aspects of the augmented reality tour for Mitchelville Sincerely, Anita Singleton-Prather Anita Singleton-Prather, “Aunt Pearlie Sue”, auntpearliesue@yahoo.com Founder and Artistic Director of the Gullah Kinfolk Performers, Beaufort SC Eric Sean Crawford Associate Professor Curriculum Vitae Coastal Carolina University 100 Chanticleer Drive Conway, South Carolina 29528 (757) 332-6277 (cell) ecrawford@coastal.edu (email) Education: • • Ph.D., The Catholic University of America, January 2012 B.A., M.M., Norfolk State University, May 1988, 1990 Areas of Research • • Gullah Geechee musical traditions and retentions Southern sacred music of the African American Episcopal Church Professional Experience / Employment History • • • Coastal Carolina University Musicologist, Music Department 2014-present; Director, Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies Norfolk State University Coordinator of Master of Music Program, Music History, Music Theory, 2006-2014 Minister of Music/Organist Bethel African American Episcopal Church, Britton’s Neck, SC (2014-current) Peer-Reviewed Journal Article • Crawford, Eric “The Penn School’s Educational Curriculum: Its Effects on the St Helena’s Songs,” Journal of African American Studies 13 (September 2013): 347-369 Chapter/Essay • Crawford, Eric “Church Music in Black and White.” In Routledge Handbook of the American South, edited by Maggi Morehouse New York: Routledge, 2017 • Crawford, Eric “African American Spirituals,” In Heard at Every Turn: Traditional Music in South Carolina, edited by Saddler Taylor Columbia: University of South Carolina, 2015 Transcriptions • To Live as Free Men Negro spirituals recorded by John Silver Saint Helena Island, SC: Castle Films, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (2010) Book/Dissertation/Compact Disc • • • Low Tide: The Voice of Sandy Island, The Athenaeum Press at Coastal Carolina University (August 2017) Dissertation, The Negro spiritual of Saint Helena Island: An Analysis of Its Repertoire during the Periods 1860-1920, 1921-1939, and 1972-present (January 2012) Release of Gullah: The Voice of an Island CD and booklet, Athenaeum Press (2014) Film and Television Appearances: • • • • Interview, “The National Archives Grant” WBTW Channel 13 News (2019) Film Appearance “Charlie’s Place; A Musical History Worth Remembering” South Carolina Educational Television (2018) Musical Director, Documentary Film, Gullah Gone: Preserving the Land, Water and Culture of the Sea Islands Appearance “Repatriation of Lomax Murrells Inlet Recordings” South Carolina Educational Television (2019) Professional Service • • • • Member Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Committee (2016-17) Member, South Carolina Arts Alliance (2017) Member-at-large College Music Society Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter (2017) Member, COHFA Quality Enhancement Planning Committee (2016) Recent Lecturers • • • • • Plenary Lecture, “The Dr Watts Hymn Lining Tradition in the Lowcountry” The Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (2019) Lecture, “Gullah Geechee History and Culture” Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Festival in Wilmington (2019) Lecture, “African American Cultural History in Brittons Neck, SC” Red Hill Missionary Baptist Church (2019) Lecture, “Gullah Geechee Cultural History” Taste of Gullah Festival on Hilton Head Island (2019) Lecture, “Joyner Institute for Gullah and Diaspora Studies” Sertomo Club, Conway, SC (2018) Recent Performances • • • • • • • • Musical Performance, Voices of St Helena Island Taste of Gullah Festival on Hilton Head Island (2019) Musical Performances, Voices of St Helena Island The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina (2019) Musical Performance, Repatriation Event International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference (2019) Shared Traditions: A Tribute to Charles Joyner, Pianist, Down By the Riverside (2017) Performer, “Hope and Harmony” Concert, Columbia, SC (2016) Performer, “Sacred Music of the South,” McKissick Museum, SC (2016) Musical Director, Aunt Pearlie Sue and the Kinfolk stage show (2013-present) Gullah: The Voice of an Island Singers, Gullah and Heritage Festivals (2014-current) International/Regional Conferences • • • • • • • • • Host, International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference (2019) https://www.coastal.edu/joynerinstitute/conference/ Panel Discussion, “Gullah Geechee History and Activism in the Lowcountry and Heritage Corridor,” College of Charleston (2019) College Music Society Mid-Atlantic Conference Host (2018) Group Presentation, Sandy Island Project, Transforming Public History from Charleston to the Atlantic World, Charleston, SC (2017) Speaker, Southern Regional Chapter of the American Studies Association Conference, William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (2017) Speaker, Lomax Repatriation of Georgia Sea Island Songs Symposium, College of Coastal Georgia, Brunswick, GA (2016) Speaker, “Shared Tradition: Sacred Music in the South,” University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (2016) Presenter, College Music Society Regional Conference, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC (2016) Presenter, “The Voices of Gullah” in the Gullah Festival, Beaufort, SC (2015) Grants • Access to Historical Records Grant Award $270,000 (2019) • National Park Service Civil Rights Grant award $104,798 (2017) References • • Philip Powell, Music Department Chair, Coastal Carolina University (843-349-2515) ppowell@coastal.edu Sam B Dorsey, Coordinator Master of Music Program, Norfolk State University (757-823-8544) sbdorsey@nsu.edu • Andrew H Weaver, Associate Professor, Head of Musicology, Catholic University of America weavera@cua.edu Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies June 9, 2019 Christopher Maraffi Assist Prof of Multimedia Production, MFA, MSc Media, Technology, and Entertainment MFA Program School of Communication & Multimedia Studies Florida Atlantic University Dear NEH Grant Committee, I will be my pleasure to serve as a Humanities Advisor for the proposed NEH Digital Project entitled Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina Gullah-Geechee Heritage Site The Mitchelville augmented reality tour project brings together leading humanities scholars and digital media researchers, who will collaborate on new methodologies that inform the public about important cultural and historical sites related to Reconstruction and Gullah-Geechee culture Employing augmented reality technology as an immersive experience for visitors to historical sites is an important area of digital humanities research that has great potential for promoting experiential learning of Gullah Geechee culture at historical sites and museums As director of the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina University, I have seen firsthand the benefits of augmented reality technology with my 2018 project At Low Tide: The Voices of Sandy Island It was my research team’s first use of this technology, but we were all amazed at its effectiveness in transmitting the uniqueness of the Gullah Geechee culture Indeed, augmented reality may prove responsible for the preservation of this culture and its historic sites I enthusiastically support this research proposal, and if funded by NEH, look forward to meeting with professor Maraffi to discuss the Gullah Geechee music and culture to be included in the narrative and design of the augmented reality tour applications for Mitchelville Sincerely, Eric Crawford, PhD Associate Professor of Music Director of the Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies Coastal Carolina University • • • • Project Title: Exploring the Roots of Freedom: Augmented Reality Tour for Mitchelville South Carolina Gullah-Geechee Heritage Site Institution: Florida Atlantic University, College of Arts & Letters, School of Communication & Multimedia Studies Project Director: Christopher Maraffi, cmaraffi@fau.edu Grant Program: Digital Projects for the Public: Discovery Grants Please see samples of my FAU Media, Technology, and Entertainment (MTEn) MFA Lab interactive media and animation projects at: https://tophermaraffi.com/2019/06/09/fau-mten-lab/ Also, here are some links to work samples of our Digital Media collaborators on this project: Magic Leap: https://www.magicleap.com/experiences Daruma Tech: https://www.darumatech.com/casestudies/ Ricardo Tobon: https://vimeo.com/ricardotobon/videos Demetrius Dukes: https://www.demetriusdukes.com/ Joey Bargsten: https://badmindtime.wordpress.com/ Arnav Jhala: https://www.visualnarrative.ncsu.edu/ Brian Canada: https://www.bugsnboohags.com/ Caroline Sawyer: https://www.scetv.org/local/etvlowcountry