BLACK HISTORY
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY February tours at the Tennessee State Museum center Black experiences BY A M A N DA H AG G A R D
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he Tennessee State Museum is hosting two different tours focused on the Black experience in February. A Black History Tour will guide visitors through black history in the state, offering stories about local moments in the civil rights movement as well as the Civil War. And the museum’s Black Craftspeople Tour focuses more specifically on folk artists like carpenter Lewis C. Buckner and the more well-known William Edmonson, a Black sculptor who was the son of enslaved people. The tours were programmed by Joyska Nunez-Medina, who creates and presents programs like the tours and Lunch and Learn series for the Tennessee State Museum. In the past, Nunez-Medina has done internships at the National Park Service, National Forest Service and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and she has an M.A. from George Washington University in museum
studies and came to work for the Tennessee State Museum in 2018 when it reopened in its new space. “I have a passion for learning about and teaching the histories and stories of the people and communities missing from the commonly taught historical narrative,” Nunez-Medina says. While the Black Craftspeople Tour is new this year, Nunez-Medina says the Black History Tour has been going since 2019. When she and others present the Black History Tour, they often see many Black families taking the tour together. “Once, my coworker had a whole family reunion join her on her tour,” Nunez-Medina says. “It made the work done feel truly special.” In the Black History Tour, Medina says one of her favorite parts of the tour talks about contraband camps during the Civil War. “These were refugee camps that were established nearby Union troops during the war,” Nunez-Medina says. “Enslaved people could be taken in by
William Edmondson
PAGE 12 | February 16 - March 2, 2022 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
