In this episode, I talk with the amazing Monica Rhodes.  Our conversation meandered from the US Colored Troops to Fred Shuttlesworth to Contraband Camps & Negro baseball league stadiums.  Monica previously worked at the  National Trust for Historic Preservation so if you've worked with the Trust you'll likely recognize a few of the names.   As you'll hear, we had a great time chatting and joking about how she got rid of all the HOPE Crew T-shirts she inherited when she started the program.   

Quote:
" To accept one's past - one's history - is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it.  An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life." - James Baldwin

For shownotes visit: https://www.nakitareed.com/podcast-2/2021/3/15/episode-13-heritage-for-the-next-generation-w-monica-rhodes 

Bio: Monica Rhodes has been leading national efforts to connect local and regional communities with cultural heritage and historic sites for over a decade. She holds degrees from the University of Tulsa, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Master's degree in historic preservation. Currently serving as the director of resource management at the National Park Foundation (NPF), the official nonprofit partner to the National Park Service, Rhodes oversees grantmaking for historic properties and develops strategies for preserving cultural heritage specifically representing communities of color. Concurrently, Rhodes also consults with the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design at the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites, helping to establish partnerships to advance the Center’s work. 

Prior to her role at NPF, Rhodes was the founding director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE (Hands-On Preservation Experience) Crew, which was created to expand the preservation movement to younger, more diverse audiences. Under Rhodes' leadership, the program completed over 165 heritage construction projects, trained 750 young people and veterans, engaged 3700 volunteers in large-scale community events, more than 1 billion media impressions, and supported $18M of preservation work. Before joining the Trust, Rhodes worked as a consultant to preservation organizations around the country. 

Rhodes sits on the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), the Market Center Community Development Corporation board, and the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnerships in Baltimore City. She also is a member of the International Council of Monuments and Sites, Sustainable Development Goals Working Group. Previously, she served as an advisor for the DC LGBTQ Historic Context Study and a project reviewer for the Facilities and Buildings grant program for the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Rhodes' work has been featured in national outlets such as PBS NewsHour, Huffington Post, Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report. She also appeared in a feature spread on Black women in the preservation movement in Essence Magazine’s Spring 2018 issue. Her work continues to be at the vanguard of the ever-evolving world of heritage, place, community, and action.

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Mentioned in this episode:

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