Watch our Presentation at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Conference

Members of the HBCU Radio Preservation Project team presented at the 2026 Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Annual Conference in Norfolk, Virginia last week. “This Is My Jam!: Emerging Preservation Professionals & Memory Workers at the HBCU Radio Preservation Project” featured Phyllis Jeffers-Coly (moderator), Kayla Foster, Breighlynn M. Polk, Vincentt Craft Sutton II, Olivia Green, Dana Green, and Chinyere Neal.

The HBCU Radio Preservation Project team poses for a group photo at the 2026 ASALH annual conference at the Norfolk Waterside Marriot hotel.

The roundtable explored the HBCU RPP’s training and development program, and how it has provided mentorship and opportunities for professional growth to early-career preservationists from diverse and under-represented backgrounds.

More specifically, the session highlighted the ways that training and development has informed the “jam” of project interns, fellows, and early career professionals. Through the project, a new generation of Black memory workers has gained real-world, practical skills in audio preservation and oral history methods. To show how, presenters described their work and how it has affirmed their raison d’etre and ability to enjoy their jams, whatever they may look, taste, sound, and feel like.

View the Project Team’s ASALH Presentation

Recorded on September 24, 2026 at the Norfolk Waterside Marriot