Creative and polished library outreach is all part of the “The Stephanie Birch Experience.” When it comes to programming and outreach, I am in my element. From program development to graphic design to workshop facilitation, I enjoy collaborating with campus and community partners to bring dynamic educational programs to life. This is one area of my work where I showcase my creativity, passion, and resourcefulness.
Programs
2023 Black History Month
In honor of the 2023 Black History Month theme of Black Resistance, the UConn Library will present Disorder in the Night: Narratives of Black Resistance, 1723-2023, a display curated by Stephanie Birch. The display will be exhibited in the Homer Babbidge Library and each regional campus library. Disorder of the Night is a celebration and contemplation of the Black radical tradition, inviting audiences to reflect on and reconsider what it means to resist.
The display is complemented by two corresponding public programs:
- A keynote lecture by Dr. Rik Stevenson (African American Studies, University of Florida), co-hosted by the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center. Dr. Stevenson’s research explores focuses on Black resistance in the Middle Passage, connecting West African cosmologies and spiritual systems to revolutionary acts of resistance.
- A film screening of John Singleton’s Rosewood, followed by a discussion with Lizzie Robinson Jenkins, the founder & president of the Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc. and a living descendant of Rosewood. The film tells a dramatized version of the 1923 Rosewood massacre and captures the spirit of resilience and resistance of Black people during the Jim Crow era. 2023 marks 100 years since the destruction of Rosewood, and it is through the courageous resistance of people like Lizzie Robinson Jenkins to historicize the truth and history of what occurred. Support the Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc.!
Juneteenth: A New Day Begun
2022 Virtual Juneteenth Celebration Guide with historical information on the history and meaning of Juneteenth and practical recommendations for honoring the memories of those who endured conditions of enslavement.
Black History Month Double Feature
2021 Black History Month Program series, featuring a virtual film screening and panel discussion on early Black cinema. These events also coincided with the launch of the UF Libraries’ Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn Black Film & Film Literature Collection, created and curated by Stephanie Birch and Dr. Jeanne Ewert in 2021.
Promotional Videos
The (Virtual) Library Promotional Video
Created at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in conjunction with National Library Week, to announce the suspension of in-person library services and the roll-out of new virtual library services.
Intersections on Mass Incarceration Promo Video
Video by UF Center for Humanities & the Public Sphere, featuring Dr. Jodi Schorb and Stephanie Birch
Co-Conveners of the Intersections on Mass Incarcerations Grant Project Team, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Librarian Profile Videos
Stephanie Birch! This video is part of a series of librarian profile shorts, created by the Library West Created Team at the UF Libraries between 2017 and 2018.
Community & Public Service
Community partnerships and engagement are core tenets of my librarianship practice and personal philosophy. Through community collaboration, I seek to leverage my professional position and access to institutional resources to advance Black community-led initiatives.
This poster was displayed at the City of Gainesville’s 2021 Juneteenth Celebration; it highlights documents and images from the George A. Smathers Libraries Special Collections. The map (1938) shows the city’s Black neighborhoods built by formerly enslaved peoples who, after emancipation, came to Gainesville from the seven nearby plantations. Many of their descendants still live in Gainesville today, but their neighborhoods no longer exist or are actively being dismantled by the City, University, and private developers.
Communications
Graphic Design
Examples of posters designed to promote different projects. Created by Stephanie Birch.
In the Know: Africana Studies Newsletter
A biannual newsletter to help campus stakeholders stay up to date on what’s happening at the UConn Library. Check out my latest issue
Stephanie Birch 