The Founding of the BMRC Oral History Project

Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and a political philosopher whose work spans democratic theory, civic education, and institutional reform. As Dean of the Division of Humanities at the University of Chicago, she worked alongside colleagues including Jacqueline Goldsby to convene the spring 2006 meeting of executives from fifteen Chicago cultural and educational institutions that launched the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, and she chaired the consortium's first interim board. Her role in founding the BMRC grew out of a broader commitment to connecting the university with the knowledge communities around it, reflected also in the Civic Knowledge Project, which she founded in 2003. At Harvard, she directs the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Democratic Knowledge Project, and her many books include Our Declaration, Cuz, Justice by Means of Democracy, and, most recently, Radical Duke (2026).

Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty

Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty is an American librarian, curator, educator and cultural heritage administrator. She most recently was appointed as Deputy Commissioner of Visual Arts for the City of Chicago in 2024 and is the former director of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives in Washington, DC. With extensive experience across academic, public and museum library sectors Evangelestia-Dougherty previously served as Associate University Librarian for Rare and Distinctive Collections at Cornell University, Director of Collections and Services at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at New York Public Library, and Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium at the University of Chicago. A respected leader in the library and museum community, Evangelestia-Dougherty concurrently teaches cultural heritage administration at California Rare Book School at the University of California Los Angeles and serves as a member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Caxton Club.

Evanglestia-Dougherty holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons University, where she studied archives, collective memory and historic and cultural documentation and preservation.  For Evangelestia-Dougherty’s distinguished service and contributions to the profession, she received an honorary doctorate of library and information science from Simmons University in 2023.

Bergis Jules

Bergis Jules is an archivist and public historian. His research interests include race and the history of archives, Black archiving practices, web archiving, and community-based archives. He is an advocate for community-based cultural memory organizations that prioritize documenting the lives of marginalized and oppressed people. He works with these organizations to develop solutions that can grow their capacity and help them achieve long term sustainability. He is a co-founder of Archiving the Black Web and Documenting the Now, projects concerned with web archiving training and research. He also runs the Sustainable Futures blog which is an advocacy space for community-based archives. Bergis holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Riverside, and also received a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science with a Specialization in Archives and Records Management, and a Master’s degree in African American and African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University.

Cheryl Johnson-Odim

Dr. Cheryl Johnson-Odim holds a doctorate from Northwestern University and has held various academic positions including Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (Dominican University, Illinois), Dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences (Columbia College, Chicago), Chair of the History Department (Loyola University Chicago) Assistant Director of the Program of African Studies (Northwestern University). She is the author and/or editor of four books and numerous articles in academic journals. Her academic and political community service is extensive including Chair of the Higher Learning Commission, Vice Chair of the Illinois Humanities Council, Chair of the Joan Kelly Prize Committee of the American Historical Association, a member of the boards of the African Studies Association, The American Council of Learned Societies and her work with the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. She was a leader in the Free South Africa Movement in the 1980s and on the Chicago Organizing Committee of the January 1917 Women’s March among other political activities.

Beth Loch

Beth Loch is a Senior Archival Specialist at Chicago Public Library’s Special Collections. As an archivist, Loch creates exhibits, processes collections, works with researchers, and plans programs to showcase the diverse history of Chicagoans. Her interests include highlighting the work of minority women who are often overlooked by historians. She holds a MA in Public History from Loyola University Chicago and a MLIS from Dominican University River Forest.

Ricky Reyes

Ricky Reyes is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based oral historian, DJ, and arts administrator whose work moves across archives, sound, and storytelling. His practice centers on memory, place, and lived experience, with a specific focus on how first-person narratives preserve community histories and open new ways of understanding collective memory. He holds a master's degree in Digital Humanities with a focus on computational theory for cultural and archival materials, and his work draws on that training to connect historical records, cultural lineage, and contemporary artistic practice. His work has been developed in partnership with institutions including the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, the Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute, Miyagi Records Education, and the National Public Housing Museum, alongside cultural and civic organizations such as the University of Chicago, KEXP, and the City of Seattle, City of Tacoma, and Seattle Public Library.

Rooted in Chicago's music and arts communities, he approaches the archive not as a static repository but as a living site where documentation, creative practice, and community knowledge inform one another.