BMRC Welcomes Media Burn as its Newest Member !

The Black Metropolis Research Consortium is delighted to welcome Media Burn as its newest member.

Media Burn is an archives of more than 10,000 videos that are free to access via its website. It "provides a home for the videomakers who provide an alternative to the mainstream of commercial media – fiercely independent voices, outsiders, and ordinary people. Media Burn features the extraordinary work of globally renowned artists and videomakers but also that of community members, students, and activists taking cameras into the streets to chronicle the people and the places most important to them." https://mediaburn.org/history-mission
As its collection has grown over the years to contain significant documentation of diverse Black experiences in Chicago, joining the BMRC to bring more attention to and use of those collections seemed to be a natural progression. Media Burn is the BMRC's 29th member.

Here is a snapshot of some collections related to Black Chicago held by Media Burn.

Club LaRay A queer Black dance club that thrived throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Club LaRay was at the forefront of Chicago’s House Music culture and drag culture.

The End of the Nightstick: Confronting Police Brutality in Chicago collection consists of more than 100 tapes shot between 1990-1993, including interviews with survivors of the Chicago Police Department’s and Jon Burge’s campaign of torture and violence, and numerous interviews with and footage of the crusading activists, organizers, and lawyers who brought these crimes to light.

The Barry Dolins Chicago Blues Collection This collection includes footage of performances, conversations, and other events from the early Chicago Blues Festivals, as well as performances by and interviews with such legendary musicians as Pops Staples, Sunnyland Slim, Lefty Dizz, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Erwin “Half Pint’ Helfer, Ellis Marsalis, Jimmy Walker, Estelle “Mama” Yancey, Eurreal “Little Brother” Montgomery, Queen Sylvia Embry, Lafayette Leake, Homesick James Williamson, Shirley and Butch Dixon, Pervis Spann, and many others.

People for Community Recovery Collection Footage documenting the efforts of “the mother of the environmental justice movement” Hazel M. Johnson and the People for Community Recovery to make Altgeld Gardens and the surrounding neighborhoods safe to inhabit.

The Juneteenth Productions Collection The documentary films of Chicago’s Judith McCray examine consequential but overlooked people and events in the history of African-Americans and people of color around the world. Of particular note are the interviews with renowned author Margaret Walker for For My People and Civil Rights pioneers including John Lewis, Henry Kirksey, George Crockett, Hollis Watkins, Ernest Goodman, Claudia House Morcom, Bob Moses, and Aaron Henry.
Eventually, you will be able to find information on Media Burn's materials in the BMRC Archives Portal. https://bmrc.lib.uchicago.edu/portal/

Image credit: Still image of a Black woman speaking into a microphone outside taken from video in the Community TV Network (CTVN) collection held by Media Burn