MILESTONES
MAKING THE GROUND TALK AND OTHER STORIES EXHIBITION BY BRIAN PALMER,
February 5 â May 20 | Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum
FROM THE DIRECTORâS DESK
Dear Stone Center Family,
As we welcome a new year, I remain grounded in the spirit of reflection and gratitude. Together, weâve honored the past, met the present with bold creativity, and set our sights on a future where knowledge, culture, and justice are inextricably linked.
Our journey at the Stone Center is powered by your faith in our mission. Your presenceâwhether through your time, resources, or engagementâmakes it possible for us to convene critical conversations, cultivate student brilliance, and fuel research
that bridges the academy and community.
As you consider your commitments in 2026, I hope youâll continue to invest in our work by making the Stone Center your giving priority. And donât forgetâGiveUNC is right around the corner! With your help, we can show the university and the world just how strong our network is.
Together, we continue to build the world we want to live in.
With gratitude,
THE 2026 MCNEIL AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH LECTURE BY DR. THAVOLIA GLYMPH
February 17 | 6:30PM Hitchcock Room
Lecture Title: Making âActual Freedomâ: The Civil War and Enslaved Peopleâs Legal Consciousness
Abstract: This talk explores how enslaved people during the Civil War turned to the legal literary they had built-up during slavery to defend their right to refuge and freedom in Union military lines and forced the federal government to offer itself a âhumanitarian shieldâ and âa sword of justice,â calling on the law as an instrument of that justice.
THE 2026 MCNEIL AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH LECTURE BY DR. THAVOLIA GLYMPH, PEABODY FAMILY DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
February 17 | 6:30PM | Hitchcock Room
Thavolia Glymph is Peabody Family Distinguished Professor of History at Duke University, Professor of Law and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, and Faculty Research Scholar at the Duke Population Research Institute. She is a historian of the 19th Century South and prize-winning author of Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household (2008) which won the Philip Taft Labor History Award, was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and listed in The Atlantic Magazine as one of âFive Books to Make you Feel Less Stupid About the Civil War.â Additionally, The Womenâs Fight: The Civil Warâs Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation published in 2020, won eight book prizes with awards from the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Southern Association for Women Historians, the Society of Civil War Historians, and the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History, and was a finalist for the Lincoln Prize.
She is co-editor of two volumes of the award-winning documentary series, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867 and the author of numerous articles and essays. She is currently completing three book projects.
Glymph is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians; past president of the American Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association; an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, and a Duke Thomas Langford Lecturer.
She held the Rogers Distinguished Fellowship in Nineteenth Century History at the Huntington Library in 2023-24 and the John Hope Franklin Visiting Professor of American Legal History at Duke Law School in 2015 and 2018. Honors include the Distinguished Service to Labor and Working-Class History Award from LAWCHA and the Raymond Gavins Distinguished Faculty Award. She has served as a historical consultant for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, the International African American Museum, the National Constitution Center, the National Park Service, PBS documentaries such as Mercy Street and the film, Harriet, and has lectured nationally and internationally.
SPRING 2026 EXHIBITION: MAKING THE GROUND TALK AND OTHER STORIES BY BRIAN PALMER, PEABODY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER
Artist Talk | February 5 | 5PM | Brown Gallery
Exhibition On View | February 5 â May 20 | Brown Gallery
Brian Palmer is a visual journalist, writer, teacher, and artist based in Richmond, Virginia. His work has appeared in Smithsonian magazine, Richmond Free Press, New York Times, and other publications; and on PBS, BBC, and Reveal. Palmer began his journalism career as a fact-checker at the Village Voice newspaper. Before going freelance in 2002, he served in several staff positions: US News & World Report Beijing bureau chief; staff writer at Fortune; and on-air correspondent at CNN. Palmer has taught journalism and documentary at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, Baruch College, Hampton University, New Yorkâs School of Visual Arts (SVA), and most recently the University of Richmond.
Palmer has exhibited photographs at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, 1708 Gallery, Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art at the University of Richmond, and other venues. Home/Grown, a show in 2024 at the VMFA
with fellow photographer Susan Worsham, featured more than a decadeâs worth of his photographs from Virginia.
He has received a number of awards and honors: a Peabody Award with fellow journalist Seth Wessler for a Reveal radio investigation into public funding of Confederate sites (2018), a George Gund Foundation photography commission (2020), and a Ford Foundation grant for Full Disclosure, his documentary about US Marines in Iraq (2008).
Since December 2014, Palmer and his wife, Erin Hollaway Palmer, have been part of the volunteer effort to reclaim East End Cemetery, a historic African American burial ground in Henrico County, Virginia, from nature, neglect, and vandalism. As they reclaim the cemeteries with their handsâalong with other volunteersâPalmer and Hollaway Palmer use their reporting and research skills, and their creativity to reveal the stories of people laid to rest at these sites during Jim Crow.
THE 2026 AFRICAN DIASPORA LECTURE WITH DR. AHMAD GREENE-HAYES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES AT HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL
January 29 | 6:30PM | Stone Center Library
The African Diaspora Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School and the Managing Editor of the Journal of Africana Religions. Dr. GreeneHayes is an accomplished scholar, teacher, and mentor, and his research and teaching interests include 19th and 20th century African American religious history; race, sexuality, and religion in the Americas; interdisciplinary archive studies; and theories and methods in the study of religion and Black Studies.
Dr. Greene-Hayesâ lecture will focus on his book Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion-Making in Jim Crow New Orleans (University of Chicago Press, 2025), which offers a rethinking of African American religious history that focuses on the development and evolution of Africana spiritual traditions in Jim Crow New Orleans. He has also published essays in the Journal of
the American Academy of Religion, the Journal of Africana Religions, Nova Religio, GLQ, and the Journal of African American History, among others. His second book project entitled, Little Richardâs Witness: Liner Notes on Black Religion and Sexuality, is set to be published by Penguin Random House in the Significations Black biography series edited by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 2027, and he is also working on his third book project engaging spiritual encounter in the archive.
Dr. Greene-Hayes has held prestigious fellowships from Yaleâs Institute of Sacred Music in 2024-25, Yaleâs LGBT Studies program, the American Society of Church History, and Princeton Universityâs The Crossroads Project: Black Religious Histories, Communities, and Cultures, to name a few. In 2022, he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College, and in 2023, he was inducted into the Society for the Study of Black Religion. Greene-Hayes is currently a member for the Historical Studies Jury for the American Academy of Religionâs Awards for Excellence in the Study of Religion, and he is also a steering committee member for the Religion and Sexuality Unit of the AAR. From 2019-2024, he served as an advisory board member for the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network and as a steering committee member of the Afro-American Religious History Unit at the AAR, of which he is the incoming co-chair for 2026-2029.
He earned his Ph.D. in Religion with certificates in African American Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies from Princeton University, and his B.A. in History and Africana Studies, with highest honors, from Williams College.
BOOK TALK BY VIRGINIA MCGEE RICHARDS ON THE INNER PASSAGE: AN UNTOLD STORY OF BLACK RESISTANCE ALONG
A SOUTHERN WATERWAY
Co-sponsorship with the Center for the Study of the American South
April 16 | 3:30PM| Hitchcock Room
Ginna McGee Richards is a photographer, researcher and former environmental lawyer whose work is rooted in nature and a sense of place. Born and raised in North Carolina, she examines the contradictions embedded in southern land and culture. This intimate connection to land and history forms the foundation of her artistic practice.
Her critically acclaimed photographic series, The Inner Passage traces a largely undocumented network of 17th and 18th century canals built by Black enslaved laborers. Through years of fieldwork and archival research, she uncovered the environmental and human histories encoded in these waterways. Working with the wet-plate collodion process and a mobile darkroom in remote marshlands, Richards creates images that echo the fluid, unstable terrain they depict. âI want people to read the work as a visual poem,â she says, âto feel the land telling its own story.â
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Richardsâ photographs and research were featured in Smithsonian Magazine (March 2022) in the article What the Haunting âInner Passageâ Represented to the Enslaved, which received the American Society of Magazine Editorsâ award for excellence in print and digital journalism. Her photographic work also received the Gold Medal Prize at the Lowell Thomas Competition (March 2022) and has been exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art, The Light Factory in Charlotte, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Her work was previously highlighted in the UNC Carolina Alumni Review feature Uncharted Waters, Uncharted Ground (August 2020). Richards is currently a Photojournalism Fellow at Anderson Ranch in Aspen, Colorado (2021âpresent), where she works under the mentorship of James Estrin of The New York Times and Ed Kashi. Richards lives and works
MOORE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM (MURAP)
"In Summer 2005, I completed the Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (MURAP). It changed my life! I entered UNC for graduate school in 2006 and graduated in 2009. I love MURAP, so I returned to serve on the summer staff in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The Stone Center housed MURAP every year. The Stone Center feels like home."
- Kimberly Annette Hardy, Ed.D
in the American South.
Book Description: A deeply moving photographic and narrative history of a southern waterway that the enslaved were forced to buildâbut which they ultimately used as a means of escape. In this book, Virginia McGee Richards documents the lost narrative of the Inner Passage through 60 extraordinary photographs of landscapes altered by slavery and portraits of Lowcountry descendants, along with an essay describing her discovery of this untold history. In an accompanying essay, Imani Perry writes about her own journey on the Inner Passage, putting Black resistance to enslavement and Southern history into an immediate context. James Estrin brings decades of insight into photography and the power of visual storytelling to his affecting foreword. Together, these words and images offer a powerful living map of history.
COMMUNIVERSITY YOUTH PROGRAM (CYP)
âI've been coming to CYP since I was in 1st grade. My favorite part of CommUniversity is going on fun field trips and the sweet snacks. I miss it when we have to take breaks."
- CYP Scholar
SAVE THE DATE
January
Book Talk: The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction through Black Lives Matter
Sylvester Allen Jr. and Belle Boggs, Authors Moderated by Gene Nichol
Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of the American South
January 28 | 5:30PM | Love House
African Diaspora Lecture
Dr. Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School
January 29 | 6:30PM | Stone Center
Library
February
Spring 2026 Exhibition: Making the Ground Talk and Other Stories
Brian Palmer, Peabody Awardâwinning journalist and photographer
Artist Talk: February 5 | 5PM | Brown Gallery
Exhibition On View: February 5 â May 20 Brown Gallery
2026 McNeil African American History Month Lecture
Dr. Thavolia Glymph, Peabody Family
Distinguished Professor of History, Duke University
February 17 | 6:30PM | Hitchcock Room
Performance: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre
Co-sponsored with Carolina Performing Arts
February 24 | 7:30PM | Memorial Hall
March
Film Screening: The Disappearance of Miss Scott
Adam Clayton-Powell Jr., Congressman and activist
Co-sponsored with the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
March 5 | 5PM | Hitchcock Room
Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro (Lecture + Concert)
Co-sponsored with the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies
February 19 | 5:30PM | Moeser Auditorium, Hill Hall
Performance: Indivisible â A One-Man Performance by Dr. Sonny Kelly
Dr. Sonny Kelly, performer, speaker and scholar Black History Month event; co-sponsored with the William and Ida Friday Center
February 22 | 3PM | Friday Conference Center
Film Screening: The (M) Factor 2: Before the Pause (Perimenopause)
The film is produced by Women in the Room Productions and Take Flight Productions
Co-sponsored with Womenâs and Gender Studies
March 10 | 6:30 PM | Hitchcock Room
GiveUNC 2026
March 24 | Full Day | Stone Center and Bell Tower
2026 Writers Discussion Series
Jaha Nailah Avery (UNC Law â13), Lawyer, author and reporter
March 26 | 3:30PM | Stone Center
April
Book Talk: The Inner Passage: An Untold Story of Black Resistance Along a Southern Waterway
Virginia McGee Richards
Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of the American South
April 16 | 3:30PM | Hitchcock Room
STONE CENTER STAFF DIRECTORY
LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant Director 919-962-9001 rhon@unc.edu
Sheriff Drammeh Associate Director 919-843-2669 sheriff7@email.unc.edu
Brittany Yarborough Executive Assistant 919-843-02668 blyarb@unc.edu
Javier Jaimes-Ayala Facilities Manager 919-962-7025 jaimes@email.unc.edu
Safiyyah Elahi Community and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator 919-962-7264 selahi@unc.edu
Kara Endsley Philanthropy Officer 919-962-0395 karase@unc.edu
Answer Key to Stone Center Crossword Challenge
Thank you to everyone who submitted entries for the Stone Center Crossword Challenge in the Fall 2025 issue of Milestones Magazine. We appreciate your participation and enthusiasm. Scan for the answers.
Neha Chhabra Public Communications Specialist 919-962-7340 nchhabra@unc.edu
Jordyn Cooper Admin Support Associate 919-962-9001 jordyjor@unc.edu
Rodney Whitmore Building Security Officer 919-962-9001 rwhitmor@email.unc.edu
Stone Center Faculty Leader
Kumi Silva Faculty Director, Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (MURAP) 919-962-9001 kumi@email.unc.edu
Stone Center Library Staff
Gregg Moore Stone Center Library Manager 919-843-5804 moorejg@email.unc.edu
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