Monica sat down to speak with KYW Newsradio & Bridging Philly’s Racquel Williams to talk about DiasporaDNA. Listen to the interview here or wherever you get your podcasts! Transcript below:
Intro: KYW Newsradio original podcasts. From KYW Newsradio 103.9 FM. This is Bridging Philly, connecting our communities on the issues that matter to you, presented by Gift of Life Donor Program.
Hello, I'm Racquel Williams. Welcome to Bridging Philly.
Healing through Heritage with archives, art, storytelling, and community engagement, DiasporaDNA Story Center is an organization in Philadelphia that unlocks history from behind the glass and brings it to the community. It was founded by Monica O. Montgomery, who, when she lost her parents, vowed to keep their memories alive and encourages others to document and honor their ancestors by preserving experiences and heritage.
I sit down with her to discuss how this movement can be healing for generations to come.
We make history every day, and we have to hold on to that for ourselves.
And Charity, how it is hanging out on Philly's Avenue of the Arts. We are inducting the new class of Walk of Fame honorees.
All that's coming up on Bridging Philly.
Racquel Williams: There are many ways to learn history. It doesn't have to be in a classroom or in a traditional museum. You don't have to sit in a library and delve into historical archives. All of those things are great, of course, but experiencing history is also a great way to not only learn about events and people who came before you, but to truly feel what things were like.
With up-close and personal accounts of movements, achievements, failures, and successes, Monica O. Montgomery is founder and president of the DiasporaDNA Story Center. It is her mission to honor her ancestors, our ancestors, by keeping their stories alive.
Monica, welcome to Bridging Philly.
Monica O. Montgomery: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.
Racquel: We're excited to have you here. You know, of course, we spoke a little bit. I met Monica virtually when we were talking about her experience with the Mission Slam, where people in the community doing work in the community would come forward and kind of just tell a story based on a personal experience or something that they experienced within the community. It kind of just brings the community work and the experiences to an audience, which I thought was a great idea. And we'll kind of be doing that here today.
But before we get into everything, I want you to explain to everyone, and to me, of course: What exactly DiasporaDNA is?
Monica: DiasporaDNA Story Center is a cultural center, a new type of cultural center, elevating global majority stories and experiences and bringing what happens internationally, from the places we're connected to, hyperlocally here to Philadelphia.
We consider ourselves a cultural center because people can engage with art, with history, with genealogy, with kinkeeping, as well as learn about all of the dynamic festivals that happen in the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a festival capital. Happy to share more about that later. But we create tours, talks, curriculum, experiences. Highlighting festivals as the ultimate expression of many Diasporas.
Racquel: And when you say global majority, you're referring to…
Monica: Black, Brown, Asian, Indian, Native American people of color all over the world. That is the terminology we use.
Raquel: So I understand, just from learning your story, that the DiasporaDNA Story Center was born out of grief, as you lost your parents a few years ago. Can you talk about that and how that led you to form DiasporaDNA?
Monica: Sure. So, I'm from a relatively small family. It was just me, my mom, and my dad growing up in New York. I do have extended family in other states, but everyone's kind of scattered, and my parents just meant the world to me. They had such a profound impact on my life, and they shaped who I have become.
My dad, Dr. Elvin Montgomery Jr., he was a Black history scholar. He wrote a book 25 years ago called Collecting African American History, which was the preeminent text of its time, teaching people how they can become collectors, how they can become archivists, how they should preserve their items, and not just throw them away when someone passes away or if you move houses. We make history every day, and we have to hold on to that for ourselves. He also was an appraiser of estates. We got to appraise Rosa Parks' estate–the Rosa Parks–and look at all her dresses, her awards. We did that work for the Smithsonian. He worked with many different archives, libraries, and museums, appraising things that were donated. And he also was a genealogist. He traced our family back to the late 1700s.
So all of this, right? And then my mom was an amazing artist, educator, a woman of great faith. And ultimately, they shaped me in some interesting ways. I always would tell friends of mine, you know, they'd be like, "What are you doing on the weekend?" I'm like, "Oh, my parents have homework for me." They're like, "What do you mean?" I'm like, "Oh, they have an extra set of curriculum at home. The work I have to do at home before I get back to school." They were that kind of parents.
You grew up with educators. My dad was also a psychologist, so there's just so much to it. They had high hopes, they realized those hopes, and they made me to be someone that operates with a spirit of excellence, of integrity, and to be mindful of how I have to be a cultural steward.
So with all of this, I decided that as they passed away due to complications with Alzheimer's and dementia, as they forgot so much of everything, their own identities—my mother at one point was not able to speak, my father was not able to breathe, he had to be intubated—to see that kind of degeneration from cognitive impairments, it broke my heart. But I knew who they were and what they stood for, and I wanted to make sure that even if they forgot, that they would not be forgotten. And what they stood for—their legacy of art, history, culture, education, community—would last forever. And that's what inspired our DiasporaDNA.
Racquel: Wow. Well, it seems as though the work that you're doing is kind of healing for you, because that kind of grief doesn't really go away.
Monica: No, it doesn't. Grief is something that is an energy; sometimes you have to transmute it, alchemize it, to use a fun term. You know, thinking of the sadness that you feel, it never really leaves. Sometimes it might actively sting; sometimes it might be more of a passive feeling.
But how can that grief become something expresses, that you process through, or you get it off of you in some ways?
And so for me, I couldn't just sit in the grief. I didn't want to spiral downward and just become like a puddle of tears. I wanted to do something. I feel like the greats, when we think of history, a lot of things have been founded in honor of other people, whether that's parents or children or partners. Things are inspiring, right, in honor of others. And I knew that was the best way to honor my ancestors. I knew they would like that. They raised me to go to museums. So what better way than to found an un-museum for them?
Racquel: Un-museum. I like that.
Yeah, so you actually delved into your own history, the history of your parents, and uncovered things that you didn't know about them as you were growing up. What were some of the things that you discovered about your parents?
Monica: I did. Well, after both of their funerals, when I was processing through their papers, because again, my dad taught me never throw anything out, right? We make history every day.
I was like, "Oh, let's see what's in their personal effects," you know, and things that I didn't know and see. I discovered that my father was quite the student activist back in his day. He went to Harvard University in the early '60s, 1964, I believe. And that was a time of great upheaval around the civil rights movement, campaigning for human rights for African Americans. And he started a kind of activist protest and movement on campus to get an African American Studies major instituted as part of the curriculum at Harvard at that time, that didn't exist. And he, along with other students, fought for that, did sit-ins, protested for that, and ultimately were able to get the department to create the African American Studies major that then went on to found the Hutchins Center, where Dr. Henry Louis Gates currently leads. So that is directly an impact of his work and his legacy. And he later on received a W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University in honor of that work.
Racquel: That is the more you know.
Monica: And then I found, like, my mom back in her younger years. She used to ride motorcycles, like daredevil styles. Like, what is life? She was so conservative growing up with me. But she was out there to the point that she got into a crash. She was riding with my aunt's boyfriend, and they were, like, I guess, popping around the block and crashed into the basement of someone's house and had all these medical things. And that's where she, I guess, put the bike down, put the helmet down. But I would have never known this if I hadn't gone through their papers, their letters, their personal effects, to discover more about the human side of my parents.
Racquel: It's funny. We tend to not even think about the fact that our parents had lives before we were born, before they were parents. And they had them, right? Exactly. So that just must have been so wonderful for you to discover all of that. But you didn't just stop at the archives and things that you were digging into. You also spoke with people who knew them to even learn more about them, right?
Monica: Yes, yes. I still make a practice of trying to speak monthly to someone that knew my parents in their lifetime.
I just spoke with a gentleman about my father. My father was on the board of the Appraisers Association of America, so the kind of national body that governs appraisers and appraisals. And he was speaking about how—he's a Jewish gentleman—and how he took my dad to his temple one day for a religious service. And my dad was like, "Yeah, I'll go. I'll try it." And then he was like, "Yeah, because at that time your dad was practicing Buddhism." And I'm like, wow, all the random things! And he was just saying how my dad believed in religious tolerance and just understanding culture, understanding different worldviews and perspectives, and how that was very impressive to him at the time in the early '80s. So just so many new levels unlocked of learning about their lives and how that has inadvertently shaped me.
Racquel: Wow. And did that kind of, did you kind of discover some puzzle pieces that were missing before, where you say, "Oh, you know what? That makes sense. Now I know why he's like that. Now I know why he said things with that nature"?
Monica: I think I realized more about them. My dad had this saying, and he would always say, "Nothing is real until it's written." And that's why he committed so much of his time and energy to writing. He wrote books. He wrote articles. He wrote papers for people. He is a doctor. He wrote a dissertation. He did dissertation coaching for others. And he was always obsessed with writing. I remember when I was like one and a half, he was holding my little hands around a pen and trying to teach me writing strokes, way before other kids were doing it. I'm like, you know, I'm looking back like, what is this? Why do I have to write as soon as I'm born? But that's his way of preparing me for this world. And to this day, I feel so comfortable with the pen, right? The pen is mightier than the sword. I feel comfortable writing.
After everything that happened when my parents passed away, I started writing this vision of DiasporaDNA and what it would be, what it would do, how it would honor them, how it could honor all of our ancestors. And now, because I've written it, it has become real. So that advice, that axiom for living, has really manifested all through my life and his.
Racquel: Now, of course, you're honoring your ancestors by doing what you're doing and starting this. Why is it important for all of us to kind of pay homage and honor our ancestors in this way?
Monica: It is extremely important. Everyone has someone that they loved or love, that they may have lost, and certainly someone who they look up to and admire. And what if we go through life actively realizing that we can use people as role models and inspirations, and even when they're gone, that role modeling, that inspiration, can continue?
And one of the best things you could do to honor your ancestors is to speak about them, right? Is to do things in their name, is to mention them in rooms, is to talk about how you were raised or how you were shaped and formed, is to actively bring their life and their wisdom into your current daily walk. And so that's why I say my parents' names at all times, and I say the things they taught me, because that keeps them burning in my heart. That keeps them alive for me.
Everyone may have someone like that, but sometimes people feel that after someone has passed away, you know, they can no longer be spoken of, or it would be too painful to speak of them. And sometimes it is painful, but it's also tremendously healing. It's tremendously cathartic to say the names and think of the memories and look at the old photos. And to the capacity that you can, that you have the emotional bandwidth to delve into a memory-lane experience, to do that every so often, so that you keep that person with you.
So that's something we advocate for everyone. We have a workshop we do called Eternal Threads, which talks about how to honor your ancestors digitally, as well as through old-fashioned writing, analog, and what you can do to kind of create your own archive of family memory. And those are the sorts of experiences that we curate at DiasporaDNA.
Racquel: There's always a challenge when it comes to gathering historical information and, you know, kind of preserving it. But you were a museum curator, so I'm assuming this kind of came a little, I guess, easier for you.
Monica: It did. It did. I've been working in museums for the last 20 years. I've been fortunate enough to curate at the Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum, Portland Art Museum, South African Embassy, many different spaces, as well as some locally here in Philadelphia. And I've always just loved the work of culture.
To me, curating is not so much the kind of academic pursuit of just putting something on the wall. It's how to tell a story in dynamic ways and how to make it come alive for people. And the thing that excites me most about curating is not the process of putting art or history or artifacts together. It's getting people in the room to see it.
So I always would say I'm a curator of experiences that people want to come to, whether that's a panel or a talk or an exhibit or something else. I really want people to gather, to dwell, to ponder, to make meaning in those spaces. But I really enjoyed my curatorial journey, and I'm still very active in museums. And I still think that museums are kind of a launchpad, have shaped where I am today and what I'm working on.
Racquel: Now, of course, with this DiasporaDNA Center, you don't have to go to the center just to experience it. You bring the experience to people, whether it's a bus tour or it's a pop-up. Tell me about those different experiences that you've put together in programs where you bring the experiences to people.
Monica: Sure. So realizing that, number one, our space is small but mighty, but we can't fit probably more than 30 people there. But there's a lot of people in the city that are looking for quality arts, culture, creative experiences. We design a lot of mobile activations to come to where the people are, in the spirit of community. And we do a lot of tabling and exhibiting at different fairs, festivals, resource exchanges.
We have an experience called Archives and Vibes, where we bring some of the archives that we hold. These are the books and the papers, the ephemera passed on to me from my father that look at Black history, world cultures, mental health resources. We bring that to the people. We have a book club experience. We pair that with a creative workshop, whether that's a paint-and-sip or sketch club or dance movement, and really get people engaging around literacy, books, and what they hold. So that's one experience.
We also have a Junior Archivist Camp. We do that with children in middle school and high school. If you'd like us to bring items to your educational space, we're excited to do that. We have a curriculum we've built.
But most excitingly, with the work I do around festivals, I'm someone that's really been studying and doing a cultural mapping of festivals all around the city. So far, we have counted and mapped 350 festivals that happen in the city of Philadelphia, and we're in the process of sharing this information with Visit Philly. But we're always on the lookout for festivals. So we have created this citywide bus tour, a joyride, if you will, taking people to where festivals happen, when festivals are happening, to feel the sights, the sounds, the food, the performance, and enjoy the culture that is oftentimes overlooked all throughout the city. So that's another experience, Save Philly Festivals Bus Tour that's happening all through the summer and fall.
Racquel: And, of course, Philadelphia is the perfect place for this. Honestly, with all of the culture that is offered here and all of the cultural festivals that are here, I can see how Philly is the perfect place for this.
But to delve into history and honor our ancestors, we have to be curious. And I'm just wondering, just to kind of look on the other side of things, as everyone has this little black box in their hand, and the kids are growing up with the tablets and things of that nature: Is that curiosity still there? And how important is it that we teach our children to continue to be curious? It's okay to be on these tablets and, you know, talk to Alexa or whatever. But how about delving into your own history and talking to your parents and your grandparents while we still have them here, so kids remain curious?
Monica: I agree. I think everyone is curious, but sometimes in this modern moment people are used to instant gratification. You can go on Google, you can use your AI, right, and type something and get the immediate answer. The spirit of discovery and research has sometimes been lost in this modern moment, and there's something unfortunate about that.
We want to encourage people to get curious and get in the spirit of looking into things by observation, by seeking out the material culture, by seeking out the answers inside of a text, by trying to figure something out without the quick hit of, "Oh, I'm just going to ask this automatic artificial intelligence."
So, for instance, when we did our Junior Archivist Camp, we were at a middle school in Germantown, in honor of the new exhibition curated by my friend Dr. Paul Farber of Monument Lab. It's called Rising Up, and also about Rocky and the culture of boxing. It's at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We brought a selection of sports memorabilia. We brought VHS tapes—remember those?
Racquel: I certainly do.
Monica: We brought magazines, baseball cards, all sorts of things. And we showed it to the kids and said, "You know, what's this stuff?" We put it on the table, like show-and-tell. This is safe to touch. And they were like, "Oh, I've seen some of these. I'm not sure about some of these." So we held up the VHS tapes, which were Muhammad Ali, you know, like a master copy of his whole life. And it was like an eight-tape set of all the things that he did. And I said, “What’s this? Who is this?” And they didn’t know. I’m like "Does this face look familiar? Have you ever heard the term Ali?" And they're like, "I think so." I'm like, "He was a famous boxer and an activist and a philanthropist. He did these things. And how would you access this?" And they're like, "I don't know what that is." And I'm like, "This is a VHS. This is the way people used to watch movies." They were like, "What, you stream that?" And they were trying to find a button on it. They were trying to see, like, is it a touchscreen? I'm like, "This is a physical media." And then I actually bought a VHS player, a video player, and I held that up. I'm like, "Now, who knows what this is?" Or, like, "What are these old clunky things?" They were trying to touch it, scroll on it. I'm like, "This is a plastic device that you would play the VHS on."
So they were trying to understand what came before them. And by just discovery of objects, talking to one another, asking us questions, it gave them the ultimate lesson. It illuminated what was beyond the quick hit of instant gratification. And that's the kind of experiences that we bring.
Racquel: What is your reaction to voices that are out there saying, you know, this isn't important. Why are we highlighting these experiences and these people? There's really no need for that. You're putting yourself in a separate box, and that's not something that we should be doing. But your reaction to that.
Monica: Well, I think that anyone who doesn't see the importance of history, whether it's your own personal family history or world history or history of different diasporas, is incredibly short-sighted. And it's missing the fact that if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it, as well as true knowledge and understanding comes from realizing what has happened across time, right?
And so if you want to understand more about something, there's not just new knowledge. There's knowledge to be built upon, things that haven't been digitized yet. There are antiquarian books and items that still haven't made it into Google, into AI. And that knowledge is just as solid, just as sound, has just as much importance as whatever might be able to be quickly accessed. So there is a case for history, for heritage, for leaning into discovery, and for not assuming that we know it all in this moment, everything is at our fingertips, and that's all we need to know.
Racquel: What are some challenges that you can foresee in the future in the cultural sector when it comes to representing diasporic histories?
Monica: I think part of the challenge is that people have become so worried about offense or maybe uncomfortable with asking questions about other people's cultures that they're not willing to have those conversations. So they're kind of self-censoring.
There is a lot of encouragement in the current moment of, like, you know, not—I don't know—just like an anti-multiculturalism that is tremendously unfortunate. Multiculturalism is like an '80s term, but I still use it. I still love it. I want people to understand and learn about each other's cultures, customs, special diversity, and how that makes us all better and richer.
To come out of self-censoring, to come out of being too cautious or too shy or just being comfortable not knowing. Like, we have to get curious, and we have to do that in real time, face-to-face if possible, with one another, so that we can all be better for it.
Racquel: Is this spiritual for you, this work that you're doing?
Monica: I feel that the work I'm doing is my life's purpose. I am a person of faith, and faith is a part of it, but for me, it's like I can't imagine doing anything else that is more meaningful than this. I've built museums, I've curated spaces, I've led cultural organizations. I used to be a professor. I've done all these things for other places. And what better time than to do it out of my own family and in honor of all of our diasporas? So it was very purpose-driven.
Racquel: And you mentioned you were a professor. You were actually a UArts professor, and ironically enough, you found space in the shuttered building for your new center.
Monica: Yeah, well, we did an activation with them. It was a temporary activation last summer.
But as they opened as VIA, the Village of Industry and Arts—I'm mixing it up—they used to be Hamilton Hall, now they're VIA. They wanted to do something commemorative, spiritual, if you will, to honor all the people that felt aggrieved that the university closed unceremoniously: the students, the staff, the alumni, and other stakeholders and partners. So they did what they call a Celebration of Life. They invited everyone to come back to be there over a five-day span, engage with arts and culture, share your feelings, write it on Post-its. And they took all of the items in the UArts archive, everything that was left in the building, and gave them away, so people in the UArts community could get a piece of that history in their hands. We were invited to be a program partner as part of this. We facilitated a day-long art therapeutic experience with movement, with kind of sketching and painting.
We also had a tea ceremony there, and ultimately we brought some of our texts and books out that related to artists and art history for people to enjoy. And all of that was full circle as someone who used to be in the building recruiting new students, meeting with current students, now able to come back and help close out that chapter.
Racquel: What is it that you want most people to come away with when they experience what you have to offer, whether it's at the pop-up or at the bus tour or a speaking engagement? What do you want people to come away with?
Monica: I want people to feel a tremendous pride of place, that they are proud to be a Philadelphian or proud to be where they're from, adjacent to Philadelphia. That is discovering something new about their city, about the history and the culture around it. I want people to feel inspired and more curious than before, that they would go independently, keep researching, looking things up, sharing the knowledge they've gained. Most of all, I want them to realize that we're making history every day, right? And that they are going to preserve the legacies and archive the items that are part of their histories for future generations.
Racquel: Monica, what do you think your parents would think of the work that you are doing now?
Monica: They would be really proud. They would be incredibly proud and incredulous that I've been able to pull this off with a dedicated team. But, like, in this day and age, when so much arts, culture, education is being underfunded and cut, they'd be like, "Are you crazy? Like, seriously?" But, "Great job, daughter." I think they would feel really good about it.
Racquel: Awesome. And how can people learn more about the work of DiasporaDNA Center?
Monica: Certainly, you can visit us online at www.diasporadna.org, and you can learn more about our Save Philly Festivals Tours and curriculum at savephillyfestivals.com.
Racquel: Monica O. Montgomery, founder and president of the DiasporaDNA Story Center. Thank you so much for sharing. We still appreciate it, and we love the work that you're doing.
Monica: Thank you. Come visit us at Cherry Street Pier anytime.