2019 REAL SYMPOSIUM
@ Vanderbilt University
w/ Black Lunch Table

Vanderbilt University
When and Where
Date:	Saturday, March 23, 2019
Time:	11:00 am – 3:00 pm CDT
Address:	Vanderbilt University The Student Life Center

For info on our March 23 edit-a-thon in Trinidad, please click here.

The Black Lunch Table (BLT) project will host an edit-a-thon focusing on visual artists of the African Diaspora from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm CDT on Saturday, March 23, 2019 at Vanderbilt University's Student Life Center. A training session will be held at the beginning, but help is available throughout the event.

Bring your laptop and bring a friend. The more, the merrier! Snacks provided.

The Black Lunch Table (BLT) Wikimedia edit-a-thon at 2019 REAL Symposium will create, update, and improve Wikipedia articles pertaining to visual artists of the African Diaspora. Together we will create historical documents that respond to the urgent need for a reconstruction of the art historical record.

A photographer will be on hand to take images for Wiki Commons!

All are invited, with no specialized knowledge of the subject or Wikipedia editing experience required. A brief overview of the basics of Wikipedia editing will be given at the start of the edit-a-thon.

About The Black Lunch Table

The Black Lunch Table (BLT), an official Wikimedia Movement Affiliate, is an ongoing collaboration between artists Jina Valentine ( Fishantena ( talk)) and Heather Hart ( Heathart ( talk)) which intends to fill holes in the documentation of contemporary art history. In its 13 year existence, the BLT has taken a variety of forms relating to this most recent iteration, in the form of the Wikipedia edit-a-thon. BLT’s aim is the production of discursive sites (at literal and metaphorical lunch tables), wherein cultural producers of color engage in critical dialogue on topics directly affecting our communities. They endeavor to create spaces, online and off, mirroring the activity and creativity present in sites where Blackness and Art are performed.

More about BLT here.

About the 2019 REAL Symposium

Nashville, like many other large metropolitan cities, has begun the process that Grantmakers in the Arts has identified as the most pressing issue in arts leadership in the United States: building racial equity in our cultural institutions and arts organizations, so creative and cultural expression can become a form of civic engagement for all.

Since 2015, Vanderbilt University’s Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Pubic Policy has partnered with the Metro Arts/Nashville’s Office of Arts & Culture (REAL) Program to develop insight into how institutional practices around arts programming, artists development, and funding and hiring processes can advance racial equity in our community.

Curb Center and Metro Arts believes it is time to broaden the conversation through a national symposium, convening arts policy leaders, arts administrators, cultural equity organizations, individual artists, and grantmakers to discuss challenges and share best practices as we work to build more equitable practices into arts institutions at all levels.

Info on the symposium is here.

• Date: Saturday, March 23, 2019
• Time: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm CDT
• Location: Vanderbilt University
  Student Life Center
  310 25th Ave South
• Who should attend: Artists, historians, students, photographers, librarians, archivists, teachers, writers, journalists, curators, visitors, the curious...
  • Experienced or new Wikipedians (We will provide assistance with Wikipedia formatting and syntax)
  • Amateur historians or research pros (We will have a selection of resources available for your use)
• What to Bring: Your laptop and a friend!
• Hashtag: #BlackLunchTable #realsymposium
• Etherpad: BlackLunchTable - live doc to keep track of what we are all working on
• Training: Black Lunch Table Wikipedia Presentation

• Presentation / overview
• Editing time
• Goals: Create user account (if new to Wikipedia), create user page with at least one sentence, sign up for editathon on this Wikipedia Meetup page, make at least one edit to a Wikipedia page
• For more information about ongoing scheduled meetups see Black Lunch Table Meetup page

• Image Guide
• Where to find them.
• Dos and Donts
• Asking an artist for images.

Nashville-affiliated visual artists of the African diaspora and related

Although our project focuses on visual artists of the African Diaspora, you are welcomed to edit whatever you want. Please add an article below that you think we should focus on. These articles are suggested, be sure they qualify according to Wikipedia's NOTABILITY guidlines before you create a new page. Thanks!

These articles are suggested, be sure they qualify according to Wikipedia's NOTABILITY guidlines before you create a new page. Thanks!

Visual artists of the African diaspora in Permanent Collection at Fisk

Black Lunch Table in Tennessee task query

Where to start...

Add an Infobox! Adding images! Rules on Visual Art, Murals, Graffiti and Sculpture are different! Follow instructions to upload your images here... Create or update Wikidata! Wikidata is central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, and others. Go to Wikidata Read Wikidata's Introduction! Search for the person or subject If none exists, you can 'Create a new item' Look at another similar item to follow format... for example human female instead of female animal. To add a field, click 'Add Statement' Create or update Authority Control! Update Wikidata using Virtual International Authority File (VIAF.org) Go to VIAF.org Search for person (last name, first name) At bottom of page, where it says History of VIAF, expand section. See Werner Herzog example Add each listed Authority to Wikidata if its info is not already populated in Wikidata Add {{Authority control}} after External links section above Categories Refresh Wikipedia page Click here for many more editing resources

• The Black Lunch Table
• Black Lunch Table – Wikipedia meetup page

• Fishantena ( talk) 02:40, 13 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• Heathart ( talk) 19:01, 17 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• CatonMA2 ( talk) 18:17, 21 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• Sushiwolf ( talk) 17:06, 23 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• Emeadows06 ( talk) 17:06, 23 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• CourtneyAJ ( talk) 17:44, 23 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• Carwil ( talk) 19:47, 23 March 2019 (UTC) reply

• Noughts ( talk) 01:24, 31 March 2020 (UTC) reply

• Noughts ( talk) 23:58, 7 May 2022 (UTC) reply