“The Intersection of Us”

Our project is the first episode of a podcast we are developing called “The Intersection of Us”. The first episode of our podcast covers Black activist, writer, and speaker Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s intersectional activism as well as an example of how young people today are leading intersectional activism in education today, continuing Watkins Harper’s legacy. To give our audience an example, we reached out to Freedom and Citizenship, a free educational program for New York City high school students run by the Center of American Studies at Columbia University. Each year they recruit 45-low income high school juniors to attend a free four-week residential program, participate in a year-long civic leadership project and are provided college application guidance in the autumn of their senior year. We interviewed 3 program students to share their 2023 Project Education Access with us. We also interviewed Alison Schettino, a director of curriculum and instruction at the New York Historical Society, to share some commentary on the National Organization of Colored Women cofounded by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

Originally, we thought of focusing on modern-day intersectionality to educate our audience about multifaceted identities through researching contemporary movements. However, as we completed research on the proceedings of the Eleventh National Woman’s Convention (1866) and the National Convention of Colored Men (1864), we realized that intersectionality actually has a long history dating back to the Reconstruction Era. We chose Frances Ellen Watkins Harper as our focus because she is a pioneer for intersectional analysis, the majority of her activism focused on prioritizing her identity as both a black person and woman.

Historically, marginalized groups of people are often pinned against each other or not adequately represented within our history classes. We want our podcast to show our listeners—many of whom may be members of marginalized groups—that their intersectional experiences and identities are not a novel occurrence but rather have long historical precedence. Through this podcast, we hope to foster interest in intersectional analysis while providing a safe space to learn more about multifaceted identities with figures like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

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