On a recent Saturday afternoon in South Philadelphia, Dr. Regina Jennings, PhD whisked through Black and Nobel bookstore in a cherry red top and matching tie-dye skirt pointing out photographs mounted on the walls. The images on display, of Black Panther Party members in Oakland, California, had come from Jennings’ personal collection. Each one illuminated a little-known aspect of Black Panther Party history.

“Nobody knows this—we had a singing group!” Jennings said, her eyes lighting up as she gestured to a photograph of a group of young men singing. “There were brothers who joined the Black Panther Party, and they could sing. They were called ‘The Lumpin’.”

Jennings was 17 years-old and working as a typist at the Philadelphia Urban League when a co-worker invited her to attend a screening of a film about the Black Panther Party. Growing up in Philly, Jennings had witnessed countless incidents of police brutality, and she was inspired by the Panthers’ motto, “Police the police.” When the film ended, she asked her co-worker how she could join. The woman laughed and told Jennings that the Black Panthers were in California. “Little did she know, I put California in my mind,” said Jennings. “Three months later, I was on a plane.”

She spent a few years with the Black Panther Party in Oakland before returning to Philadelphia to give birth to her first child. Yet, Jennings kept up a life-long correspondence with “one of her Panther brothers,” a man named Billy X. For close to 50 years , X mailed photographs he took of Black Panther Party events affixed to handmade cards. She kept the cards for sentimental reasons, tacking some of the photographs to the wall in her kitchen. It never occurred to her that the pictures might have historical value. “I thought these photos, these notes, were something very private,” Jennings said. “I didn’t see the historical connection. I had no idea.”

That changed last year when a friend visited Jennings house and encouraged her to apply for a 9-month fellowship through People’s Media Record (PMR), an organization dedicated to preserving community media in Philadelphia. The Preserving and Archiving Community Media (PACME) Fellowship is designed to support people like Jennings, who possess a rich collection of historical materials, but lack formal training in archiving and historical preservation. “If you don’t have professional education in archiving and preservation, it can be really daunting to break into,” said Winter Schneider, who oversees the fellowship program with Lila Chaar-Pérez, PMR’s director of archiving and preservation.

Jennings applied to the fellowship and was accepted. Now, she is learning how to preserve her photographs and share them with the public. Earlier this summer, she called X, who now lives in Sacramento, with exciting news—his photographs were going to be in an exhibition, called Cards from Billy X, at Black and Nobel bookstore at 422 South Street in Philadelphia. X was thrilled, Jennings said.

There are 10 fellows in this year’s PACME cohort, working on a diverse array of projects including digital repositories of Rufus Harley’s music and photographs of the Germantown Juneteenth festival. Some, like Jennings, are new to archiving, but others have more experience. Melissa Beatriz was finishing a documentary about Philadelphia’s rumba community when she joined the fellowship program earlier this year. Working with archival footage was already a major component of her work as a filmmaker, but she says the fellowship has helped her think through “the technical aspects” of storing archival materials and making them accessible to others. Beatriz said the program has also helped her find community in a field that can be isolating. “Being a part of this fellowship has helped me feel like there’s a community doing this work and we can all learn from each other,” she said.

The fellows participate in monthly workshops where they learn skills like cataloguing and digitization, and receive funds for equipment and other expenses related to their preservation efforts. Jennings plans to use her funds to purchase a high-quality scanner to help digitize her photographs. “Grants are hard to come by when you’re talking about archives,” said Dan Pappa, a member of People’s Media Record’s community advisory board. “The PACME fellowship offers a way to get funding that isn’t otherwise there.”

On the same Saturday Jennings unveiled her exhibit at Black and Noble a small crowd gathered in a courtyard behind the store. They sat in folding chairs, facing a mural of a tranquil blue ocean painted on the back wall. Most people leaned forward in their seats, listening with rapt attention. One woman held out her cell phone camera, framing a petite woman in a black beret and blue T-shirt seated on a small wooden stage.

The woman was the well-known activist and MOVE member Pam Africa. She was talking about her early encounters with MOVE growing up in West Philadelphia, and the people in the audience, most of whom were a few decades younger, were hanging on her every word. Jennings watched from the middle row of chairs, nodding along and saying “that’s right,” as Africa spoke.

The event, called the Panther Poetry Open Mic, was organized by Jennings and PACME fellow Keyssh Datts. In addition to Africa’s guest appearance, attendees learned about the history of the Black liberation movement through poetry, conversation, and Billy X’s photographs. Jennings closed the event by reading a poem from her book, Panther Poems: Poetry of a Sister Panther.

Community events like the one Jennings and Datts organized at Black and Nobel are a core component of the PACME fellowship. The goal, Schneider said, is to “spur connection” around the fellow’s project and to get community members involved in stewarding the history themselves.

Some PACME fellows will be hosting workshops at The People’s Media Record’s upcoming conference, The People’s Media Camp, on October 3 and 4. The conference is, as Schneider puts it, “a major convening” for people interested in “preserving a history that they find to be really important in the city.” This year’s event will feature workshops, such as personal memory writing and hip-hop dance history, roundtable discussions with local preservationists, and multimedia exhibits. Beatriz will be screening three to four short films featuring artists from her documentary, Philly Rumba.

The owners at Black and Nobel were so excited about Jennings’ exhibit they asked to keep the photographs for permanent display. “We’re helping keep culture alive,” said James Hillyard, whose family owns the store. “It’s always good to keep a reminder of how we got here.”

Jennings is already planning her next event, a celebration of the Black Panther Party’s 60th anniversary that will take place on October 17 at d’griot Cafe and Gallery at 51 Maplewood Mall in Germantown. She plans to give a talk, poetry reading, and healing session, and to display a new batch of Billy X’s photographs. Although Jennings is experienced at delivering talks and readings, she credits the PACME program with helping her add a new title—archivist—to a resume that includes poet and professor of African American literature. “I’m a lifelong learner,” Jennings said. “The Panthers taught all of us that.”

---

---