DiasporaDNA Story Center™ is preparing to open our physical location on May 1st, and this moment marks more than a new space — it marks the beginning of a living cultural home for community memory, storytelling, and healing.

 

DiasporaDNA is a place where the stories of the Global Majority are preserved, activated, and shared through archives, ancestry, art, and community engagement. Our space will serve as a hub for public memory, intergenerational learning, cultural programming, and collective healing.

 

Now we need your help to bring this vision fully to life. We are currently fundraising to support our location opening and operational launch, including:

Every donation helps us build a space where history, culture, and community can live, breathe, and grow.

 

👉 Donate to DiasporaDNA Story Center Opening

Monthly giving options are also available through our Patreon — perfect for ongoing support at any level.

 

Together, we can build a living cultural home for DiasporaDNA.

🗓 Friday, May 1 | 12:00–3:00 PM
📍 Cherry Street Pier
121 North Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106

 

Join us for a special Save Philly Festivals™ Bus Tour, a citywide journey through the neighborhoods, histories, and cultural celebrations that shape Philadelphia’s vibrant festival ecosystem. From block parties to parades, festivals are living archives of community memory, joy, and resistance—and this tour invites you to experience them firsthand.

 

This VIP experience will travel through iconic sites across the city—from the Ben Franklin Parkway and Chinatown to South 9th Street, West Philly, and beyond—highlighting the music, food, traditions, and stories that make each space unique. Along the way, we’ll explore how festivals emerge from civic engagement, identity, and cultural celebration, and why it’s critical to support and sustain them.

 

 

Support this initiative and help sustain Philadelphia’s festival culture.

The griots gathered. The stories flowed. The room shifted. ✨

 

The community gathered for a free, family-friendly intergenerational gathering celebrating story, memory, and local Black history during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.

 

Produced by Progress Trust, Inc. & DiasporaDNA Story Center™, this exhibition brought elders, youth, artists, scholars, and community members together to honor the griot tradition—where stories preserve the past and shape the future.

 

Our Meeting of the Griots was more than an event — it was a living archive. An evening of truth-telling, cultural memory, and powerful dialogue rooted in community and connection.

 

From shared wisdom to unforgettable moments of reflection, this gathering reminded us why storytellers matter — they hold history, shape narrative, and move us forward.

 

Thank you to everyone who showed up, spoke up, and poured into the space. The work continues!

On March 13, DiasporaDNA Story Center™, in collaboration with the Philly Festivals Network™, convened the Save Philly Festivals™ Think Tank, a virtual gathering of festival producers, cultural leaders, and community organizers committed to sustaining Philadelphia’s vibrant festival ecosystem. The session featured powerful insights from Kendra J. Ross (Founder of STooPS), Sonia “Sunny” Blount (CEO of Kabila Events, Philly Black Wine & Spirits Fest), and Felicia D. Williams (Founder of HiTouch Enterprises), who shared strategies for sponsorship, marketing, and scaling community-rooted festivals.

 

Through keynote reflections and interactive breakout sessions, participants engaged in peer learning and explored practical, “no-nonsense” approaches to audience growth and long-term sustainability. This work is part of DiasporaDNA’s broader Save Philly Festivals™ initiative—an ongoing effort to preserve and activate the city’s “outside culture” through community archiving, public programming, and tools that support those who carry these traditions forward.

On March 14th, DiasporaDNA Story Center™ joined the PMBC Block Captains Rally, stepping into the streets and neighborhoods that are the living heart of Philadelphia, connecting Block Captains to our Center and Bus Tour!

 

Block captains are community anchors - the people who hold their blocks together, organize cleanups, share resources, and show up for their neighbors every day. The annual rally brings together hundreds of these community leaders to celebrate their work and provide resources, education, and support for keeping Philadelphia’s neighborhoods clean, safe, and connected.

 

When DiasporaDNA shows up for block captains, we are showing up for the city itself.

This moment reflects our belief that history isn’t only made in institutions - it lives on front stoops, in community gardens, at neighborhood events, and at kitchen tables. The PMBC rally allowed us to stand alongside the people who sustain community memory and care every day.

 

We are honored to be in that space and to continue building relationships with the communities that make Philadelphia home.

In honoring the close out of Women’s History Month, Patterns of Our Diasporas returns with a powerful new episode hosted by Monica O. Montgomery, featuring four Philadelphia women whose work lives at the intersection of storytelling, culture, and community healing.

 

Through two intimate conversations, this episode explores how culturally rooted practices—from neighborhood tours to somatic healing spaces—serve as pathways for historical preservation, economic empowerment, and collective care. From reimagining what it means to guide people through place and memory, to creating spaces for grief, resilience, and restoration, these women remind us that healing, history, and community are deeply intertwined.

 

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
✨ Patreon members can access behind-the-scenes reflections and additional content

 

This is part of DiasporaDNA’s ongoing digital storytelling platform—centering voices, practices, and narratives that carry forward the living legacy of our communities.

Gratitude to DiasporaDNA Volunteers

We are proud to share a powerful moment in DiasporaDNA Story Center’s journey: the organization has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation in support of Living Legacies: Art, Archives, Ancestry, and Activations—a two-year initiative (February 2026–February 2028) dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and activating the histories of Philadelphia’s global majority communities. Over the next two years, this work will unfold through a series of community-centered activations, artistic commissions, and educational programs reaching 3,500+ Philadelphia residents—including free Archives & Vibes pop-ups, intergenerational Archivist Camps, new artist commissions inspired by the archive, and public programming at Cherry Street Pier.

 

As DiasporaDNA’s first major institutional grant, this milestone is both a celebration and an affirmation—that the stories, cultural memory, and living legacies of Black and brown communities are worthy of deep investment and care. Announced during Women’s History Month, it also honors the visionary leadership of Founder & President Monica O. Montgomery, MA, and the essential, behind-the-scenes work of our Archives Lead Support, whose stewardship, care, and deep commitment to the Montgomery Collection make this work possible. Through their dedication, the archive is not only preserved, but actively shaped as a living resource for community memory, research, and future storytelling.

 

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the William Penn Foundation for their support and belief in this work—and to the team and community who continue to build this archive from the inside out.