Public Humanities Lab
In 2024, the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab (WPHL) at Florida International University (FIU) was awarded a Community Collections Grant from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for the purpose of documenting the Goombay Festival and Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove. The photographs, videos and interviews collected by the FIU team will be permanently accessioned in the digital collection of the Library of Congress.
WPHL sought and was successfully awarded additional funding to create littlebahamasmiami.com. The purpose of this site is to both highlight collection being created for the Library of Congress and to also share the rich story of the Black and Bahamian community of Coconut Grove and Coral Gables by bringing together images and stories that are scattered across multiple collections across South Florida and beyond.
This site is managed by Dr. Aarti Mehta-Kroll, Assistant Director of WPHL. She can be reached at: amehtakr@fiu.edu
Project Team
While our core project team consists of Dr. Rebecca Friedman, Dr. Aarti Mehta-Kroll and Enrique Rosell of WPHL, Dr. Valerie Patterson of the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University, and Mikeya Brown, an artist and community activist, there are many more who participated in documenting Goombay and Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove.
Photographers Mariela Gonzalez, Melanie Cruz, Yaasmeen Johnson, Paola Katherine Rodriguez, Alvaro Angulo, Joseph Burchele, Christine Cortes, and Jason Smith captured the celebration of Goombay from different vantage points.
Miami Dade College students Fernanda Romero, Lisbeth Moquete, Michelle Paredes, and Kimberlee Downer worked with FIU doctoral candidate A’Keitha Carey and Miami Dade College Professor Michelle Murray to document the dance practices of the Junkanoo performers and festival goers.
FIU graduate students Patraillia Davis Bryant, Bisola “Subomi” Babawale, Gerard Esposito-Peralta and Sasha Wells worked with Dr. Valerie Patterson at her pop-up history booth, featuring the work of Ms. Leona Cooper-Baker, during the Goombay Festival.
This project would not have been possible without the support of the 2024 Goombay Festival Planning Committee which included Chairwoman Von Carol Kinchens-Williams and committee members Vicky Rivers, Carl Springer, Leon Leonard, Reynold Martin, Tonya Brown, Gener Romeo, Chala Cartwright, Kelsey Hayes, Patrice Godbolt and Mikeya Brown.
We also thank our colleagues Jeff Guin, Maria Trujillo and Christopher Rodriguez at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens; Vanessa Navarro, Jeremy Salloum, Ashley Trujillo and Michele Reese at HistoryMiami Museum, Lou Kramer at the Wolfson Archives at MDC, Chelsea Jacks at the University of Miami Libraries, Rafi Maldonado, Luka Gotsiridze, Clayton Oliviera and Gaby Yero at Sanctuary of the Arts, Hernan Guerrero Applewhite of Geo Urban Consulting and Rebecca Peterson for their contributions to this project.
Members of the “Documenting Goombay and Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove” Community Collection Grant team pose with the Goombay Planning Committee in front of the Miami Dade College Gibson Center as they are photographed by Enrique Rosell and Jason Smith, Coconut Grove, 2024. Photo by Jason Smith.