We Remember and We Recall: Oral History Listening Room

Dr. Diane D. Turner is Curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries. Dr. Turner holds three Temple University degrees. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in art and anthropology, a master’s and Ph.D. from the department of history. Her areas of specialization and research include African American Labor, Cultural and Social History, Philadelphia Jazz History, Independent Black Filmmakers, Oral History and Public History. Her dissertation is entitled Organizing and Improvising: A History of Philadelphia’s Black Musicians’ Protective Union Local 274, American Federation of Musician. Upon completion of her Ph.D., she was awarded a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown University. Dr. Turner has taught African American history at Northeastern University, Rowan University, University of South Florida and other institutions. Dr. Turner also served as Archivist at Lincoln University, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the African American Museum of Philadelphia and Course Director of the Bard Colleges Roberto Clemente Course in the Humanities Program, Rutgers University-Camden, NJ. She has authored three books published by Third World Press that include My Name is Oney Judge (2010), Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought (2011) and Our Grand Pop is a Montford Point Marine (2018), co-authored with her father, Corporal Thomas S. Turner Sr. She is co-author with Suzanne Cloud of Images of America: Philadelphia Jazz published by Arcadia Publishing. Her writings appear in anthologies and books such as: Philadelphia Jazz Project: Jazz Stories Illustrated, and Black Panther: Paradigm Shift or Not? She has served as a consultant on advisory boards and committees such as Bethel Burial Ground Historic Site Memorial Committee, Scribe Video’s Precious Places, Third World Press Foundation, IDEA Center for the Arts, and the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. Dr. Turner is president of the Montford Point Marines Association, Philadelphia Chapter #1 Auxiliary. She is currently working on a book entitled New Music Screaming in the Sun: Interviews with Haki R. Madhubuti.

Serkaddis Alemayehu is the Instructional Design and Technology Specialist at the Blockson Collection. She has an M.A. in African American Studies from Temple University and an M.S. Ed in Secondary Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. Serkaddis’ professional and academic interests remain deeply rooted in providing rigorous, high quality, and engaging education to all learners. In addition to utilizing technology to produce websites, videos, virtual tours and other educational content, Serkaddis preserves and promotes African American history and culture through her work digitally processing the Blockson Collection’s holdings, documenting oral history interviews, and increasing access to these rich materials through exhibitions, social media posts, and public programs.