November 2, 2018 6pm 500 N. Dearborn Suite 825

Lawrence Jackson—a writer, historian, and Johns Hopkins professor who specializes in recasting the study of modern African-American literature and culture—has a beguiling new project: to build an interactive digital map of the life of Baltimore native, Billie Holliday. Through the use of old-school research methods (i.e., poring over yellowed historic census records, city directories, maps, newspapers, and documents), Jackson and a team of his students are able to uncover previously undiscovered historic and contextual information—to reveal a life. The team then pours that found, analog data into a series of interactive online maps: richly layered with biographical snippets and historic artifacts, and willing to reveal their strata in whatever way a given user guides them to. We are pleased to have Jackson join us to share not only a visual tour of Billie Holliday’s Baltimore, but also a glimpse at the dazzling potential of the digital humanities.