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Toni Costonie has worked in the field of African
American history for over 25 years.
She is the former exhibit curator and archivist at DuSable Museum of
African-American History and Art in Chicago; curator and director of Graystone International
Jazz Museum;
and consulting curator for Motown Museum in Detroit,
Michigan. In 1990, Costonie served as field
researcher for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. She has also worked on projects for the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the National Archives of
American Art, and the New Orleans Museum of African-American History.
In
the 1980s and 90s she worked as a freelance interior designer, creating
unique theme stores, including a Jazz McDonald’s and a Sports McDonalds in
downtown Chicago. She was the biographer, exhibit developer and curator for
the traveling exhibit about Dr. Marjorie Stewart Joyner, who was known as the
Grand Dame of Black Beauty Culture.
She “discovered” and created the first museum exhibition of the images
of renowned photographer Ernest C. Withers of Memphis.
She continued to provide assistance to the Withers Collection for more
than 20 years. She also worked as an archivist for entrepreneur / Affirmative
Action maverick Paul King. For two
years she created and curated exhibitions at the Vivian Harsh Collection at
Carter G. Woodson Library and other Chicago Public Libraries. Costonie has
also worked as an archivist and curator for other private collections.
In
the early 1980’s, she was a regular contributing editor to Shop Talk
Magazine, a beauty trade publication owned by Soft Sheen, a black hair care
company. She then went to work, as a
writer and associate editor, for Jam Sessions newspaper. There she published
historical interviews with such legends as Stokely Carmichael (a.k.a. Kwame
Ture), Third World reggae group,
photographer Ernest Withers and more. She has also written articles for the
Quarterly Review of Black Books, Chicago Renaissance and other
publications. In 2005 she released her
first book: Priestess Miriam and the Voodoo Spiritual Temple. In 2006 she finished a documentary film
about Priestess Miriam and the history of the Voodoo religion in New Orleans. In 2007 she worked as a researcher for the
Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Research Commission. Costonie is also an artist, herbalist and a
master gardener.
She
is the daughter of, the late, renowned Faith Healer and civil rights leader
Prophet Kiowa Costonie. From the 1920s
to the 1940s he led “Don’t Shop Where You Can’t Work” campaigns in Washington, D. C. and Baltimore, Maryland. He has been called an Economic Nationalist.
Toni grew up assisting him and working in his Faith Temple Religious Goods
Store, on 47th Street,
on the Southside of Chicago. She also helped with his evangelical mission,
traveling with him as he preached and did healings all over the United States. |
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Stanley Young
is the Assistant Dean of Information Technology at Kennedy-King
College, one of the City Colleges of
Chicago. He is also a certified public
accountant. In the early 1990s, Stan
served as financial director of an office furniture company. In the 1980s he
served as an accounting and administrative consultant to a variety of hospitals
and organizations across the country.
He has degrees in accounting and computer science. Stan is a history buff and book collector;
he has done extensive independent study of the transatlantic slave trade and
other subjects.
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Zada Johnson is an anthropologist, a professor
at Northeastern Illinois University,
and a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Zada
has done extensive field research on ritual performance and historical
consciousness in Cuba
and New Orleans. She previously published a book of
poems called Mississippi Revolutions . |
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Photographer Onikwa
Bill Wallace
- for more than 40 years “Onikwa”
recorded history with his camera. He photographed the Civil Rights Movement,
many legends of jazz and blues, travel and fashion, and a whole host
of famous personalities and celebrities. We are sad to report that, our dear friend, Bill made his transition in October soon after retiring from his
long career a as photojournalist, television & film producer, and
cameraman. Please click here to read his full bio...
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