The “Spoken Arts” are core to ancestral and contemporary artistic expression in our African American Community. Extending the inspired model of the StoryCorps Project, Lens Legacy integrates video as well as audio to reveal the insight, passion and personal drama in the art of first person narratives.

A series of programs and workshops will focus on the critical role of the performing and narrative arts by incorporating the oral traditions of the African American culture. All of the performances by artists and students will be documented, processed, distributed and archived. These remarkable and iconic personal “performances” are shared with others through an innovative website that gives interactive comment posting access to students, artists and the general public.