Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. Maya Angelou Black Voices This site is produced by the co-editors of Microsoft® Encarta® Africana, including Professors Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah. Its purpose is to promote understanding of black history and culture and to promote the educational use of Microsoft® Encarta® Africana in homes, schools, universities, and corporations. Coverage includes African American lifestyle, heritage, worldview and art. Voices from the Days of Slavery "Listen to former slaves describe their lives. These interviews, conducted between 1932 and 1975, capture the recollections of twenty-three identifiable people born between 1823 and the early 1860s and known to have been former slaves. Several of the people interviewed were centenarians, the oldest being 130 at the time of the interview. The almost seven hours of recordings were made in nine Southern states and provide an important glimpse of what life was like for slaves and freedmen." From the Library of Congres, American Memory collections. The Penn Center Tucked in the heart of the South Carolina Sea Islands between glimmering marshes and deep water, nestled beneath the silvery moss draped limbs of massive live oaks, you will find the Penn Center - the site of one of the country's first schools for freed slaves and one of the most significant African American historical and cultural institutions in existence today. Crossroards Theatre Crossroads was the recipient of the 1999 Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre, the first African American theatre in the nation to be so honored. In addition Crossroads Theatre Company has received the National Governors? Association Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts and the Theatre has also been designated a Major Impact Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State. African  American & African Ancestored Genealogy AfriGeneas is a site devoted to African American genealogy, to researching African Ancestry in the Americas in particular and to genealogical research and resources in general. African American Resources A to Z African American Resources When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.... Audre Lorde