The Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives (GRAAMA) has introduced its event line up celebrating Black History Month.
The museum is one of West Michigan's only African American museums that is devoted to history and culture. Executive Director, George Bayard, said this February GRAAMA is putting a focus on "family" with virtual events and in-person exhibits everyone can engage in.
Exhibits on display inside the museum include "Keeping It Real," which presents artifacts from real Grand Rapids people and families, "Art of Protest" which chronicles current and past movements towards racial equality and "Black Family Matters," a series of family portraits by artist Lester White.
"We have People who didn’t know we had an African American museum in Grand Rapids, and now that they know, they’ve become regular customers, regular clients and brought their kids in and so we’re very grateful," Bayard said.
The museum will offer information displays about Mayor Lyman Parks, Black inventors and cooking with soul. It also launched its weekly zoom class, Basic Black 101, this month.
GRAAMA has already made strides as the area’s largest ethnic bookstore, by partnering with the organization We Are Lit. However, Bayard says he wants to continue growing, by partnering with multiple museums across the area to further African American History preservation and education. It's a process he calls "green booking."
"We are very interested in talking with other groups and other museums. We’d like some of the history that we’ve documented to be made into pop-up sites, where people can lease them out for a period of time," Bayard said.
For more information on GRAAMA's Black History events, click here.