lunsford lynx discusses the early African American presence in San Francisco with Albert Broussard, centering on a 1978 oral history interview between Broussard and Arelious Alberga, an African American gentleman born in San Francisco in 1884.  

lunsford lynx, one of the four inaugural artists-in-residence at SFPL through the San Francisco Arts Commission's Artist-in-Residence program, spent ten weeks immersing herself in the Main Library. She became fascinated by the San Francisco History Center’s collection of oral histories. Her journey led her to stumble upon a remarkable series, the Afro-Americans in San Francisco Prior to World War II: Oral History Project and a 1978 conversation featuring an interview between Broussard and Alberga. As lynx delved into the transcripts and listened to Alberga's captivating stories, a vivid picture of African American people in San Francisco during the 1880s and early 1900s emerged.   

This program is a companion to the exhibit, we were here, an interactive creative investigation, which delves into the African American presence in San Francisco during the late 1800s and early 1900s, with a particular focus on the 1906 earthquake. It is on view on the 3rd Floor of the Main Library and in the African American Center, Dec. 14, 2023 to March 1, 2024. 

tanea lunsford lynx is a writer, abolitionist, and fourth generation Black San Franciscan on both sides. lunsford lynx is a proud alum of Voices of Our Nation (VONA) and the Lambda Literary Retreat. She has been awarded an individual artist grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission as well as residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, The San Francisco Public Library (in collaboration with RADAR), Mesa Refuge, the Rising Voices Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, Ox-Bow, the Erica Landis Scholarship at Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and the Grace Paley Fellowship at Under the Volcano. Her work has been published in Foglifter, the Lambda Literary Anthology, and in Nothing to Lose But Our Chains: Black Voices on Activism, Resistance, and Love. lunsford lynx earned a BA from Columbia University and an MA from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She is currently at work on her first novel. 

Albert Broussard is the author of numerous books, including Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900-1954 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993), American History: The Early Years to 1877 with Donald A. Ritchie (Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 1997), African American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853-1963 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), and The American Vision with Joyce Appleby, Alan Brinkley, James M. McPherson, and Donald A. Ritchie (Glencoe/ McGraw Hill, 2002).  His recent work includes considerations of African American civil rights dialogues in Hawai’i.