Black Lunch Table/user group report 2024

In December 2018, Black Lunch Table Wikimedians applied for user group status and were officially recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation in January 2019. This user group report chronicles the group's activities throughout 2024—the final year of our WMF Multi-Year Community Fund, Black Lunch Table 2022 and Beyond (2022–2024),—and reflects our work in a world still adapting to the evolving post-pandemic landscape.

PROJECT AND USER GROUP DESCRIPTIONS

Black Lunch Table (BLT) is dedicated to creating spaces for dialogue where artists and community members collaboratively address critical issues and reshape cultural history. Founded in 2005 and recognized as a 501(c)(3) in 2019, BLT champions the democratic rewriting of contemporary narratives.

Through initiatives like edit-a-thons, BLT Photobooths, and BLT Live, we empower new editors with the skills to create, update, and improve Wikipedia content, while urging established editors to address knowledge gaps. With Wikipedia serving as the modern record—a space where time and place converge to document our collective history—our mission is to transform this digital archive by amplifying underrepresented voices, particularly given that 77% of Wikipedia editors are white and 91% are men.

Summary

BLT’s 2024 programming marks our complete return to in-person events since 2020 and the receipt of our current grant. While we continue to refine our hybrid approach following our shift to online engagement, this year has been robust in activity. In 2024, BLT hosted 11 joint programming events, 7 monthly office hours sessions, and worked with 4 regional proxies. Our collaborations with partners—including University of Pennsylvania, Sixty Inches From Center, Ganggang, and ANTENNA underscore our commitment to community engagement. BLT’s Wikimedia initiative continues to evolve with a blend of online and offline programs, adapting to our changing landscape. The programs described below highlight our ongoing mission to create inclusive cultural dialogue and document the work of Black artists on Wikipedia.

PROGRAMS

Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons and Photo Booths:

University of Pennsylvania Edit-a-Thon (March 27, 2024): BLT hosted an edit-a-thon at UPenn's Fisher Fine Arts Library, focusing on enhancing Wikipedia entries of underrepresented visual artists, curators, and art workers of the African Diaspora. The event also featured a pop-up photo studio by Taj DeVore-Bey, offering free portraits for Wikipedia and documenting the occasion.

Santa Monica College Residency (2024-2025): In October, BLT had planned to bring our programming to campus, including a keynote presentation from co-executive directors keondra freemyn and eliza myrie which focused on the organization's history, the importance of expanding contributions to the canon, and the necessity of archiving for artists. Tragically, during the week of our events, there was a shooting on SMC's campus, and all programs and events on campus –including BLTs– were canceled. While we worked to re-imagine what might be possible virtually, we look forward to returning to campus to realize our programs in April 2025.

Ganggang 2024 BUTTER Fine Arts Fair Photobooth (August 31, 2024):Black Lunch Table hosted a photobooth pop-up at the BUTTER Fine Art Fair in Indianapolis, an event curated by Ganggang that highlights Black visual artists. This partnership was a natural fit due to shared goals of inclusivity and representation. The fair, well-regarded in the Midwest, provided access to a wide range of art professionals, and Indiana-based photographer Azia Ellis-Singleton captured nearly 100 portraits of attendees. This collaboration allowed BLT to deeply engage with a key artist community and emphasize the importance of increasing Black artists' representation on Wikipedia.

Antenna's Drawn to the Beat (December 7, 2024): Collaborating with Antenna, BLT participated in this New Orleans arts extravaganza at The Contemporary Arts Center. The event combined live musical performances with interactive art activities, including BLT's photo booth, which provided attendees with professional portraits to enrich Wikimedia Commons.

Other Engagements + Initiatives:

Regional Proxies: Recognizing that improving Black artists' representation on Wikipedia is a global effort, the Black Lunch Table (BLT) Wiki team partners with regional proxies—non-U.S. Wikipedia experts who lead local initiatives. In 2024, BLT collaborated with four regional proxies, providing funding, resources, and support for events that enhance artist representation, often focusing on translating articles into African languages. Language translation is identified as a key area for future growth to further amplify the reach of Black artists' stories.

Candy Khohliwe – Botswana
- On May 3, 2024, Candy led the Palapye BLT Editathon at BIUST, with 28 editors creating 47 new articles and editing 51 articles.
- On October 26, 2024, Candy organized a virtual panel, "How Does Digital Inclusion Look at Wikipedia?", discussing gender representation and digital inclusion challenges.

Tochi Precious – Nigeria
- On May 11, 2024, Tochi launched Black Artists Beyond the Canvas: Highlighting Black Artists on Wikipedia at Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, resulting in 386 new articles and 1,080 edited articles.
- Tochi organized an online launch on May 21, 2024, followed by a 4-week online contest with 56 participants, leading to 4,810 new articles, 10,100 edited articles, and 747 Igbo Wikiquote additions.
Mohammed Kamal-Deen Fuseini and Hamidu Rukaya – Ghana
- Mohammed and Hamidu led "Baŉsim bɛla nuchee ni" on November 7, 2024, a Wikipedia editing workshop that resulted in 182 new articles and 219 edited articles.

BLT Live: The BLT Live Instagram Live series was initiated shortly after the onset of the pandemic as a means of staying connected and showcasing artists on our Wiki task list who are engaged in significant and impactful endeavors. For one hour, an artist live-streams a video from the BLT Instagram account that is then uploaded and viewable from our Vimeo page. The live sessions typically encourage interaction and follow the format preferred by the presenting artist. BLT Live sessions have ranged from conventional artist talks to studio tours to DJ sets. The program was placed on hold to accommodate broader organizational efforts but was restarted towards the end of 2024 and now operates quarterly for 2025.

Crowdsourcing The Canon: To combat the underrepresentation of Black artists on Wikipedia and in media, Black Lunch Table partnered with Sixty Inches from Center to launch CROWDSOURCING THE CANON. This initiative commissions writers, particularly Black writers, to create citable essays about contemporary Black artists based in or connected to the Midwest. By increasing the availability of reliable sources, this project aims to improve and expand Wikipedia articles on these artists. Writers selected for this project were compensated and their work is published on the Sixty Inches from Center website.

CHALLENGES, SUCCESSES, AND LEARNING POINTS

At the core of our work is the belief that archiving and platforms like Wikipedia play a crucial role in reclaiming narratives and strengthening cultural memory. By contributing to existing open-access archives and creating our own, we are actively preserving and bolstering stories that have been omitted. To do this, we must shift and adapt to the changes in front of us, some on a micro-scale and some on a much larger macro scale. We changed much in our organization and some with our programming. Our most significant lesson this year has been that preserving and amplifying cultural memory demands ongoing adaptation—at both organizational and programmatic levels—to effectively respond to evolving conditions and ensure that we meet our mission. A few additional points of understanding and context for the year follow.

One of our longstanding initiatives, BLT Office Hours, has been sunset as a program. Originally designed as an online gathering to edit Wikipedia and engage with the platform, the program lost momentum when digital fatigue set in as lockdowns ended. With everyone eager to step away from Zoom and computer screens, the traditional format no longer resonated. We are now reimagining this space with a more flexible, innovative online model that still fosters community and collaboration. We hope to launch this refreshed version in the second half of 2025.

Organizationally, 2024 also saw challenges and changes. In 2024, all three BLT teams invested significant energy into conceiving, proposing, and implementing a co-directorship model—a decision that required collaboration, strategic planning, and a deep commitment to our mission. This transition coincided with a complete turnover of the Wiki team staff, a change that, while challenging, has paved the way for what we anticipate will be substantial improvements in our programming execution in 2025.

BLT’s mid-2024 digital archive relaunch underscores the power of open-access platforms in preserving and amplifying underrepresented histories. By improving usability and accessibility, we’re advancing the principles of linked open data—ensuring that vital narratives about Black artists are safeguarded and seamlessly connected within a broader cultural and digital ecosystem. Platforms like Wikipedia and Wikidata play a central role in this work, offering publicly editable, widely trusted spaces where these stories can be cited, expanded, and linked across disciplines. Our contributions to these platforms help ensure that Black artists are not just documented, but meaningfully integrated into the cultural record.