A Grassroots Approach

What started as a request to create video portraits turned into the comprehensive campaign Leading While Black.

A Case Study by Margot Grisar and Alonso Nichols, Tufts University

In July 2021, Tufts Chief of Photography Alonso Nichols received a phone call from the director of the Africana Center and the chair of the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. The two hoped Alonso—as he is known across campus—would be interested in creating portraits to celebrate the school’s Black leaders. He was. Over the next six months, a university-wide team that comprised members of the Office of the President, communications, advancement, events, archives, and the gallery, pulled together a wildly ambitious campaign. The comprehensive endeavor included the development of an identity, multiple communications, motion portraits, video interviews, a launch event, and an exhibit. By early 2022, Leading While Black at Tufts: 50 Years of Transformational African American Leadership at Tufts University was launched.

July 2021

The Idea

Leading While Black at Tufts will allow the university to reflect on the ways African American university leaders have changed governance, disrupted norms, and made decisions that have helped to transform the university climate and improve the experience of Black students and faculty. These same contributions also served to promote the initiative, excellence, and creativity of the entire university over the past half-century.

The project’s proposal was written by Katrina Moore, Director of the Tufts Africana Center, and Kris Manjapra, Professor of History and Chair of the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora.

The Team Grows

Can you create video portraits and conduct interviews of past and present African American university leaders for the project? What would it cost? And what about a website to house the portraits?

Katrina and Kris reached out to Alonso with their idea. Knowing him from previous engagements, the pair felt certain he would be a perfect fit to guide the endeavor.

July 2021
August 2021

The Buy-in

Is there support for this project?

Moore and Manjapra pitched their idea to the Office of the President and received leadership’s support. A substantial budget was allocated for the project (albeit a fraction of what it would have cost to outsource the work), and key stakeholders were called into action. While projects in higher education tend to be based on priorities from the Office of the President, Leading While Black grew from within.

The Kick-off

The team needed to represent the campus community, but we didn’t want it bogged down and inefficient. This group provided drive, passion, and a balanced voice.

One month later, Moore and Manjapra kicked off the first of many weekly meetings. In attendance: Daniel Santamaria, Director and University Archivist; Michael Rodman, Vice President of Communications and Marketing (UCM); Gerry Wawrzynek, Office of Alumni Engagement; Jean Ayers, Chief Marketing Officer, UCM; Margot Grisar, Senior Design Director; and Dina Deitsch, Director and Chief Curator of Tufts University Art Galleries.

mid-August 2021
September 2021

A Community Approach

Who needs to be in the room with us?

As the project moved forward, additional individuals and groups from across the university joined the meetings, including Marty Ray, Chief of Staff to President Monaco; Dave Nuscher, Content/UCM; MJ Kim, Marketing/UCM; three Special Events team members; Advancement leaders, including Miriam McLean, Director of Development, University Initiatives; and Tufts Technology Services (TTS) team members. Participants determined deliverables and implementers.

Building an Identity

It was a bit like building the plane while it was in mid-air.

It was essential to have a visual identity and guidelines for the project, a tricky task considering the project scope was being clarified in parallel with the development of the identity. Working with found photography, archival images, and one of the portraits taken by Alonso, Senior Design Director Margot Grisar was able to create initial concepts. Because this was a high-level project, there was time to explore multiple options and iterate revisions.

This visual identity became the foundational material for the entire project. And as a decisive leader, Kris was key in moving the work forward.

October 2021
October – November 2021

A One-Person Video Production Team

Every portrait is an interview.

As a one-person video crew, Alonso knew his task was a challenge: eight subjects in eight locations across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic in two months—during a pandemic. To meet the task, Alonso fleshed out a strategy: 1) Shoot outdoors as much as possible. While this led to other issues—level of uniformity, sound, and weather—it proved effective. 2) Make the set-up nimble. This element was critical as he was traveling alone with minimal equipment and acting as the director, cinematographer, and interviewer. 3) Don’t exceed an hour. This limit reduced the risk of subject exhaustion and a need for extensive lighting.

The successful strategy resulted in relaxed subjects sharing their stories through still photography. Alonso’s experience and approach was the perfect vehicle.

The Launch

A precursor of the event to come, the website provided a repository that we could point to when pulling together all of the essential elements.

With the final event one month out, the website launched to act as central communication. The site included the final videos, portraits, and links to the events.

January 2022
February 19, 2022

The Event

Due to the pandemic, the scheduled in-person symposium had to transition to a virtual event with an in-person viewing on the Medford campus. The four-hour event included seven past leaders reflecting on the legacy of Black leadership at Tufts University. The exhibit also opened at Tisch Library with satellite installations at the Medical School and Dental School.

The main exhibition featured the history and contributions of Black leaders across all Tufts schools from 1970 to 2022. Alonso’s video portraits anchored the installation of archival materials and biographies. In a separate location, a special installation on Black students and faculty based on the Gerald Gill Papers was held simultaneously. Read more about the exhibit.

The Project Lives On

“I think the fact of the matter is, Black leadership confronted this university with the question of its limits and what it was not doing. And once the university acknowledged those limits, it began to say, ‘Okay, there’s more.’ I think that is a way [in] which Black leadership has operated nationally and locally within our institution to open up the doors for everyone to have a fuller experience and to have their needs met in the institution.”

The original installation remains in place at the Tisch Library. In addition, a mini Leading While Black exhibit is in place in the Coolidge Room/President’s Office at Ballou Hall, where the board of trustees meets.

On view indefinitely

The Takeaways

We were all kinds of classmates working on a group project.

Unlike transactional projects, this endeavor had a more academic approach. Manjapra elicited everyone’s expertise and set the respectful tone for collaboration via his facilitation. While he kept the trains running, it was apparent that everyone was there to serve the project.

There was also transparency in real time. All participants got insight into other group decisions and progress, providing a window into the bigger picture. Leadership was decisive, drawing on input from their constituents and supplying purposeful feedback with a lack of dithering instead of decision by committee.

This was truly an effective and enjoyable cross section of faculty and staff. Everyone knew the goal, knew their role, and provided an essential element to the big picture. Sparked by a novel idea and grown from the ground up, Leading While Black is an example of what’s possible when a campus comes together out of purpose.

As Senior Design Director, Margot Grisar enjoys collaborating with writers, designers, and photographers to tell the story of Tufts. She is responsible for the visual expression of the Tufts University brand, ensuring brand cohesion across a variety of schools and centers. She leads a team of designers and collaborates with integrated marketing and communications teams to create marketing campaigns across multiple channels. In her spare time, Margot likes to explore New England, go to art museums, and experiment with color in fiber arts.

Alonso Nichols is a photographer and intermedia artist whose work functions as a counter archive to explore the intersections of everyday life and the larger histories of labor, race, and land in the United States. Nichols’ current project, “Gone By The Way of Fat Sam,” is an exploration of his family’s roots in Smoketown: Louisville, Kentucky’s oldest Black neighborhood built by emancipated slaves in the 1860s.

In July 2021, Tufts Chief of Photography Alonso Nichols received a phone call from the director of the Africana Center and the chair of the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. The two hoped Alonso—as he is known across campus—would be interested in creating portraits to celebrate the school’s Black leaders. He was. Over the next six months, a university-wide team that comprised members of the Office of the President, communications, advancement, events, archives, and the gallery, pulled together a wildly ambitious campaign. The comprehensive endeavor included the development of an identity, multiple communications, motion portraits, video interviews, a launch event, and an exhibit. By early 2022, Leading While Black at Tufts: 50 Years of Transformational African American Leadership at Tufts University was launched.

July 2021

The Idea

Leading While Black at Tufts will allow the university to reflect on the ways African American university leaders have changed governance, disrupted norms, and made decisions that have helped to transform the university climate and improve the experience of Black students and faculty. These same contributions also served to promote the initiative, excellence, and creativity of the entire university over the past half-century.

The project’s proposal was written by Katrina Moore, Director of the Tufts Africana Center, and Kris Manjapra, Professor of History and Chair of the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora.

July 2021

The Team Grows

Can you create video portraits and conduct interviews of past and present African American university leaders for the project? What would it cost? And what about a website to house the portraits?

Katrina and Kris reached out to Alonso with their idea. Knowing him from previous engagements, the pair felt certain he would be a perfect fit to guide the endeavor.

August 2021

The Buy-in

Is there support for this project?

Moore and Manjapra pitched their idea to the Office of the President and received leadership’s support. A substantial budget was allocated for the project (albeit a fraction of what it would have cost to outsource the work), and key stakeholders were called into action. While projects in higher education tend to be based on priorities from the Office of the President, Leading While Black grew from within.

mid-August 2021

The Kick-off

The team needed to represent the campus community, but we didn’t want it bogged down and inefficient. This group provided drive, passion, and a balanced voice.

One month later, Moore and Manjapra kicked off the first of many weekly meetings. In attendance: Daniel Santamaria, Director and University Archivist; Michael Rodman, Vice President of Communications and Marketing (UCM); Gerry Wawrzynek, Office of Alumni Engagement; Jean Ayers, Chief Marketing Officer, UCM; Margot Grisar, Senior Design Director; and Dina Deitsch, Director and Chief Curator of Tufts University Art Galleries.

September 2021

A Community Approach

Who needs to be in the room with us?

As the project moved forward, additional individuals and groups from across the university joined the meetings, including Marty Ray, Chief of Staff to President Monaco; Dave Nuscher, Content/UCM; MJ Kim, Marketing/UCM; three Special Events team members; Advancement leaders, including Miriam McLean, Director of Development, University Initiatives; and Tufts Technology Services (TTS) team members. Participants determined deliverables and implementers.

October 2021

Building an Identity

It was a bit like building the plane while it was in mid-air.

It was essential to have a visual identity and guidelines for the project, a tricky task considering the project scope was being clarified in parallel with the development of the identity. Working with found photography, archival images, and one of the portraits taken by Alonso, Senior Design Director Margot Grisar was able to create initial concepts. Because this was a high-level project, there was time to explore multiple options and iterate revisions.

This visual identity became the foundational material for the entire project. And as a decisive leader, Kris was key in moving the work forward.

October – November 2021

A One-Person Video Production Team

Every portrait is an interview.

As a one-person video crew, Alonso knew his task was a challenge: eight subjects in eight locations across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic in two months—during a pandemic. To meet the task, Alonso fleshed out a strategy: 1) Shoot outdoors as much as possible. While this led to other issues—level of uniformity, sound, and weather—it proved effective. 2) Make the set-up nimble. This element was critical as he was traveling alone with minimal equipment and acting as the director, cinematographer, and interviewer. 3) Don’t exceed an hour. This limit reduced the risk of subject exhaustion and a need for extensive lighting.

The successful strategy resulted in relaxed subjects sharing their stories through still photography. Alonso’s experience and approach was the perfect vehicle.

January 2022

The Launch

A precursor of the event to come, the website provided a repository that we could point to when pulling together all of the essential elements.

With the final event one month out, the website launched to act as central communication. The site included the final videos, portraits, and links to the events.

February 19, 2022

The Event

Due to the pandemic, the scheduled in-person symposium had to transition to a virtual event with an in-person viewing on the Medford campus. The four-hour event included seven past leaders reflecting on the legacy of Black leadership at Tufts University. The exhibit also opened at Tisch Library with satellite installations at the Medical School and Dental School.

The main exhibition featured the history and contributions of Black leaders across all Tufts schools from 1970 to 2022. Alonso’s video portraits anchored the installation of archival materials and biographies. In a separate location, a special installation on Black students and faculty based on the Gerald Gill Papers was held simultaneously. Read more about the exhibit.

On view indefinitely

The Project Lives On

“I think the fact of the matter is, Black leadership confronted this university with the question of its limits and what it was not doing. And once the university acknowledged those limits, it began to say, ‘Okay, there’s more.’ I think that is a way [in] which Black leadership has operated nationally and locally within our institution to open up the doors for everyone to have a fuller experience and to have their needs met in the institution.”

The original installation remains in place at the Tisch Library. In addition, a mini Leading While Black exhibit is in place in the Coolidge Room/President’s Office at Ballou Hall, where the board of trustees meets.

The Takeaways

We were all kinds of classmates working on a group project.

Unlike transactional projects, this endeavor had a more academic approach. Manjapra elicited everyone’s expertise and set the respectful tone for collaboration via his facilitation. While he kept the trains running, it was apparent that everyone was there to serve the project.

There was also transparency in real time. All participants got insight into other group decisions and progress, providing a window into the bigger picture. Leadership was decisive, drawing on input from their constituents and supplying purposeful feedback with a lack of dithering instead of decision by committee.

This was truly an effective and enjoyable cross section of faculty and staff. Everyone knew the goal, knew their role, and provided an essential element to the big picture. Sparked by a novel idea and grown from the ground up, Leading While Black is an example of what’s possible when a campus comes together out of purpose.

As Senior Design Director, Margot Grisar enjoys collaborating with writers, designers, and photographers to tell the story of Tufts. She is responsible for the visual expression of the Tufts University brand, ensuring brand cohesion across a variety of schools and centers. She leads a team of designers and collaborates with integrated marketing and communications teams to create marketing campaigns across multiple channels. In her spare time, Margot likes to explore New England, go to art museums, and experiment with color in fiber arts.

Alonso Nichols is a photographer and intermedia artist whose work functions as a counter archive to explore the intersections of everyday life and the larger histories of labor, race, and land in the United States. Nichols’ current project, “Gone By The Way of Fat Sam,” is an exploration of his family’s roots in Smoketown: Louisville, Kentucky’s oldest Black neighborhood built by emancipated slaves in the 1860s.