AXIS
Mapping Our Culture
2008-06-25
When we started working on AXIS, our interactive landmarks map, we wanted to develop a tool that would attempt to map the Black cultural landscape.
The reason was simple. With the popularity of mapping tools like MapQuest and others, you can find any address you want – but nothing tells you the story behind those addresses. That’s especially true for Black America, where much of our cultural history has yet to be documented, much less show up on a Google map.
Once we started loading in locations, we found out how true that was. It’s easy enough to find monuments, parks, churches and designated historical landmarks. But what of the other less well known places that are key to both our history and the shaping of our contemporary culture? Where the families gather, where the cars are tricked out, where the music is created, where the activists get fired up, where the poets find passion.
Place is important to the Black experience in America and around the globe. Buildings have histories, neighborhoods have jokes, street corners have tales to tell.
So we decided that AXIS should be your map to build. We’ve started the ball rolling with a handful of interesting places in most states, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface.
Now it’s your turn. We want you to tell us of the places that only people close to your community would know, the places that won’t show up on a tourist brochure. Tell us a good enough story, and you’ll eventually be able to find it on AXIS.
For now, jump in and explore, then add a place or two and come back often to see what others have added. Soon enough, we’ll all have a lot more places to visit when we travel.
- Eric Easter
