![Crystal and Ernest, with son, Elijah "See the broader community, be your bother's keeper, and be a steward of this land, and this earth [and] instill the importance of family in your family." - Crystal](https://i0.wp.com/nolalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/5.jpg?fit=790%2C769&ssl=1){kind=link}
April 15, 2026
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When you walk into the grocery store and buy a banana, you might not think about Tulane University, Lil Wayne, Honduran immigrants, or New Orleans’ cruise terminal. But you should.
Black Family Portraits & Stories from the REACH Center
Kim Coleman
Kim Coleman is the REACH Center & AARC Librarian at the New Orleans Public Library
I began capturing family pictures and stories over a decade ago, rooted in a deeply personal realization. After my mother passed, I found myself searching for photographs that captured the fullness of her life, only to realize how few I had. The absence revealed something larger: how easily our histories, our everyday moments, and our people can slip away without intentional preservation.
Through the REACH Center’s Family Pictures and Stories series, my colleague, Tiara Clover, and I set out to create space for that preservation, and Black History Month provided the perfect opportunity. Our work was grounded in a simple but powerful idea — that our loved ones are whole people whose lives extend far beyond the roles they play within our individual experiences. By taking photographs and collecting stories, we are not just documenting memories, we are honoring the complexity, dignity, and humanity of our communities.
This year, the REACH Center’s programming philosophy centers on community. Family, as we understand it, is not limited to bloodlines. It can be found, chosen, and cultivated. What matters most is the connection. The intentional act of seeing, knowing, and valuing one another.
With this program, Tiara and I wanted to create opportunities for our community members to engage with each other in meaningful ways. The photographs, while important, are secondary to the relationships formed and the stories shared.
We are interested in what happens when people sit together, reflect, and speak about their lives, not just as relatives, but as individuals with rich, layered experiences. In these moments, we witness the expansion of how people see one another and themselves.
There is also a broader urgency to this work.
As Black Americans, we must be intentional about archiving our stories and inserting them into the fabric of our society. Too often, our histories are fragmented, misrepresented, or omitted altogether.
By documenting our families, their joys, struggles, traditions, and everyday lives, we actively resist erasure. We claim space within the historical record and ensure future generations inherit a fuller, more truthful account of who we are.
Family Pictures and Stories is not just about looking back. It is also about building forward. It is strengthening the fabric of our community by grounding it in shared memory and collective care. In doing so, we move closer to sustaining the kind of village that holds us, remembers us, and carries our stories long after we are gone.
Joi Warner with her children Jair and Tatum and parents, Ernest and Janet Favorite
"Joy and Freedom. That's Black families. We need a lot of that." -Papa Ernest
Shani and Joe with daughter, Baldwin
"You are History." - Baldwin
Alvarez and Justina with their children
"Love is strength. Love beats out hate, beats out loneliness, beats out all the detrimental things in the world." - Alvarez
Ijala NIxon and her mother, LeSean Daniels
"You need to channel your grandmother's energy baby, that energy is strong." - LaShonda
Crystal and Ernest, with son, Elijah
"See the broader community, be your bother's keeper, and be a steward of this land, and this earth [and] instill the importance of family in your family." - Crystal
The Clovers, spouses
"You get to decide how you need love. Everyday is an opportunities to choose how to love." - The Clovers
The REACH Center plans to continue and expand this work through ongoing iterations of the program at various community events. To stay informed about upcoming sessions, sign up for our REACH Center email newsletter for updates.
The REACH Center is an initiative from the New Orleans Public Library, featuring a free coworking space, and public art gallery, with a focus on access and opportunity. The Center is located at 2022 St. Bernard Avenue, in Building C of the Corpus Christi-Epiphany Community Resource Center in the 7th Ward. The REACH Team also manages the African American Resource Collection (AARC), which is housed at the Main Library in the CBD. The AARC is a collection of reference and circulating non-fiction materials related to digital, financial, and health literacy and Black culture.
April 14, 2026
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During Black History Month, REACH Center librarian Kim Coleman and associate Tiara Clover collected family portraits and stories.
April 10, 2026
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