"Soul Souvenirs: Durham's Musical Memories from the 1960s and 1970s" was created as the exhibition component of "Bull City Soul Revival," a collaborative humanities project organized to recover Durham's rich heritage of soul, funk and R&B music. Funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council and the Durham Library Foundation, the BCSR project included not just this exhibition, but a lecture series and a performance. I'm a huge fan of soul music and it was immensely rewarding to learn more about the history of the scene here in my own backyard.

I designed the "Soul Souvenirs" exhibit with historians Jason Perlmutter and Josh Davis of Carolina Soul. Robin Vuchnich assisted with the design. The exhibit examined how the sounds and scene were shaped by the culture of record stores and night clubs, local high schools and churches, and even the civil rights and black power movements of the era. In short, we sought to tell the story of Durham's African American community in the 1960s and 1970s.

The exhibit was originally on view at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham from April 19-June 10, 2012. On May 9, the Independent Weekly ran a cover story devoted to the project.

A selection of tunes from many of the artists featured in the exhibit is available to stream via Soundcloud: