SIERRA VISTA — It’s more than an exhibit hanging on a wall.
Cochise County residents most likely have never seen anything like the Black History 101 Mobile Museum headed to both Cochise College campuses in February to celebrate Black History Month.
The traveling museum is like looking into a window of history.
Sometimes the look back is mesmerizing, and sometimes it’s painful to look at images we’d like to forget existed.
But visitors who experience Dr. Khalid el-Hakim’s Black History 101 Mobile Museum, an award-winning collection of more than 10,000 original artifacts of Black memorabilia dating from the transatlantic slave trade era to hip-hop culture, will not easily forget the nation’s premiere Black history traveling exhibit.
Especially el-Hakim’s “Hip Hop at 50” on exhibit from his mobile museum that can be seen free from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, at the Douglas campus in room 502 of the Student Union, and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at the Sierra Vista campus in Room 909 of the library.
It’s a stunning, one-of-a-kind display that has traveled to 41 states, visiting more than 1,000 institutions. It has reached thousands of visitors at colleges, K-12 schools, corporations, conferences, libraries, museums, festivals, religious institutions and cultural events.
Thanks to Cochise College’s Virginia Thompson and Jessamyn Snider, the pair who have helped coordinate cultural events for the college were instrumental in arranging el-Hakim to bring his mobile exhibit to the college next month.
El-Hakim, who taught middle school social studies in Detroit for 15 years, also founded the Michigan Hip Hop Archive. He holds a Ph.D. from the College of Education at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.
“We’re lucky to be able to bring this very unique exhibit to the community,” said Snider, who has taught Spanish at the college for 12 years and holds a Master of Arts in teaching from Northern Arizona University and a Masters in Political Science: Borders Studies from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
“It’s a museum that comes to you, a non-traditional museum experience that invites students to engage with history in a hands-on environment, and it’s booked year-round. Dr. el-Hakim is an experienced educator and lecturer, a nationally-recognized figure in the Black movement who successfully engages students and the community of all age levels from kindergarten through college.”
Last year, Thompson, the department chair of arts and humanities and the school’s ceramics/sculpture instructor, helped the liberal arts department bring musical groups and host a meal during Cinco de Mayo, explained the history and significance of the festival.
“There’s an annual budget in the liberal arts department for bringing diverse, cultural events to both campuses,” she said. “We look for a variety of performing and visual arts that can increase community awareness and interest. This is a chance for Cochise College to share the culture and history during Black History Month with the community.
“It’s a wide-ranging mixture of artifacts, pictures, documents and writings that people who come to this will get a lot out of. There’s writings from Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent Black leaders. It’s a great opportunity for our community to see these rare documents.”
El-Hakim spent 30 years traveling the country, combing through antique shops, flea markets, estate sales and auctions, eventually acquiring an archive of memorabilia among the most sought-after exhibits of its kind in the country.
He has received national and international attention for his innovative work of exhibiting Black history outside of traditional museum spaces. Most recently He was named among the Change Makers for NBC Universal’s Erase the Hate campaign and was one of the 100 Men of Distinction for Black Enterprise magazine.
“The beauty of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum is that it is a mobile exhibit that comes to our rural community along with an accomplished speaker who will guide students and the community through the experience,” said Snider. “(Dr. el-Hakim) brings the museum and sets it up for our local event; he then takes the museum with him to his next event.
“There’s been such a strong interest from the community when it was announced that this was coming here. It’s really a must-see.”