The Journalism Program is excited to announce that the Boston Thurmond Documentary Project has received two grants – a Large Grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, and a Filmed in NC Grant from the Cucalorus Film Festival.

The almost $20,000 in funds will facilitate the research and production of films and oral histories from Boston-Thurmond, one of Winston-Salem’s oldest historically Black neighborhoods.

This project was established in 2019. Over the past three years, four Wake Forest classes have contributed to the project from the Journalism Program and the Communication and Philosophy departments. 

In spring 2022, Wake students helped create “North on Thurmond,” an hour-long deep dive film into one of the neighborhood’s oldest streets. The students were part of COM 340 Media Production II (taught by Professor Cagney Gentry), the Truth and Authenticity Lab (co-taught by Professor Francisco Gallegos in Philosophy and Ivan Weiss in Journalism), and JOU 335 Multimedia Storytelling (taught by Professor Weiss).

In May, the film was screened at Paisley High School, presented by the Boston-Thurmond Community Engagement Roundtable (BTCER).

The Boston-Thurmond Documentary Project is co-produced by Ivan Weiss (assistant professor of practice in Journalism), David West (parliamentarian at BTCER), and Elise Barrella (Founder & CEO of DfX Consulting LLC).

Over the years, the project has been supported by a variety of organizations, including Boston-Thurmond United, the Boston-Thurmond Community Network, the Office of the Dean at WFU, the Office of Civic and Community Engagement at WFU, the Humanities Institute at WFU, ZSR Library, the Spatial Justice Studio at the Center for Design Innovation, and MUSE Winston-Salem.

Among the outcomes from this project will be an archive of materials about Boston-Thurmond, as well as documentary films and audio stories about various aspects of this historic and important Winston-Salem neighborhood.