94. Jazz Dottin Guides Viewers Through Massachusetts’s Buried Black History Museum Archipelago

The deliberate exclusion of Black history and the history of slavery in the American South has been slow to reverse. But Jazz Dottin, creator and host of the Black Gems Unearthed YouTube channel says it can be just as slow in New England. Each video features Dottin somewhere in her home state of Massachusetts, often in front of a plaque or historical marker, presenting what’s missing, excluded, or downplayed.


The history discussed on Black Gems Unearthed has been left out by conventional museums, which are among the most trustworthy institutions in modern American life, according to the American Alliance of Museums. This trust may have more to do with power than truth-telling — and today, there are many different ways to build trust with an audience online. Shows like Dottin’s might point to where our new relationship with the authoritative voice is heading.


In this episode, Dottin describes how working as tour guide and creating travel itineraries influences her work today, how she came up with the idea for Black Gems Unearthed, and what the future holds.


Image: Jazz Dottin in front of Emancipation in Boston, Mass.


Topics and Notes


00:00 Intro
00:15 “Always Read The Plaque”
00:45 Jazz Dottin
01:00 Black Gems Unearthed
01:20 Hopkinton, Massachusetts
02:00 Exploring Black lives in MetroWest, MA in the 1700s - Black Gems Unearthed
02:26 Museum Archipelago 42. Freddi Williams Evans and Luther Gray Are Erecting Historic Markers on the Slave Trade in New Orleans
02:55 The Legacy of Slavery in New England
03:50 Working as a Tour Guide
05:35 The Idea for Black Gems Unearthed
08:21 Museums and Trustworthiness
09:36 Where The Name Comes From
10:10 Outro | Join Club Archipelago 🏖
11:39 What’s It Like Giving A Tour on A Segway?


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Transcript
Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 94. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, refer to the links above.




View Transcript



Welcome to Museum Archipelago. I'm Ian Elsner. Museum Archipelago guides you through the rocky landscape of museums. Each episode is never longer than 15 minutes, so let's get started.


There’s a saying among history nerds: always read the plaque.



Roman Mars: “Always read the plaque.”



But of course, the plaques don’t tell the whole story. Maybe a better mantra would be “start by reading the plaque.”



Jazz Dottin: If I see plaques, I have to stop and read them. But with Black history, you know, there's not as many plaques, if any at all that are describing events and people and things that have happened in different areas across the country.



This is Jazz Dottin, creator and host of a new YouTube channel called Black Gems Unearthed.



Jazz Dottin: Hello, my name is Jazz Dottin and I am the host of Black Gems Unearthed, which is a YouTube series where I talk about Black history around the state of Massachusetts.


So I am an experienced tour guide. I develop travel programs and itineraries, and now I'm working in the academic world at a university