New York Heritage and Women of the African Diaspora

Edit-a-thon: New York Heritage and Women of the African Diaspora, 12/6/18 from 4:30pm to 7:30pm, LL 601 and 606

Wikipedia for Educators at Fordham in partnership with AFROCrowd , Department of Records’ WomensActivism.NYC digital storytelling platform, and Wikimedia NYC hosted this Edit-a-thon at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus.

The edit-a-thon included tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian, editing support, reference materials, and refreshments. This event was free and open to the public. People of all gender identities and expressions were invited to participate.

Read about the event on the Fordham IT News Blog.


Wikipedia for Educators at Fordham supports and promotes the use of Wikipedia in the classroom, organizes edit-a-thons on campus and promotes Wikipedia events in the community. This is an open group made of faculty, staff, and students. Founded in 1841, Fordham University, the Jesuit University of New York, is committed to the discovery of Wisdom and the transmission of Learning, through research and through undergraduate, graduate and professional education of the highest quality.

Department of Records’ WomensActivism.NYC WomensActivism.NYC is a five-year celebration of women’s activism and the Women’s Suffrage Centennial. The New York City Department of Records and Information Services created WomensActivism.NYC to honor the anniversary of women winning the right to vote in New York State in 1917 and in the United States in 1920. Our goal is to create a permanent New York City archive of women who have made a difference through their activism and in turn inspire activism today. The women in the archive may be famous or unknown. They may have lived in the past or may still be working today. The only requirements are: they must be women and they must be activists. We’re collecting 20,000 stories by the 100th anniversary in 2020. Share a story.

AfroCROWD i.e. Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia (AfroCROWD) is an outreach initiative which seeks to increase awareness of the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture and software movements among potential editors of African descent. Since its launch during Black Wiki History Month in 2015, AfroCROWD has sensitized thousands in its target audience about free culture crowdsourcing and the need to close the multicultural and gender gaps in Wikipedia. AfroCROWD has also held monthly multilingual editathons in partnership with cultural institutions, galleries, libraries, archives, museums (GLAM) and many others. AfroCROWD has also worked with professors at educational institutions like New York University, The New School, Icahn Medical School and Columbia University among others. AfroCROWD also organizes events to train future trainers in its target community.

Wikimedia NYC is the regional Wikimedia chapter serving the New York metropolitan area. They help promote free access to the world’s knowledge in support of Wikipedia and the other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia NYC is a separate organization from the Wikimedia Foundation and has no editorial control over Wikipedia or any other project hosted by the Foundation.