Museum post ‘dream job’ for Augusta woman

Storytelling has been at the heart of every job Toni Dean has held, and she’s excited about the newest opportunity to do that, a project made possible through a recent Community Foundation of the CSRA grant.

“It’s for an oral history project — the Golden Blocks Griot Program,” said Dean, the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History’s program manager.

In West African culture, a griot is a storyteller, oral historian, singer and musician, and this project will record the oral histories of about 25 people who’ve lived in Augusta’s Golden Blocks district. In addition to the full interviews that will be on the museum website, snippets will be arranged by topic and included in kiosks for museum visitors to learn more.

The oral histories are new for the Laney museum, but in a way, the work is a continuation of what Dean has been doing for the past several years for other organizations in the community.

Dean grew up in Augusta but left for the nation’s capital and Howard University after graduating from John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School. While attending graduate school at Philadelphia’s Temple University, she got a foretaste of the work she’s doing now.

Working as a guide for the National Parks Service at Independence Hall, Dean shared with people about the space where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were crafted and signed.

Her time there was short, but its impact continues.

“The National Parks Service really taught us how to interpret history. You have to get a theme and work with that theme. People aren’t going to remember everything, so you have to give them something to hold onto,” said Dean who uses the concept to lead Laney museum tours.

After receiving her master’s degree in communications, she jumped headlong into the fast-paced world of broadcast journalism, starting as a production assistant working for “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer”.

Dean said before she got that job, she had thought she wanted to be an on-air personality, but she enjoyed the behind-the-scenes aspect of the news program and discovered skills she didn’t realize she possessed. She later became a production manager coordinating the flow of everyone from reporters in the field (sometimes in other countries) to editors to the camera crew in the studio.

She moved to New York and took a position at “Good Morning, America” in a similar capacity, shifting from breaking news to lighter content. She also found herself on location organizing live segments. From there she went into corporate communications working on specialized print publications for industries such as insurance.

When COVID hit in 2020, Dean was laid off and returned home for what she thought would be a temporary visit, but she found her aging parents needed her.

In the interim of returning and landing the museum job, she worked on projects such as helping the Seventh District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church host its first-ever Zoom conference.

She also began recording oral histories of aging members of the church she grew up in. She interviewed 14 of them; since the interviews took place, seven members have died, but their stories have been preserved. She also worked to keep the congregation connected during the pandemic by recording members as they prayed.

She did a similar oral history project for another church.

Dean said she had to develop new skills to complete those tasks. She’s glad she did them even if there was a learning curve involved.

“Whatever you feel called to do, you must go and do it. You must push past the fear,” she said.

Dean said she’s a big believer in callings, and people finding the path to fulfilling them. Preserving those oral histories was something she felt needed to be done.

 She wondered if she hadn’t done it, who would’ve?

She started working at the Laney museum after talking with its director Corey Rogers, another Davidson alumnus, and she calls it a “dream job”, incorporating many aspects of the jobs she’s held in her life while allowing her to tap into her creativity.

She’s found inspiration in the life of Miss Lucy Laney, who was the type of woman who got things accomplished even if she complained a little along the way. She would roll up her sleeves to do the needed work, Dean said.

Laney was an educator but she was also a lifelong learner, which inspires Dean to continue to learn and to try new things.

She hopes in turn that she can be an inspiration to others.

Dean said she never imagined she’d be doing what she’s doing now. It might not have been part of her original plan for her life. It is part of a bigger picture. She said she’s grateful for it and for the people she’s met through it.

“Coming back to Augusta brought me opportunities that were different, that I may never have had,” she said.  “Life is full of surprises. You have to embrace the new.”

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.