The Chronicles of Northside Storybooks
We are excited and proud to present The Chronicles of Northside, a collection of storybooks produced in collaboration with first-grade classes at Northside Elementary School. The books were made as part of our Learning Across Generations curricula. The first-grade project begins with a “Pillars of Community” tour, a walking tour throughout the Northside neighborhoods that invites students to think about and to feel the importance of home, schools, businesses, and churches to making the Northside community strong. After their adventure around historic Northside, students then illustrate an oral history based book, aimed at honoring the lives and memories of our neighbors.
Through this project, we hope to cherish and embolden the stories of our neighbors featured in each book and to share with Northside students the rich history of which they are a crucial part. Books can be purchased through the Jackson Center for $10 each or $35 for the set of four.




Hear one of our first-grade illustrators read Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: The Clementine Self Story aloud.
Beliefs Like Glue
Click here to watch a short video of elementary students sharing their dreams for Northside after they participated in civil rights, local, and oral history workshops by the Jackson Center and incredible neighborhood leaders.
The Chronicles of Northside: A Celebration of Local History and Storytelling
On Saturday, October 22, 2016, we hosted “The Chronicles of Northside: A Celebration of Local History and Storytelling” at the Chapel Hill Public Library. As part of this event, community mentor Clementine Self read her own personal storybook aloud to youth attendees and talked to them about the meaning of civil rights. Following, attendees engaged with our arts & craft station decorate their own storybook pages and illustrate the civil rights efforts and events that happened within Chapel Hill. Example pages are seen below. A dedication of the 2015 storybooks were given to the library as a beautiful close to the event.