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Today on the pod, we have a conversation with one of the biggest contributors to African American Preservation alive today... 

Brent Leggs! If you’re in historic preservation – or a similar field– you probably heard of Brent. But for those of you who haven’t — Brent is a Senior Vice President at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And while Brent has done many amazing things to preserve African American heritage, as the Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, he’s raised over 80 MILLION DOLLARS for Black heritage organizations.

We talked to Brent about:

• Brent’s education at University of Kentucky [6:35]

• Brent’s childhood in Paducah, Kentucky [9:52]

• Preserving the intangible as well as the tangible [16:34]

• Preservation-Based Economic Development and who’s doing it well [33:44]

• The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund: deciding who to fund? [59:18]

• Training future preservationists [1:09:14]

• Brent’s ideal Urban Roots episode [1:10:46]

Mentioned In this Episode: 

• Lejuano Varnell, Sweet Auburn Works - Atlanta, Georgia

• 8th of August - Paducah, Kentucky

• Bryan Stevenson, Equal Justice Initiative - Montgomery, Alabama

• Jair Lynch and Howard University, U Street development - Washington, D.C. 

• Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, and Phylicia Rashad, Actor and director - Co-Chairs of Advisory Council for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

• Civil Rights Trail - Alabama

• Dr. David Childs, Director of Black Studies at Northern Kentucky University  

• Palmer Pharmacy - Lexington, Kentucky 

• Eldorado ballroom - Houston, Texas 

• Faith Ringold - Englewood, New Jersey

• James Weldon Johnson (and Sheryl Lee Ralph)

• Lucille Clifton - Baltimore, Maryland

Credits: 

Thank you to Brent Leggs. This episode was edited and mixed by Connor Lynch. Our music is by Adaam James Levin-Areddy. Your hosts are Deqah Hussein-Wetzel and Vanessa Quirk. 

Urban Roots is a product of Urbanist Media, a non-profit dedicated to community preservation. You can make a tax-deductible donation to us via Venmo or Paypal. 
Follow us on IG @urbanrootsculture. Drop us an email urbanrootspodcast@gmail.com