Interview with Danielle Hairston-Green, August 12, 2025, part 1

Moving image

Danielle Hairston-Green, interviewed by Curtis O'Dwyer, describes her life experiences as a Black woman who moved from Texas to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2018 and how her upbringing in North Philadelphia, PA remains central to her identity and perspective. Daniellie describes being quickly integrated into the Black community after relocating to Madison. She explains that she considers herself a Madisonian because she is actively engaged in the Black community as a participant or event host and is warmly accepted. Danielle describes that she holds a positive view of Madison based on the meaningful experiences she's had by intentionally surrounding herself with Black people and friends, and that she also does not believe Madison is a good place to be Black due to severe disparities in health, education, and housing that disproportionately affect Black residents. Danielle talks about The Center for Black Excellence and Culture and her hopes that it will be impactful by addressing these barriers, especially through supporting Black youth in the arts, STEM, and Black history. This interview was conducted for the Building a Black Center: Geographies of Resistance and Liberation in a Capital City Oral History Project, by the SoulFolk Collective, housed in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Eleven doctoral, masters, and undergraduate students within the SoulFolk Collective, led by African American Studies Professor and lab creator Jessica Lee Stovall, Ph.D., conducted oral history interviews to learn how Black residents use space, understand and witness Black excellence and culture in Madison, and their thoughts, hopes and concerns in relation to the development of The Center for Black Excellence and Culture in Madison, Wisconsin.

SoulFolk Collective, housed in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, works to gather and preserve Black history in Wisconsin through their ongoing oral history project and their development of The Black Madison Archive. https://www.soulfolkcollective.com/