“You can bring in those narratives and stories

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That, in a nutshell, is what Kinfolk does through the downloadable app it rolled out in 2021. It currently includes a selection of twenty monuments featuring historical figures such as Gaspar Yanga, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other vital history-makers with whom users can engage from their living rooms, classrooms, parks, and any other venue. Beyond an AR image of each figure, the app offers related biographical information users access on their phones. Kinfolk’s app, available for free download on iOS or Android, is akin to ones you might encounter at a museum to learn more about works in a gallery. Users who want to dig deeper on the life and legacy of, say, Toussaint L’Ouverture can look to Kinfolk’s website, which houses supplemental curricular materials, including primary source documents that round out an understanding of each individual.

around those monuments and make it a learning lesson,” says Ingrid LaFleur, an Afrofuturist who is part of a group of artists, historians, and other culture makers enlisted by Kinfolk to brainstorm phone number list which underrepresented icons and historical movements Kinfolk depicts through its technology.

“This is more engaging and fascinating, and you can walk away feeling like you’ve gained some knowledge so it integrates into your life in a helpful way. We need those positive touchpoints in our public spaces,” LeFleur adds. “What we’ve done with previous monuments is just walk by.”

Moreover, Brewster points out, younger users are already experiencing AR in video games like the popular Niantic/Nintendo offering Pokemon Go, which invited players to interact with real-life environments to collect characters. By leveraging this type of player engagement, Kinfolk is meeting people where they are—on their phones—using tech they are savvy about to inspire them about histories seldom celebrated.

Expanding the reality
Now, the Kinfolk team has started to expand its offerings thanks in part to a $1.8M Mellon grant. It will add one hundred more AR figures and biographies to its cache and has launched a tour, visiting cities to demonstrate its capabilities in partnership with local organizations. In Los Angeles, California, for example, Kinfolk joined with the Los Angeles Music Center and For Freedoms to produce a day-long celebration of communities that are home to Black, Brown, and indigenous residents. In Brooklyn, New York, Kinfolk contributed to a neighborhood walking tour led by Growhouse NYC and the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition.

“There’s everything built on top of the bones of enslaved Africans,” Brewster says. Kinfolk’s involvement meant visitors could then see and learn about the mostly forgotten people who lived in the area. Moreover, they could return to the site and engage with the virtual monuments again and again via the app.