Introduction
Everyone has a story to tell. Much of our lives are devoted to telling stories about who we are, who we love, what we ate, where we’ve been, and in the case of this project, what we wore.
Sneaker Stories is a storytelling project about a subject that has been largely unacknowledged both on our campus and within the larger community—sneaker culture. The project is also in support of a new upcoming course offering created by Jemayne Lavar King, PhD, entitled “Sole Food: Digestible Sneaker Culture”. In an interview in 2020, King said “…sneaker culture is an art form—a cultural language—that can be used as a platform to voice or express…issues and concerns”.
The Library’s goal was to build a display and produce an accompanying subject guide that is representative of the voices of the community we serve, and that also inspires curiosity, encourages reading, and stimulates learning. Dr. King’s stories on sneaker culture do just that and more—ENJOY!