Items · Auburn Avenue Research Library Digital Exhibits

W. Floy Farr by Martin Pate

Joel H. Cowan by Martin Pate

J.K. "Chip" Conner and Joel H. Cowan, 2019

Chip Conner and Joel Cowan, 2019

Uncut Negatives

These uncut negatives preserve the Utopian Literary Club in the act of continuing. Long after its founding decades, the club still gathered women around books, programs, memory, and mutual regard. The repeated frames suggest something quietly powerful: a group making sure its presence was recorded, not as a relic of an earlier era, but as a living tradition still worthy of the camera.

60th Anniversary

At the Utopian Literary Club’s 60th anniversary, members dressed in tribute to the decades their organization had lived through. The choice was more than festive; it turned fashion into a timeline of Black women’s endurance, taste, memory, and imagination. By honoring the club’s past through clothing, these women celebrated not only how long Utopian had lasted, but how beautifully it had carried its history forward.