Voices of Belonging is an interactive audio exhibit that aims to deepen our communiversity understanding of belonging and othering by exploring lived personal experiences of campus and community members, as well as the insights of local and national belonging thought leaders.

NIU’s WNIJ NPR Station and the Divisions of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development and Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion collaborated with various campus and community partners to develop the exhibit that features 11 local residents and students sharing their stories in their own voice.

The unrehearsed extemporaneous interviews conducted by WNIJ journalists are honest and captivating.  The exhibit also includes interviews with a local and national expert that help to define belonging. This includes a rare recording of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to Ohio high school students about belonging and recordings with Reverend Angela Baron-Jeffrey who moderated our community conversation with dr. james powell, and continues to be a key contributor to our local belonging work.  The exhibit also provides for reflection questions to encourage personal contemplation at both the individual and community level.

The installation will premiere at the NIU Founders Memorial Library on March 31, 2022 through April 14, 2022. The exhibit will be located on the main level of the library.  Voices of Belonging is a traveling exhibit. Follwing the NIU Founders Library installation, it will move to the DeKalb Public Library followed by Kishwaukee College, with the intention for the exhibit to travel to various campus and community locations including schools, houses of faith, public buildings, and other locations to create awareness, provoke thought, personal reflection, and further a culture of belonging in the DeKalb area community and on the NIU Campus.   

Special thanks to each of the interview participants, NIU's Marketing and Creative Services team, NIU Founders Memorial Library, the Friends of the NIU Library, AAC&U's Truth and Racial Healing Tranformaiton Campus Center at NIU, the NIU School of Art and Design Photography Program faculty and students, Target, Mortenson, the City of DeKalb, Family Service Agency, the DeKalb Public Library, and the DeKalb Area Belonging Council.