Alyssa Brady Featured In UNC Charlotte Magazine
“Charlotte is infamous for tearing down its past. Our vociferous ‘New South’ city, eagerly focused on the future, has few buildings from yesteryear, and those that remain have often had their histories muted.
But Alyssa Brady is convinced that as the city moves forward, we must bring our stories with us – the easy stories and the hard ones.”
The new @UNCCharlotte magazine is out! We’re so excited to see recent grad Alyssa Brady ’22 featured in one of its spotlight stories! Read on to learn about Brady’s work at Charlotte’s Historic Rosedale, and check out the magazine for the full article!
This summer, Brady earned an MS in Architecture concentrating in Critical Heritage Studies. After receiving her BA in Architecture from UNC Charlotte in 2022, she began an internship at @historicrosedalefoundation, a former plantation that sits peacefully among the commercial confusion of North Tryon Street.
While not a cash crop plantation, Rosedale did have more than 40 enslaved African Americans before the Civil War as well as free Black tenants and workers in the decades after.
Her internship involved developing a vibrant network of relationships with descendants of Rosedale’s forbears for the African American Legacy project, which aims to accurately and compassionately present the history of enslaved and free African Americans at Rosedale.
Bringing those voices forward is also key to the Critical Heritage Studies program, which asks the question, “Who gets to tell the stories?” of a particular place, said Brady. The interdisciplinary degree – the only one of its kind in North Carolina – “has been an eye-opener,” she said, as she has plunged herself into the disciplines of public and digital history.
Brady’s primary task was converting handmade family trees into a comprehensive web-based version. Her work also involved extensive research, using various resources to uncover new information about Rosedale’s descendants. Despite her internship ending in December, Brady continued into the spring, driven by her passion for the project.
“We’re discovering people every day,” she said. “When it comes to research, the work is never done. There’s always more to learn.”