SPEAKING

Candacy Taylor is an award-winning author, photographer, and cultural documentarian who’s been a popular keynote speaker for nearly 20 years. She has traveled over 500,000 miles throughout the United States, and in her writing, multimedia interviews, and photography she’s documented American subcultures-- from ethnic hairdressers (American Roots) to diner waitresses (Counter Culture) to female bullfighters (By the Horns).

Field research has proved to be a risky venture. On the road, Taylor has been threatened, chased by dogs, and narrowly avoided physical assault. To stay safe, Taylor traveled with a knife under the car seat, a stun gun in the door pocket, and Mace behind the gear shaft.  But photographing the country also brought her important insights into America that she never would have discovered from her desk at Harvard. She experienced the resonance of bygone eras, and witnessed a new cycle of grit, survival, and hope along America’s backroads and byways. Her talks share the depth and breadth of those moments on the road.

Taylor’s most recent projects are based on her bestselling book, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America. These multimedia presentations inspire inclusive, solution-oriented conversations about race, gender, labor, and power in America. She is the content specialist and curator for The Negro Motorist Green Book, a 3500-square-foot exhibition that is being toured by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). This exhibition is being toured to 13 museums across the country from 2020 to 2025. https://negromotoristgreenbook.si.edu

SPEAKING THEMES

BLACK ENTREPRENEURSHIP

There were over 10,000 businesses listed in the Green Book and most of them were Black-owned. This talk features Black-owned businesses and financial institutions, emphasizing the importance of Black entrepreneurship, and highlights the vibrant Black neighborhoods these Green Book businesses thrived in before integration.

HISTORIC AND ARCHITECTURAL PRESERVATION

Taylor scouted over 6,000 Green Book sites and found that approximately 80% of the buildings are gone. This talk features Green Book sites that are vulnerable to extinction and those that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and by the National Trust. It focuses on what has been and still could be done to restore honor to these sites.

WOMEN & THE GREEN BOOK

During the time when women couldn’t receive credit or even open a bank account, thousands of Black women ran Green Book sites. There were over 900 hair salons and nearly 1400 tourist homes run by widowed women who rented out an extra bedroom and cooked a warm meal for travelers. These were possibly the first Airbnb’s. This talk celebrates the most inspiring female Green Book proprietors, including Leah Chase of Dooky Chase’s restaurant in New Orleans and Alma Green, Victor Green’s wife, who edited and eventually published the Green Book, while managing its nearly all-female staff.

TRAVELING WHILE BLACK & INTERNATIONAL GREEN BOOK SITES

This talk highlights diversity travel, while examining the historical and current challenges of traveling while Black. Taylor’s documentation of sundown towns and the perils of driving while Black are included, but it also celebrates the positive aspects of travel. International Green Book sites in Mexico, throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa will also be featured.

THE ROOTS OF ROUTE 66 

When Taylor was commissioned to write a Moon travel guide for Route 66, she learned that half of the 89 counties along this renowned American highway were sundown towns. This talk examines the gulf between our nostalgic reimagining of the postwar “happy days” and the fabled highway’s idealized past that never was. 

UPCOMING ENGAGEMENTS

ExxonMobil Headquarters - August 29, 2023 (not open to the public)

PAST ENGAGEMENTS (SELECTED)

HEINZ HISTORY CENTER: Pittsburgh, PA Overground Railroad

TULSA, OK-ROUTE 66 ROADFEST: SageNet Center at Expo Square,

THE AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER CONFERENCE – Santa Fe, NM. American
Roots

AMERICA’S BLACK HOLOCAUST MUSEUM - Milwaukee, WI. Overground Railroad

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES - Baltimore, MD. Overground Railroad

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY ON AGING CONFERENCE -Philadelphia, PA. & Anaheim, CA. Career Waitresses: Models of Healthy Aging

THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE–San Francisco, CA. Counter
Culture

THE AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE–Oakland, CA. Counter
Culture

ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUMS - Jackson, MI. Overground Railroad

THE AUTRY MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN WEST - Los Angeles, CA. Route 66, Women & The Green Book

THE AUTOMOTIVE HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY & KEYNOTE Detroit, MI. Overground Railroad

THE BAY AREA BOOK FESTIVAL-Berkeley, CA. The Roots of Route 66

BROWN UNIVERSITY–Providence, RI. Documenting Subcultures

THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS–San Francisco, CA. Counter Culture

THE CALIFORNIA MUSEUM - Sacramento, CA. Overground Railroad

EITELJORG MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN - Indianapolis, IN. Black Travel in the West,

EXXONMOBIL HEADQUARTERS - Houston, TX. Overground Railroad

HARVARD UNIVERSITY - In conversation with Deborah Willis Cambridge, MA. Photographing Overground Railroad

HISTORY COLORADO - Denver, CO. Overground Railroad

THE INSTITUTE ON AGING - San Francisco, CA. Overground Railroad

JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL - San Francisco Bay Area, CA. Overground Railroad

THE JIMMY CARTER MUSEUM - Atlanta, GA. Overground Railroad

THE KNIGHT FOUNDATION & THE MIAMI BOOK FAIR - Miami, FL. Overground Railroad

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BOTKIN LECTURE - Washington, DC. American Roots

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - Washington, DC. Women Documenting the World

MOSAIC TEMPLARS MUSEUM - Little Rock, AR. Overground Railroad

THE NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM - Atlanta, GA. Overground Railroad

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HISTORY EDUCATION - Washington, DC. Overground Railroad

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - Washington, DC. Mapping Black Mobility in America

NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION - Washington, DC. Overground Railroad

THE NATIONAL TRUST - PastForward Conference Washington DC. Overground Railroad

THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE–Atlanta, GA. Counter Culture

NEON SPEAKS - San Francisco, CA. Neon Signage in Overground Railroad

THE NEW SCHOOL - New York, NY. Taylor Made Culture

NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL INSURANCE HEADQUARTERS- Milwaukee, WI. Route 66 and the Green Book

THE PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM - Los Angeles, CA. Route 66 and the Green Book

THE RAMAZ SCHOOL - New York, NY. Overground Railroad (YA)

ROUTE 66 ROAD FEST - Tulsa, OK. & Oklahoma City, OK. Overground Railroad

SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE - Bronxville, NY. Taylor Made Culture

THE SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR BLACK RESEARCH, in conversation with Kevin Young - New York, NY. Overground Railroad Book Launch  

SPELMAN COLLEGE - Atlanta, GA. Women & the Green Book.

THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE - Oxford, MI. Counter Culture.

THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL - Washington, DC. Overground Railroad presentation at the United States Capitol before members of Congress.

WOMEN’S LITERARY FESTIVAL –Santa Barbara, CA. Counter Culture