Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Turner.
Hi Jasmine, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, everyone! My name is Jasmine Turner. I am a historian based in Jacksonville, Florida who travels around the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor teaching and supporting historical museums and cultural organizations. On any given day, you can find me anywhere from American Beach to Fort Mose State Park.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My road has been a fascinating intersection of all of my interests, education, gifts, talents, and wanting to make opportunities for other people within my field so the road is smoother for them.
I started as a Teen Docent at the Cummer Museum under the mentorship of the then Education Manager Hope McMath. I learned how Museum staff help the public connect their interests with a Museum’s collections. I had recently moved from the Twin Cities in Minnesota and had visited the Ancient Egyptian art that was on tour. The tour was coming to Jacksonville, so I applied to the program so I could bridge information that I knew about the exhibit to new people.
From there, I continued my interests in journalism and yearbook to meld into two degrees in History and English at the University of North Florida. I presented my undergraduate senior thesis at the Florida Historical Society’s Annual conference.
My topic was about the
history of a Girl Scout camp built for African American Girl Scouts in the 1950s. I had been traveling between Jacksonville and New York City for a program called National Board Leadership Lanes hosted by the National Board of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. The program created a leadership pipeline to becoming a future member of the board. I focused on retaining teen members by showing what they did as leaders on a daily basis. I asked the National Board to look around the auditorium that we were standing in. I asked them to notice that none of the photos in the auditorium showed teenage Girl Scouts even though the best parts of our leadership programs like Camp Counselor training, WAGGGS, visiting World Centers, and earning the Gold Award happen after age 14. This created the seeds for the national ad campaign “What Did You Do Today?” for the GSUSA 100th Anniversary from 2009 to 2012.
After those wonderful experiences, I pursued my interests in Montessori education because I wanted a better understanding of human development and peace education. I also began volunteering as a historical reenactment actress at Fort Mose State Park.
This led to another internship for the National Park Service’s 100th Anniversary in 2016. My park site was the George Washington Memorial Parkway which had Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Virginia. My other park sites were the United States Marine Corp War Memorial (Iwo Jima) and the Netherlands Carillon which is a Holocaust memorial.
My classes and professors at UNF prepared me to become a Park Ranger because of our ability to take classes outside of our majors. Within the History department, I took classes like Environmental Oral History, Early American history which started with Indigenous Southern Americans, and Public History. Outside of the history department, I took Resource Development in Sports Management and business courses. This prepared me for seeing solutions for event management, revenue generation, and nonprofit partnerships in the National Park Service. My English courses taught me how to write Interpretative programs for children and young adults.
In 2017, I was one of the Black Park Rangers who worked at Arlington House under intense political pressure. We had recieved multiple millions of dollars private grants to expand the historical exhibits and programs about Black people enslaved by the Washington, Lee, and Carter families. One of the histories highlighted is the biracial Syphax family descended from Mariah who was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis and older sister of Mary Custis Lee. Understanding the process that takes humans into legends by racist Lost Cause narratives through attending Public History courses helped to explain how American heroes and villains are created.
That summer, the rhetoric came to a head with the violence directed towards activists at Charlottesville who wanted the city to remove Confederate Lost Cause memorials and monuments. There was serious worry that white nationalists would head towards Arlington House. It was difficult also knowing that President Trump and his administration had betrayed us as federal employees by not condemning the violence in Charlottesville. Even though the direct descendants of the Lee family called for peace and that they wanted the history to be told in a way that respected the dignity of enslaved and freedmen people, the administration wanted to continue glorifying the Confederacy. They also wanted to dismantle the National Park Service itself by selling public lands to private corporations, cutting budgets, and refusing to hire more staff members.
I returned to Florida with the hope of continuing to teach Black history in local museums.
Then during COVID-19, NPS was forced to keep National Park sites open while being understaffed which led to destruction of natural and cultural resources.
As the Republican party under the leadership of DeSantis became more bold of their hatred for the teaching of Black history: museums, schools, universities, and libraries recieved more attacks. Local museums like MOSH Jacksonville became scared of teaching about the truth of the resilience and resistance of Black people since Fort Mose to protect multicultural communities.
In 2023, the Association of the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) hosted the National Conference in Jacksonville with the theme of “Black Resistance”. ASALH’s mission is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life history and culture. Black History Month was created by ASALH within that vision.
We are still working together to protect American history to reflect the full scope, span, and depth of all of our stories.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a historian, I draw from my arts and museum education to connect people to the past and to each other. With techniques from Montessori and outdoor education, I especially engage with children to learn about and celebrate their homes.
I am known for my participation in several education, arts, cultural tourism, and historic organizations like the Black and Brown Interpretors Network of North Florida, the National Association of Interpretation, Placemaking Jax, Yellow House, ASALH James Wheldon Johnson branch, Cafe Resistance, Black Fae Day, and the Goth subculture.
I am proud of sharing the beauty of telling honest stories with each other and envisioning each other’s full humanity. I am proud of encouraging people to see themselves as storytellers and creative professionals. I am proud of collaboration.
I am learning how to engage in creative writing and costuming. Through events with Black Fae Day, I get to experiment and have fun with historical African American traditions blended with fantasy like Afrofuturism, fairies, mystical creatures, and stories about magic. Black Fae Day is recognized on the second Saturday every May and was founded by Jasmine La Fleur. It is an opportunity for Black, fantasy enthusiasts and their supporters to enjoy fandom together.
I have also been having fun exploring how humans create stories about monsters to deal with fear. Through Goth events hosted by JoHanna Dee Moresco like Bite Club, Sanctuary, and Resurgence I have met more fans of the Goth subculture in Jacksonville. Events that she hosts like Endless Nights around the country fundraise to stop bullying and care for animals. Endless Nights in New Orleans partnered with AMC for the premiere of the “Interview with A Vampire” series.
Any big plans?
I am looking forward to blending my interests as a historian with my interests as an artist. I have no idea what the next journey steps will be, but I am open minded. I am hoping to publish my writings, host more exhibits, and promote more events especially for young creatives.
In Fall 2026, we are launching the North Florida chapter of the Black and Brown Interpreters Network™ (BBIN)! BBIN is a group of natural and cultural history interpreters and tour guides based in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor dedicated to education, professional development and service in the field of heritage interpretation.
We meet monthly to learn from our fellow Black and Brown Interpreters and tour guides; network, share opportunities for continuing education and scholarships, explore local history and more. Our meetups are open to the community of Black and Brown people who identify as cultural/historical and natural history interpreters, tour guides and tour company owners; and/or Black and Brown people who have completed or plan to complete the National Association for Interpretation’s Certified Interpretive Guide training course.
I look forward to watching the Jacksonville Renaissance grow and seeing that more economic opportunities are taken by Jacksonville creative professionals who understand their worth.
I look forward to more independent art galleries, theaters, museums, and education grown from our people and that reflect all of our stories.
Pricing:
- Please contact me directly for consulting fee information.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beingthevision.com/https://www.beingthevision.com/
- Instagram: BeingTheVision
- Facebook: BeingTheVision
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beingthevision
