Activist Women's Voices: Oral History Project
Linking Communities and the University

  Joan Maynard was born and raised in Brooklyn. Trained as a commercial artist, she worked on design in New York for many years. After becoming involved in the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History in 1971, she began spending more time studying the African-American and the African diaspora. Ms. Maynard was involved from the beginning in Weeksville's development as an historical museum and cultural center. Weeksville operates on two levels: museum preservation and contemporary cultural promoter. Weeksville places special emphasis on outreach to children in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. Ms. Maynard has been the Weeksville Society's Executive Director for over fifteen years.