Photoshoots in the Redmond Room (2015) and then the Redmond Center (2026)

March 2015

On March 18, 2015, I participated in a photoshoot in what was then known as the Redmond Reading Room, a space I created on the third floor of Lovejoy Library to host small exhibits and cultural events. On March 30, 2026, eleven years later, I took part in another photoshoot, this time in the Eugene B. Redmond Learning Center.

In 2015, university photographer Howard Ash informed me that he needed to take official photographs of me, something he had been doing with SIUE employees since he arrived in 2012. I was reluctant, but ultimately decided to participate.

[Related: Another Chapter in the Howard vs. Howard Photoshoot Saga]

I chose the Redmond Reading Room because I wanted to be near my books and some of the materials from the many exhibits I hosted. Posters featuring Frederick Douglass and Black Studies projects, as well as photographs of Maya Angelou, Eugene B. Redmond, Ralph Ellison, and others, were visible nearby.

In subsequent years, Ash repeatedly told me that I needed to update my headshots. I worked to evade him, but he finally persuaded me to agree this past Monday. I somehow had not realized that more than ten years had passed since that first photoshoot.





For the shoot on Monday, we met in the Redmond Center, located on the second floor of Lovejoy Library. Like that first photoshoot, I wanted to be surrounded by books and positioned in a Redmond-related space.

Ash and I were joined by university marketing associate Madelaine Deardeuff. We had a good time talking about photos, different poses, and comic books.