SONJA HAYNES
stone center FY26 IMPACT REPORT
executive summary The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Research in Black Culture and History advances the study, preservation, and celebration of Black life through scholarship, artistic expression, public engagement, and community partnership. During FY26, we deepened our impact across each of these areas, demonstrating that when research, culture, and community converge, they generate knowledge that not only informs the academy, but transforms the public good. • convened 20 signature public programs, in partnership with 13
campus and community organizations • expanded educational pathways from K-12 through graduate education, including 100+ hours of STEM programming • strengthened mentorship and research excellence • advanced a culture of philanthropy that engaged 400+ individual
donors and secured $700K+ in commitments and gifts • inspired unprecedented community investment through a recordbreaking GiveUNC campaign of $85K+ and a signature general purpose endowment • expanded the center’s public reach through strategic communications that generated 300K+ social media interactions and reached more than 10,000 subscribers
MEET THE TEAM
Director
Rhon Manigault-Bryant
Core Team
Sheriff Drammeh
Brittany Yarborough
Javier Jaimes-Ayala
Safiyyah Elahi
Kara Endsley
Jordyn Cooper
Associate Director
Executive Assistant
Facilities Manager
Community Programs Coord.
Philanthropy Officer
Admin Support Associate
Faculty Leads
Extended Core
Kumi Silva
Cheryl Woods Giscombé
Meredith Clark
Neha Chhabra
Rodney Whitmore
Gregg Moore
MURAP Lead
Faculty in Residence
Faculty in Residence
Comms Specialist
Security Guard
Library Manager
CONVENE During twenty signature events, we opened our doors and drew in artists, scholars, students, and the public into our community. No one left unchanged.
~40K
221
VISITORS ACROSS TWO SEMESTERS
CAROLINA LIFE EXPERIENCE (CLE) CREDITS EARNED BY STUDENTS
448
EVENT RSVPS FROM CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
13
CO-SPONSORING PARTNERS ACROSS CAMPUS & BEYOND
milestones
FALL EXHIBIT
STONE LECTURE
DIASPORA LECTURE
SPRING EXHIBIT
MCNEIL LECTURE
The Book of Mark — a contemplative solo exhibition by Mark Anthony Brown Jr. (MFA, UNC-Chapel Hill), was curated by Ming Joi Washington, and joined sculpture, photography, and altar work into a meditation on spirit, and ancestry.
Dr. Salamishah Tillet, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times critic, Rutgers Distinguished Professor, and cofounder of A Long Walk Home delivered the 33rd annual lecture, and treated us to the stories of her forthcoming book on Nina Simone.
Dr. Ahmad GreeneHayes drew from his award-winning book, Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans, to reframe Black religious history through Africana spiritual traditions.
Making the Ground Talk and Other Stories — Peabody Awardwinning journalist Brian Palmer used photography to showcase how efforts to displace Virginia's Black communities were dismantled through collective cemetery care.
Dr. Thavolia Glymph, Duke University's Peabody Family Distinguished Professor and past president of the American Historical Association, used her talk, “Making ‘Actual’ Freedom,” to tell new stories about the Civil War.
signature spotlight He composed in stone, she answered in song — and for one November night, the house and the music remembered each other. A VOICE, A VISION, A HOME : NNENNA FREELON
Four decades of song, and what Maya Angelou called a "mighty wealth of soul." Nnenna shared her debut memoir, Beneath the Skin of Sorrow — loss answered with improvisation — in the very Center designed by her late husband, architect Philip Freelon. His vision held her voice, and her voice keeps his memory. Architecture and song, married still.
cultivate Some seeds are planted in soil. Ours are planted in stone — and still, season after season, scholars rise.
CommUniversity THE SHAPE OF THE YEAR
SCHOLARS
A DEEPER BENCH
32 scholars recruited, surpassing the annual goal, with 22 consistenly engaged all year long.
A dedicated Program Manager & new Graduate Assistant strengthened planning, data, and every relationship.
WHEELS THAT WIDEN THE WORLD
AN INFLUX OF MENTORS
A new program van turned distance into destination — field trips, discovery, and learning beyond the neighborhood.
A surge in volunteers brought scholars more academic support, more role models, and more lasting connections.
STEM, HANDS-ON
ROOTED IN PARTNERSHIP
10 STEM First Fridays — 3D printing, healthy cooking, and environmental science with the NC Botanical Garden.
Partners opened doors — 50+ books for scholars, $2,000+ raised with Pastor Asya Coles, 100+ hygiene packs for unhoused neighbors with Alpha Phi Alpha.
COMMUNIVERSITY 32
$180K
100+
20
Scholars
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
STEM hours
Partners
MURAP 31 SUMMERS
“MURAP has connected me with a community of driven peers and a web of advisors.” ~ ANDREW OKON (MURAP ‘24) [NOW A DOCTORAL STUDENT IN PUBLIC POLICY AT UNC-CH, STILL RESEARCHING ALONGSIDE HIS MURAP MENTOR]
MURAP
14 SCHOLARS
7 MENTORS
drawn from 10 institutions
across 6 departments, with 5 instructional staff
110 APPLICATIONS
70 ATTENDEES
nearly 4x growth since 2020
at the annual conference with 16 invited panelists & speakers
sow Every gift is a seed — an act of faith that something will grow where the giver may never see. This year, the faithful planted. And the Stone bloomed.
SOW - THE GIVING GATHERED
435 donors gave to the Stone Center this year - a giving family grown 18% since FY24.
SOW - GIFTS OF THE YEAR
A First Seed
$100K
Watch what the Stone Center makes possible: a donor couple began with a partial pledge — then, moved by the Center's vision, delivered it fully and two months early, doubled it before the season turned, and set their name upon the endowment their gift brought to life. Nothing in this year's fundraising climate predicted it; everything about this Center explains it. A modest pledge became Carolina's newest permanent fund — proof the Stone Center doesn't just steward resources: It multiplies belief.
SOW - GIFTS BY SOURCE
$700K+ committed & secured
In its second year with a full-time philanthropy officer, the Stone Center received over $700K in commitments and gifts, including a founding endowment gift, a record-breaking Day of Giving, and $60,000 in gifts recovered through sheer diligence.
GIVE UNC
“A COMMUNITY LIKE NO OTHER”
GIVE UNC For one day in March, the Carolina family turned toward the Stone Center. GiveUNC 2026 brought in more than $85,000 — a 69% leap over last year — driven by donors giving, and giving more deeply. In a season when institutional trust ran thin across higher education, the Stone Center's community answered anyway: proof that when the mission is clear, the faithful show up.
expand A light passed hand to hand now travels screen to screen — this year, the Stone's story burned brighter, and carried farther, than ever before.
EXPAND - OUR REACH
145K+
205K+
9,245
Instagram Views
Email Sends
Subscribers
EXPAND - OUR REACH
MILESTONES
HEADLINES
COMMUNITY
Two issues of our storied magazine, carrying the Center's programs, exhibitions, and people into print.
7 media placements - The Well (x4), The Daily Tar Heel, Carolina Alumni Review, & the Carolina Center for Public Service.
A Stone Center display at the UNC Visitors Center — our story now greets every guest at Carolina's front door.
tend the keeping of the house: 300+ gatherings hosted, a new roof raised, an auditorium refresh, and the daily, unglamorous love that makes everything else possible.
tend - the house at work GATHERINGS BY SPACE
303
120 114
gatherings hosted across nine spaces
100
37,700+
80 60
guests welcomed through the Center’s doors
58 43
42
40
114
bookings in the Hitchcock Room -
43
Theatre events, drawing 15,600 guests
the house’s busiest
22
20 0 Hitchcock Room
12
Theatre
Sutton Room
9
3
Rooms 200 & 201
And Now, One Click: LibCal launched - spaces reservable online for the entire campus community.
tend - the house, renewed
A NEW ROOF
THEATRE REBORN
CLASSROOMS RENEWED
GALLERY, REPAINTED
The house re-covered - protection for everything beneath it
New seating and fresh paint for the Center’s largest stage
209 & 210 - new carpet, chairs, desks, and paint
Walls made new for every exhibition to come
Nothing here is glamorous, and all of it is love: the daily keeping of the house that keeps us.
tend - the house, championed Board Participation is essential to our success!
The Center’s future is strengthened through shared leadership. Board members are essential partners in advancing relationships, expanding visibility, and unlocking new philanthropic investment.
Our Year, In Short FY26 was defined by movement. Behind every lecture, exhibition, fellowship, and community gathering was the often-unseen work of stewardship. Throughout the year, the Center maintained and strengthened the physical and organizational infrastructure that makes our mission possible—caring for a landmark building, hosting hundreds of gatherings, supporting students and faculty, and cultivating the relationships that allow bold ideas to flourish.
The Sonja Haynes Stone Center is more than a place where history is remembered. It is where new scholarship is born, where communities gather, where future leaders are formed, and where philanthropy becomes possibility. Every program convened, every scholar mentored, every gift entrusted, and every story shared contributes to a larger vision—one in which knowledge and culture are inseparable, and where Black life continues to illuminate the future of our University.
“Together, we’ve honored the past, met the present with bold creativity, and set our sights on a future where knowledge, culture, and justice are inextricably linked.”
~Dr. Rhon
Director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center & steward of its future
SONJA HAYNES
stone center
“A community like no other”