Jade r rogers

LegaSeays Founder

Jade R Rogers is a sought-after speaker, historian, oral historian, cultural curator, and nonprofit leader who turns archives into action and community.Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of The House of Afros, Capes & Curls, she works at the crossroads of Black history, education, and popular culture—curating exhibitions on Black Homesteading and Nebraska’s Black experience; consulting for documentaries, theater, and the board-game industry; and keynoting on how stories shape belonging and futures.Her writing includes “Silent No More: Rediscovering Black Presence in the Renaissance” (Enchanted Living, Winter 2024); the 2022–2023 volumes Juneteenth Steampunk Tea Party: A Celebration of Black Victorian Excellence—Photos & Reflections; and the forthcoming coffee-table book Book of Wonder: Captured Joy.Recognized by Good Morning America & Marvel as a Marvel Superfan and a graduate of Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women, Jade brings 20+ years of teaching and community engagement to every stage.

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Selected Past Engagements

History

everyone has a story to tell

Legacy + History

Our consultation services provide expert advice, research, and analysis on historical topics to organizations or individuals. We have worked with organizations, museums, historical societies, archives, libraries, and educational institutions.

oris historia

Oral History

As an Oral Historian, my ultimate goal is to collect the stories and history of communities of color, which give a broader and richer account of those people often on the margins of History. Oral Histories collect, preserve and interpret the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. It is both ancient as a tool for remembrance and recording and one of the most modern, utilizing 21st-century digital technology to capture history and marginalized voices.

genealogia

Genealogy

Collecting the history of my family has been a labor of love for a number of years. Along the way, I've been able to use my knowledge of history and the collected stories of my family, to piece together forgotten details.Stories are a good start, but documenting the past offers a new approach to tell the story of where we came from and what it took for ancestors to blaze trails for future generations.

Museum Exhibitions

Museum exhibitionem

Audacious Nebraska: Descendants of DeWitty
Curator, Great Plains Black History Museum, Metropolitan Community College, Creighton University, Omaha, NE. Cherry County Historical Society, Valentine, NE. The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Hastings, NE. Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island, NE. Gage County Museum, Beatrice. NE.Northside Carnation: Historic 24th Street 1940-1960s (2016), Curator; Metropolitan Community College and Carver Bank (Bemis Center for Contemporary Art).Say Amen: The Black Church in Omaha (2015), Assistant Curator, Researcher; Great Plains Black History Museum.Leading the Way: Black Leadership in Omaha (2015), Assistant Curator, Researcher; Great Plains Black History Museum.In Their Own Image: A History of African Americans in Omaha (2014-2015), Assistant. Great Plains Black History Museum.

Black Experience + Relationship to Play

The purpose of this oral history project is to observe the intersections of Blackness and play on childhood and adolescent experiences and how that shapes play and ideas of leisure as adults.

I believe that for Black people, play and leisure are acts of resistance and the lack of safe spaces is a social justice issue. As the leader of a blerd organization whose core tenet is to promote and build community around gaming, board games, comics, science fiction, and fantasy across mediums for BIPOC people, I am interested in how those interests are formed in childhood and adolescence and how those experiences shape our interests as adults.

scripturam

Writing

Silent No More: Rediscovering Black Presence in the Renaissance

• Enchanted Living Magazine

Portrait of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (1510–1537), by Giorgio Vasari

My Audacious sims

Storytelling through games

• My Audacious Sims Blog

My Decades Challenge began as a poignant narrative tracing the journey of the Freeman family, a lineage rooted in the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans. Originating in the 1870s amidst the shadows of slavery's aftermath, the Freemans persevered through Reconstruction, grasping at the promise of education and liberation. Their legacy unfolded across ten generations, spanning into the 21st century.

This is NOIRE: North Omaha is Really Extraordinary, a podcast hosted by Dr. Nichelle Horton-Brown and Jade Rogers.

• Listen to the Podcast

Praesentationis

Presentations

Why Are All The Black Girls Playing The Sims?

• Why Are All the Black Girls Playing The Sims?

This presentation explores the powerful, joyful, and deeply personal reasons why Black women and girls are drawn to The Sims—a digital space where they can play, relax, and dream without limits. Through the lens of worldbuilding and storytelling, we’ll examine how The Sims becomes a tool for escapism, self-expression, and imagining lives of abundance, safety, and creativity. From reclaiming narratives to crafting entire legacies, this talk celebrates the magic of play as resistance, restoration, and radical imagination.

ludum consilium

Game Consultation

Where rules meet representation, Jade ensures accuracy, dignity, and delight, guiding studios to center Black histories in characters, culture, mechanics, and worlds.