Black Lunch Table
Black Lunch Table is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in 2005 that archives the lives and works of Black artists through curated roundtable discussions, a digital oral history archive on Omeka, and a Wikimedia-recognized Wikipedia edit-a-thon program, serving Black artists, cultural producers, students, and community members.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2005
- HeadquartersChicago, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Black Lunch Table does
Black Lunch Table (BLT) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in 2005 in Chicago by artists Heather Hart and jina valentine. Originally conceived as a performance at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, BLT operates as a radical archiving project whose mission is to build a more complete understanding of cultural history by illuminating the stories of Black people. The organization runs two core programmatic formats: the Artists' Table, a curated roundtable discussion series bringing together Black cultural producers for interdisciplinary and intergenerational conversations, and the People's Table, launched in January 2015 in response to police violence against Black people, which expands participation to artists, activists, academics, students, politicians, and community members. Roundtable sessions are recorded and made publicly available through a Digital Archive built on the Omeka platform, which contains nearly 300 hours of audio recordings alongside video collections from the BLT Live series. A separate Legacy Archive (Archive 1.0) provides a network-based visualization linking roundtable topics to Library of Congress Subject Headings.
BLT also operates a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Program as an official Wikimedia user group, mobilizing collective authorship of Wikipedia articles on Black artists to address the platform's documented demographic skew (77% white editors, 91% male editors). The BLT Photobooth initiative extends this work into open-license portrait photography on Wikimedia Commons. Programs have been hosted at major US institutions including MoMA PS1, New York Public Library, McColl Center, Joan Mitchell Center, and Project Row Houses, as well as internationally at Bridge Books in Johannesburg, South Africa and Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. The organization is governed by a Board of Directors and staffed by an executive team led by Interim Executive Director Brigitte McQueen and Deputy Director Viva Yeboah, with founding artists Heather Hart and jina valentine retaining seats on the board.
BLT generates no program revenue and provides all services free of charge. Operating funding comes from foundation grants — including Mellon Foundation, Warhol Foundation, Ford Foundation, Creative Capital, Wikimedia Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Logan Foundation, Ruth Foundation, and the Institute for Arts and Humanities at UNC — supplemented by individual donations processed through Donorbox. Marketing and distribution rely on the organization's own website, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Vimeo channels, plus earned media coverage in outlets such as Chicago Tribune, Vogue, Hyperallergic, Art 21 Magazine, Next City, and the Daily Pennsylvanian. The organization operates with 11–50 staff across general and programmatic roles including public programs management, development, communications, finance and operations, transcription, and Wikipedia coordination.
Black Lunch Table firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Black Lunch Table
- Legal name
- Black Lunch Table
- Website
- https://blacklunchtable.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2005
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Black Lunch Table is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in 2005 that archives the lives and works of Black artists through curated roundtable discussions, a digital oral history archive on Omeka, and a Wikimedia-recognized Wikipedia edit-a-thon program, serving Black artists, cultural producers, students, and community members.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Black Lunch Table industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cultural Archiving Services
- NAICS
- Libraries and Archives (51921)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Peer Feedback, Discussion Forums & Social Learning Communities (EDAFAGAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Social Audio & Voice Rooms (BPAMACAK), Community Language Conversation & Exchange Groups (EDAAAFAO)
Keywords
Where Black Lunch Table is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Chicago
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Black Lunch Table business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Foundation Grants: BLT received 501c3 status in 2019 and receives grants from major foundations including Mellon Foundation, Warhol Foundation, Logan Foundation, Ruth Foundation, Ford Foundation, Creative Capital, Wikimedia Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Institute for Arts and Humanities at UNC.
- Donations: The organization accepts donations through Donorbox platform for supporting BLT operations and programs.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Black Lunch Table product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Black Lunch Table (BLT) is a nonprofit radical archiving project that produces community roundtable discussions (Artists' Tables and People's Tables) and builds a digital oral history archive containing nearly 300 hours of audio recordings. It also runs a Wikipedia edit-a-thon program that trains new editors to create and improve Wikipedia articles about Black artists, along with a BLT Photobooth initiative that creates open-license portraits for Wikimedia Commons.
Product overview
Black Lunch Table (BLT) is a radical archiving project that operates as a unified community-driven initiative rather than a traditional software platform. The core offering comprises three interconnected programs: the Artists' Table and People's Table roundtable series (physical and virtual discussion events), a Digital Archive built on Omeka containing nearly 300 hours of audio/video recordings from these roundtables, and a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Program that mobilizes collective authorship of Wikipedia articles on Black artists. BLT Photobooth extends this work by creating open-license portrait photography. Together, these programs aim to democratize the writing of contemporary art and cultural history while addressing gaps in mainstream archives and encyclopedic representation.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Artists' Table A curated roundtable discussion series that brings together Black cultural producers for interdisciplinary and intergenerational conversations on topics directly affecting the global Black community, strengthening bonds within the community and validating shared concerns through exchange.
- People's Table A community roundtable discussion series designed to democratize the writing of contemporary cultural history by catalyzing dialogue around sociopolitical issues affecting historically disenfranchised populations, bringing together artists, activists, academics, students, politicians, and community members.
- Digital Archive An online oral history archive containing nearly 300 hours of audio recordings from Artists' Tables and People's Tables events, featuring topics such as life as a working artist, social justice, storytelling, family histories, and race relations. The archive includes audio recordings, video collections from BLT:Live series, and a legacy archive visualizing roundtable conversations as a network.
- Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Program A Wikimedia initiative that mobilizes the creation and improvement of Wikipedia articles pertaining to the lives and works of Black artists, empowering people to write their own history and shift Wikipedia's demographic of 77% white and 91% male editors. Includes sessions, BLT Bingo Contests, BLT Live events, and monthly office hours.
- BLT Photobooth A photographic initiative that invites professional photographers to join community members at pop-up portrait studios, creating open-license portraits freely available for use, editing, and distribution on Wikimedia Commons.
Quantifiable outcome
- Important figures such as Fred Moten, Meschac Gaba, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, and Valerie Cassel Oliver now have Wikipedia pages that began as BLT targets
Companies that use Black Lunch Table
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Black Lunch Table technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Black Lunch Table partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major, international and founding.
- Wikimedia FoundationcoreBLT is recognized as an official Wikimedia user group. The partnership enables BLT to mobilize collective authoring of Wikipedia articles on Black artists and provides access to Wikimedia platforms including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikipedia meetup coordination.
- MoMA PS1majorBLT has hosted Wikipedia edit-a-thons at MoMA PS1, bringing Wikipedia editing workshops to museum visitors and staff.
- New York Public LibrarymajorBLT has hosted Wikipedia edit-a-thons at NYPL locations, engaging library patrons in Wikipedia editing for Black artists.
- McColl Center (Charlotte)majorBLT has hosted edit-a-thons at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, an artist residency program.
- Joan Mitchell Center (New Orleans)majorBLT has hosted edit-a-thons at the Joan Mitchell Center, engaging artists in Wikipedia editing.
- Project Row Houses (Houston)majorBLT has hosted edit-a-thons at Project Row Houses, a nonprofit arts organization in Houston.
- Bridge Books (Johannesburg, South Africa)internationalBLT has hosted international edit-a-thons at Bridge Books in Johannesburg, South Africa, expanding its Wikipedia initiative globally.
- Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada)internationalBLT has hosted edit-a-thons at Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, extending its reach internationally.
- Hồng-Ân TrươngfoundingCollaborated with BLT co-founders in 2014 to conceive the People's Table series in direct response to police violence against Black people.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Black Lunch Table competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Whose Knowledge?: Whose Knowledge? is a global campaign to center the knowledge of marginalized communities on the internet, including on Wikipedia, making it a conceptual peer for BLT's representation work.
- Black Artists + Designers Guild: BADG is a member-based organization of Black artists and designers that advocates for visibility and equity, paralleling BLT's representation goals for Black cultural producers.
- Souls Grown Deep Foundation: Souls Grown Deep supports Black artists from the American South through advocacy, publishing, and collection stewardship, operating in the same Black-arts preservation and recognition space as BLT.
- The Black Aesthetic: The Black Aesthetic is a community platform dedicated to Black art and culture, operating in the same Black-arts community-building space as BLT's roundtable and archive programs.
- Art+Feminism: Art+Feminism runs Wikipedia edit-a-thons focused on women and non-binary artists, using the same Wikimedia-community playbook as BLT but for a different underrepresented group in art history.
- Black Art Futures Fund: Black Art Futures Fund is a nonprofit that channels resources to Black arts organizations and artists, sharing BLT's mission of strengthening the Black arts ecosystem but with a funding/grantmaking model.
- The Laundromat Project: The Laundromat Project is a New York-based nonprofit that brings arts programming to communities of color, sharing BLT's model of community-rooted, art-driven public dialogue.
Broad incumbents
- Creative Capital: Creative Capital is a major nonprofit arts funder that supports BLT as a grantmaker; it sits in the same funding ecosystem but serves a broader portfolio of artists and projects.
- The Studio Museum in Harlem: The Studio Museum in Harlem is a leading institution dedicated to works by artists of African descent, sharing BLT's audience and mission but operating as a far larger, established museum.
- Project Row Houses: Project Row Houses is a Houston-based nonprofit arts organization that hosts resident artists and community programming, one of BLT's established event partners and a comparable community-arts institution.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Black Lunch Table social profiles
Digital presenceBlack Lunch Table financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Black Lunch Table leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles12 records
Black Lunch Table funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Black Lunch Table M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Black Lunch Table
What does Black Lunch Table do?
Black Lunch Table (BLT) is a nonprofit radical archiving project that produces community roundtable discussions (Artists' Tables and People's Tables) and builds a digital oral history archive containing nearly 300 hours of audio recordings. It also runs a Wikipedia edit-a-thon program that trains new editors to create and improve Wikipedia articles about Black artists, along with a BLT Photobooth initiative that creates open-license portraits for Wikimedia Commons.
Is Black Lunch Table a public or private company?
Black Lunch Table is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Black Lunch Table founded?
Black Lunch Table was founded in 2005. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Black Lunch Table based?
Black Lunch Table is headquartered in Chicago, United States, in the North America region.
How does Black Lunch Table make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Foundation Grants are the primary driver. The others are donations.
Who are Black Lunch Table's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Whose Knowledge?, Black Artists + Designers Guild, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, The Black Aesthetic, Art+Feminism, Black Art Futures Fund and The Laundromat Project. Broad incumbents are Creative Capital, The Studio Museum in Harlem and Project Row Houses.
Does Black Lunch Table have an API?
No public API is recorded for Black Lunch Table.
What industry is Black Lunch Table in?
Black Lunch Table's product category is Cultural Archiving Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAFAGAH, Peer Feedback, Discussion Forums & Social Learning Communities, with a secondary code of BPAMACAK, Social Audio & Voice Rooms. Its NAICS code is 51921.