The Chester Black History Tour is an ongoing project of the YES Center’s commitment to expanding access to Chester’s history to best shape the city’s future under the directorship of Ms. Twyla Simpkins.
TWYLA SIMPKINS
Founder and Director of the Yes We Can Achievement & Cultural Center (formerly the YWCA Chester), Twyla Simpkins — Ms T — capitalizes on her varied life experiences and love of Chester, her birth city, to promote social justice and community knowledge through understanding history. Her roles as organizer, collaborator, researcher and educator span several local initiatives, including the restoration and preservation of Green Lawn Cemetery, the Chester Women Change Makers project, Chester Made, and the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, as well as several evolving pop-up museums in local city schools. Twyla recounts her Chester journey from childhood, to her career as a teacher at Chester Upland, and her founding of the YES Center in a Chester Made Ms T.’s Corner.
Ms. T is features in the PA Humanities article, Getting to know resident Chester historian Twyla Simpkins, better known as Ms. T
Contact Twyla for further information at yescenterchesterpa@gmail.com
ADINA SHANE
A current sophomore at Swarthmore College, Adina is a double major in Indigenous Studies and Sociology Anthropology on the Pre-Law track. She is interning with Ms. T and the YES Center as part of the Chester Semester Fellowship associated with Swarthmore College.
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CHRISTOPHER MELE
Chris is a Professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), a 2022 NEH-Mellon Fellow for Digital Publication, and a 2024 Senior Research Fellow at the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility. He is author of Race and the Politics of Deception: The Making of an American City (2017) about Chester. Chris’s current project is a digital collection of stories and local knowledge about Chester by Chester residents. To learn more or ask questions, contact Chris at cmele@buffalo.edu
