The story of a university lives in more than its official milestones. It lives in the children who grew up around it, in the streets and homes beside campus, and in the people who carried those memories forward. Prairie View A&M University is putting that history in front of an audience with My Story: A Childhood Preserved in Prairie View — Marie Herndon’s Untold Stories.
Presented by the John B. Coleman Library during PVAMU’s 150th anniversary year, the project combines an oral history, a documentary premiere and community conversation. The university’s event listing describes the program as bringing Marie Herndon’s childhood memories into the present with documentary storytelling and technology, including AI. Its promise is a simple one: treat a person’s recollections as part of the Hill’s historical record.
A campus history told from home
Anniversaries often gather the dates, buildings and famous names. Oral history adds the texture that a timeline cannot hold: what it felt like to grow up in a place, who shaped daily life, and how a community saw itself. Herndon’s stories offer one perspective on Prairie View. The documentary gives that perspective a public stage, with space for other memories to meet it.
PVAMU’s listings differ on timing and location. The main university event page lists the premiere for Wednesday, September 30, 2026, noon to 2 p.m., at the H. Edison Anderson Recital Hall in the Hobart Taylor Building. An older 150th anniversary listing gives September 29 at the John B. Coleman Library. Readers planning to attend should use the current event listing and check directly with the university for any further changes.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, this remains a preview of a scheduled event. The people who gather and the memories they share will tell the next part of the story. For now, the project is a reminder that the Hill’s history belongs to those who lived it as well as those who studied there.