[Born-Digital] : [African-Americana] : St. Louis, Missouri: City Lights Gospel Video and Advertising, ca. 2007-2013. 160 DVD-R and CD-R discs with video and audio footage. Stored on three pedestal holders. Some trace surface wear to disc surfaces, otherwise all about very good.

A raw archive of master and reference footage on CD-R and DVD-R discs recorded by a St. Louis videographer active around the 2010’s. These were acquired by us at an East St. Louis flea market and are presented as-found with all indications suggesting they were produced by the City Lights Gospel Video and Advertising firm, with logos printed to some discs showing offices at 4144 Lindell Blvd. 

The discs are each labeled with event names and hold footage from regular clients including an Army organization called the “100 Black Men of America” and a church choir in Centerville, Illinois. Additional footage includes what appears to be a recruitment reel for a prep volleyball players, weddings, funerals, etc… 

An archive highlight is a pair of DVD-R discs compiling television coverage of local riots in the aftermath of the Michael Brown killing in 2014. These are a bit of an outlier in the group and while we have no firm context for their creation or acquisition, they look to be of the stock of a bootlegger, providing a compelling physical document of how information was being distributed locally in relation to these significant events.

An unfiltered born-digital archive from a working videographer serving the Black community of greater St. Louis and beyond in the early 21st Century.