Year One of Build Your Archive
A year ago I begin my families archive in my grandparents basement. In February after I moved some things around, my Grandfather made a place for me. A table where I could spread out my things. One day he came downstairs and said, "You got all these photos where they belong and together." That made me smile.
I heard my him talking to my Grandmother later that night to say, "You know she got all the photos together down there. I don't know how she did it but they're all neat you know." That made me smile too. I pressed send on the fellowship application for the Billops-Hatch Award to research at Emory University Rose Rare book and Manuscript Library.
In March, I would sit at my Grandmother's table and ask her questions about a trip she took to California in 1967. In next room my Grandfather would be preparing another memento book for his 1964 Morehouse Classmates.
In June I would learn that I was awarded the opportunity to make my curatorial debut and mount a 2 month long group exhibition featuring 12 Black Women Artists.
A multidimensional portrait of the journey towards Black Futurity that Black Women across the African Diaspora have been pursuing in the name of freedom. This portrait depicts the search for possibility beyond one’s current reality where they acknowledge that a change must occur. It shares with the community at-large intimate self-care and bonding practices. And opens the door to private relationships that these women have cultivated between each other.
I archived it in time here. there. everywhere.
A month after the exhibition closed in October. My Grandfather passed away. It was then, I knew why I doing everything I was doing. I had built an archive for him, I begun protecting the history of our family, just as he had done before me.
After hours of scanning and going through photos he left across his desk, the memento albums celebrating his Morehouse classmates and notes with his favorite scriptures.
I made a digital archive in memory of his life and how he placed documenting and God at the center of it.
By December, I knew I was awarded the Billops Hatch Fellowship and also had become a resident artists at Hambidge Arts Center in Rabun, GA.
I spent two weeks up north listening to Al Green and scanning in over 100 photographs of the six family groups of my family.
In January of 2021, Jasmine and I were awarded a free studio to practice out of by Hambidge Cross Pollination Art Lab. This will be the first time that we are in the studio together since 2018.
We will continue exploring the concept of “Archiving in Real Time.” Since 2016, Sierra has documented Jasmine and her artistic practice through photography, film and written mediums. Currently, Jasmine is developing a body of work titled “AND WHAT?” where she is exploring the hyper-awareness of self.
As I sit at the same desk that my Grandfather made a place for my downstairs. And looking back on the last year, I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for the archives, for Black Women, for family. Because without any of those I could not have made any of this possible. I would not have a purpose of protecting history, sharing stories and document well lived lives.
