Your legacy begins today
What is an archive?
Webster’s Dictionary defines an archive as, “a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.” And if I had permission to alter this definition, I would suggest to add, “ and where memories are preserved and personal histories are protected."
With this addition the archive becomes more than a place, it is a living story about people and communities that lived their lives. By looking through their archives you are able to glean the most honest and true story. One that is told directly from their experiences, their words and their photos.
PRESERVE YOUR HISTORY
For instance, In 1971 the Environmental Protection Agency commissioned over 100 photographers across the nation to document American Life for the Documerica Project (1971-1977).
In particular to show different crises that were occurring such as waste, landfills, housing disparities, pollution and how people were effected by their circumstances.
This grew into the what is now a collection within the National Archives Catalog to share what it was to be alive during that time. This is a reminder that an archive is not only a place where past history is preserved but also where the present is given thought to enter in.
I encourage your to preserve your own Black histories, pair them with words be descriptive about who is in the photographs so that those that come after you have the privilege to remember and tell your story in the most honest way.
Y’all: What was the first archive that you became familiar with?
Me: My Grandmama’s living room
These walls of images in Southern black homes were sites of resistance.
They constituted private, black owned and operated gallery space where images could be displayed, shown to friends and strangers.
These walls were a space where in the midst of segregation the hardship of apartheid, dehumanization could be countered."
— bell hooks
SITES OF RESISTANCE
My Great-Grandmothers House had room that was known affectionately as "The Blue Room" before grandkids and the great grand kids were born. This is where the magic happened.
Magic being, slow dances between Granddaddy and Grandmama, Music playing during Sunday Gatherings and watching TV on the good couch.
Over the years the room became filled with photographs from floor to ceiling. It was like walking into an Art Gallery and every one of the pieces had someone that you knew in it. I late would come to realize that this was also an archive.
Where to begin?
Assessing
It starts with looking around the room and making note of what is worth to keep. Which can be subjective depending on what you define is important to you and your narrative. Take a moment to decide what you want your archive to look like.
Processing
After you know what you want you archive to look like. Now it time to get to work. You will need a pencil and paper or if you’re a digital human you might want to open up a new spreadsheet. This may take a while, so get comfortable.
Organizing
You’ve got a pretty good idea of what you have, you also may know what things mean and the exact details to go with it. You’re in a good place. But it’s bigger than that. Let’s start organizing these things into smaller collections.
#BuildYourArchive: The online conversation and space for you to find new ways to build your archive. I will also be adding resources, best practices and my own updates. Feel free to share your project updates and see how other people are building their archives.
In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life
In Art on My Mind, bell hooks, a leading cultural critic, responds to the ongoing dialogues about producing, exhibiting, and criticizing art and aesthetics in an art world increasingly concerned with identity politics. Always concerned with the liberatory black struggle, hooks positions her writings on visual politics within the ever-present question of how art can be an empowering and revolutionary force within the black community.
