welcome editors note

When We Gather is a photo and written documentary project about friendship and community among a group of 15 senior students of color at GW. This project explores the relationships and community that myself and my friends have built, providing an insider look into the lives and friendships of these students. Using group portrait photography, profile stories on subjects, and short prose writings on friendship and gathering, When We Gather aims to create a true archive of students at GW, showcasing their interior life and detailing how they managed to find community at a predominantly white institution (PWI).

Historically, people of color’s histories have often been told for them, leaving out the truth because they are not told from the perspective of the people living the history. It is essential to our survival that we tell our own stories, create and document our memories. I reference Toni Morrison’s essay “The Site of Memory” as a basis for the importance of individual memory and history. In this essay, she explains why the autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs written by enslaved people serve as necessary historical documents because, unlike other historical documents, they capture the interior lives of the enslaved, which is just as, if not more, important to document.

As a PWI, GW lacks dedicated spaces for Students of Color, particularly Black students, to gather. The MSSC was once a gathering place, but its waning presence over the years and post the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly diminished the accessibility of this singular resource for students of color. However, as a member of the BIPOC community here,

I have witnessed firsthand the bonds we have managed to forge for ourselves despite the lack of space given to us by the university. These connections are built in the dorms, in class, through mutual friends, in passing, etc. want to highlight how different BIPOC students within my friend circle have built their relationships.

Black people, especially, have for centuries been removed from or misrepresented in history. As Toni Morrison puts it, “historically, we were seldom invited to participate in the discourse even when we were its topic.” This is why individual memory is so important; it creates a space where Black stories told by Black people are valued and just as historical as any other text. Projects like this one prioritize memory, which is essential to our legacies and will shape the history our ancestors will one day read about their people. This is the mission of the BLACK ACE Magazine, to provide a space for the stories to be told and for us to use art as a medium to speak.

“If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic.” -- Toni Morrison

Our interior life is a part of our history and is valuable to save and document.

This project idea has been a long time in the making. Freshman year, I took an Africana Studies class here with Randi Kristensen. As our final project, we had to choose a topic to research, propose, and execute a potential solution for the issue. The issue I researched was about internalized racism in the Black community and how it is perpetuated by white supremacy, white-centered media, and systematic racism. Internalized racism is a psychological concept that describes the internalization of racist beliefs, ideas, actions, and behaviors that have been projected onto one for so long. Since our society more often than not accepts “whiteness” as the standard and condemns anything else, this can leave people with a desire to dissociate from what is not accepted and adopt what is. Donna Bivens, an educator specializing in diversity, inclusion, and equity training, explains the concept: “Individuals, institutions, and communities of color are often unconsciously and habitually rewarded for supporting White privilege and power and punished and excluded when we do not.”

The solution I came up with for how to combat this issue within our community was inspired by a quote by Audre Lorde: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” The idea is that through radical self and mutual love, we could foster communities of love to uplift ourselves and our Blackness. My action was to create an online publication titled “Micro-Affections.” This publication would be centered around teaching Black love and self-care by unlearning anti-Blackness and re-learning through Black literature and art. In an analysis by Darnell Moore, African-American Author and Black studies theorist, it is stated that love and self-care can combat feelings of internalized racism and disarray in the Black community—he called these actions micro-affections.

I consider When We Gather a branch of the Micro-Affection ecosystem, a project that exists to show the love I have for my community regarding our memories and experiences as sacred and historical.

Putting this project together has been an absolute joy over the past few weeks. My only regret is not starting it sooner and getting a chance to engage the entire Black community at GW in it.

This is a true love letter to the people in my life. I hope this small book can serve as a reminder of the bonds we all built and the memories we made while here.

Thank you for taking the time to read and view this project. Surely, more is to come.

Take Care,