2022 nwsa annual conference: killing rage-resistance on the other side of freedom

SURVIVING ERASURE:USING ARCHIVES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Archivists and the archives they manage serve global feminist communities as sites of activism when a feminist framework is incorporated; where history and evidence of social justice activity can be preserved and made accessible. Today, archives and special collections highlighting feminist activism are highly sought after as tools to educate and empower future leaders. The goal of this roundtable is for all members of the NWSA community, namely scholars, activists, and students to engage with librarians and archivists on select archival collections, further promoting archives as a necessary asset to make our stories visible.

Presenter: Bernadette Birzer bbirzer@tulane.edu

Newcomb Institute Tulane University

Bernadette Floresca Birzer is the Archivist for Collection Management and Digital Preservation at Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection at Tulane University. Newcomb Archives collects, preserves, and makes available records that document the legacy of Newcomb College and the history of women and gender in the Gulf South. Professional interests include digital preservation, decolonizing the archives, inclusive and reparative descriptions, and researching feminist, intersectional creators who focus on themes of horror and the abject.

Presenter: Valencia L Johnson vj2@princeton.edu

Princeton University

Valencia L. Johnson is the Archivist for Student Life at Princeton University. As the creator of Amp Up Your Archives program, she works to create records management and archival initiatives to inspire students to view their records and materials as important documentation that is an equal to the administrative record of the university. She is a co-author of the Project STAND’s Archiving Student Activism Toolkit and the Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Resources.

Session Organizer and Presenter: Holly Smith hsmith12@spelman.edu

Spelman College

Holly A. Smith is the College Archivist at Spelman College, and serves as the co-chair of NWSA’s Libraries & Archives Interest Group. She coauthored the article “This [Black] Woman’s Work: Exploring Archival Projects that Embrace the Identity of the Memory Worker” (KULA Journal, 2018:2), and authored the pieces “Radical Love: Documenting Underrepresented Communities Using Principles of Radical Empathy” (Journal for the Society of North Carolina Archivists, 2018: 15) and “Wholness is Not Trifling Matter: Black Feminist Archival Practice and The Spelman College Archives” (The Black Scholar 52:2). She is passionate about community archives and archival advocacy related to collections for historically under documented communities.

Presenter: Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz shawnta.smith-cruz@nyu.edu

New York University

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an archivist at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, an Assistant Curator and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries. She is a Co-Editor with Sara Howard on Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations in Archives and Practice and Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations in Identity and Libraries. Shawn has a BS in Queer Women’s Studies, an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction, and an MLS with a focus on Archiving and Records Management, all from CUNY. She is a recipient of the ACRL Women and Gender Studies Award for Significant Achievement, sponsored by Duke University Press, for her work archiving and exhibiting the Salsa Soul Sisters, the first lesbian of color organization in the country.

Moderator: Sara A. Howard, sahoward@princeton.edu

Princeton University

Sara A. Howard is the Librarian for Gender and Sexuality Studies and Student Engagement at Princeton University Prior to Princeton, Sara held positions at Wesleyan University and Queens College. Sara is the co-chair of the Libraries and Archives Interest Group. Sara is the co-editor of a forthcoming two volume series Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations on Archives and Practice and Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations on Identity and Libraries expected Spring 2023 from Litwin Books. Sara's research interests include; gender and labor, gender and performance and exploring traditionally and purposefully marginalized voices and materials within the academy.

Co-Moderator: Kat Jorgensen jorgenk4@tcnj.edu

The College of New Jersey

Kathryn M. Jorgensen is an undergrad student studying English at The College of New Jersey and the Library and Archives Research Intern at Princeton University. She works in library access services, and was very recently offered a position working under TCNJ’s Archivist and Special Collections Librarian to evaluate the rare books collection, rework finding aids to comply with SAA standards, and create ways of spotlighting materials in the collections. Kathryn hopes to pursue her MLIS degree after graduation.

Exploring Feminist Collections at the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection

Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection collects, preserves, and makes available records that document the legacy of Newcomb College and the history of women and gender in the Gulf South. Newcomb Archives located at Newcomb Institute on Tulane University’s campus, utilizes a feminist framework of radical empathy to develop and manage its holdings. While striving to respectfully to respectfully support diversity, equity, and inclusion in our collections, we often face challenges when trying to create non-exploitative visibility and access to intersectional identities and subjects

in our collections. This is especially challenging considering our position in academia.

How NA uses a feminist framework of radical empathy to manage and grow our collections

Creating visibility for historically marginalized individuals in our collections by improving access and ethical

descriptions. installations, zines, comics, games, tarot cards, and artist’s books.

Collecting more materials and collections from intersectional and BIPOC creators who may utilize non-academic, peer reviewed publishing sources to create information such as, but not limited to, printmaking, creating art,

Supporting intersectional and BIPOC creators means that we also support small and local publishing and creative

Prioritizing the recruitment of BIPOC Student Workers and Graduate Assistants and mentoring them to develop library and archive skills so they can use libraries and archives as sites for activism in their own fields and

workshops. endeavors. Stressing that being a BIPOC worker in libraries and archives is a form of activism.

Protecting the privacy of the donors and subjects in our collections when appropriate and reestablishing consent

when terms of original consent become obsolete because of, for example, changes in technology.

Being proactive in improving current reparative and inclusive descriptions and keeping up with new terminology and or being respectful of how creators want to be described and identified. This means that sometimes as an archivist, you need to reject standardized vocabularies and authority records and go with what is ethical.

We follow what Michele Caswell describes as “feminist standpoint appraisal”, we reject “thingification” and commodifying of cultural collections, and work to dismantle oppressor stand points in how we collect and describe our collections.

Utilizing the archives as a commons, this means we are designing and improving our spaces so that researchers feel like they belong and are part of our community and our holdings are for them and dependent on their use. Efforts include doing away with requesting official documentation like drivers’ licenses to use collections, having a space that is not under surveillance, respecting research privacy, having hours the Reading Room is open to the public, but also allowing patrons to make appointments during our closed times. We also try to create digital access for anyone who may not be able to physically access our collections.

As a commons, we welcome community engagement by collecting materials that encourage interaction, like our tarot card collection, and creating programming that invites folks in, such as talks that highlight collection genres, hosting CRAFTERNOON, where we inspire DIY, inviting students and faculty to create exhibits in either our spaces or digitally, and creating undergraduate coursework that highlights DIY activism that is evident in much of our feminist collections. Since we are back again and fully open to the public now, we are becoming more and more inspired to offer creative programming, outreach, and resources.

As a special collection, we want to keep up with other like-minded repositories scholars, we want to support and spread positive and progressive ideas and use these to improve our spaces, however, we do not believe in competition that reinforces capitalistic gormandizing of information and scholarship for profit and fame.

As archivists, we volunteer regionally as professionals who are willing to help train, consult, or donate archival supplies to underrepresented and marginalized communities via Documenting the Now’s Archivist Supporting Activists initiative.

Considering how extremely rapid our culture has become born-digital, we have made it our goal to prepare Newcomb Archives to provide a digital home for future born-digital archives of feminist activists in the Gulf South, and other regions if they choose us as a home.

As part of the gulf south, new orleans community that is constantly being threatened by climate change/ crisis like flooding and receding coastal areas, we have improved our networking and training so that we can help and recover our historic and cultural collections when and if a disaster strikes. NA’s most recent endeavor has been attending training to be an active National Heritage Responder via the AIF FAIC.

BreakOUT! Records Collection, NA-348

Lena Richard papers, NA071.01.07.01

Newcomb Archives Finding Aids: https://archives.tulane.edu/repositories/9

Newcomb Archives Digital Repository (NADR): https://newcomb.saas.dgicloud.com/

Newcomb Archives Website: https://newcomb.tulane.edu/archives

Newcomb Institute Website: https://newcomb.tulane.edu/

Building Relationships Between Archivists and Activists

This sec on of the toolkit seeks to familiarize both ac vists and archivists with posi ve communica on and prac ce around dona ons of student ac vist materials. It does not cover all aspects of acquisi on and donor work, but seeks to introduce readers to concepts and prac ces which are par cularly relevant to the given context. The goal of this sec on is to help encourage successful donor rela onships between archivists and student ac vists.

For full text of the Toolkit please scan the UR Code

It is never too early to contact an archivist and consider the long term preserva on of your history. Even if you are unsure about dona ng your materials or do not intend to do so right away, archivists can provide you with advice about guarding your materials from loss. You can contact mul ple archives in order to find the best repository for your material, and archivists should be helpful in discussing this subject.

As a donor of materials, you have a right to ask any ques ons you need to fully understand how your materials will be collected, preserved, and shared. Some of our recommended ques ons are below. If the ac vism itself or the materials reflect the work of a group of people, you will want to discuss the answers you receive with the other collaborators.

Questions to ask the archivist

¨ Could you describe the collec ng focus of your repository, and how my materials will compliment them?

¨ Can I/we have a tour of your facility and meet other staff members?

¨ What student records/material do the archives currently collect?

¨ What types of documenta on is the archives interested in? What content and format (analog or digital)?

¨ How will copyright, privacy, and restric ons be handled for this collec on, and how do those impact me/us as the creator/s of this material?

¨ What access will I have over the materials once I donate them to the archives?

¨ What are your methods of preserva on?

¨ How will your archive contextualize this material for researchers, and who decides how it will be arranged and described for poten al users? [See Arrangement and Descrip on sec on]

¨ What is the expected meline and method for making these materials available?

· In what ways will researchers be able to access this collec on?

SPELMAN ARCHIVES

Containing 5000 linear feet of collections, the Spelman Archives include administrative records, publications, photographs, and other materials related to the College and its constituents. A component of Spelman Women’s Resource & Research Center, the Archives also document women of the African diaspora in the areas of social justice, activism, LGBTQ advocacy, and feminism. The two most heavily used special collections in the Spelman Archives are the papers of lesbian feminist activist and writer Audre Lorde and feminist writer, filmmaker and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara.

RADICAL EMPATHY IN THE ARCHIVES

Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor define radical empathy as the “ability to understand and appreciate another person’s feelings, experience, etc. … In the archival realm, we posit that empathy is radical if we allow it to define archival interactions even when our own visceral affective responses are steeped in fear, disgust, or anger.” Radical empathy centers a feminist ethics of care in archival work, where “archivists are seen as caregivers, bound to records creators, subjects, users, and communities through a web of mutual affective responsibility”. In a workshop at the 2017 Society of American Archivists conference, a panel of archivists discussed a fifth affective relationship: archivist to archivist. This fifth relationship highlights the importance of archival colleagues providing support and accountability to each other, personally and professionally.

Black Feminist Archival Practice

Spelman College Archivist Holly Smith contributed an article, “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter: Black Feminist Archival Practice & The Spelman Archives” to a special issue of The Black Scholar centering Black Archival Practice (Vol 52., No. 2). Using the radical empathy framework, that article engages concepts of Black Feminist Archival Practice through a close reading of materials from Bambara and Lorde’s papers. The piece analyzes how Bambara and Lorde utilized their work to illuminate the experiences of Black people, Black women, and subsequently became archivists of their own experiences and by extension the diverse communities they inhabited.

Toni Cade Bambara

For more information, please visit us at https://www.spelman.edu/about-us/archives

WELCOME BLACK LESBIANS & Community to the Archives: Working with the Lesbian Herstory Archives to generate content for Black lesbians was built upon generations of action and archiving where Black lesbians were present as active participants in LGBTQ community building. A zine series was created and disseminated to support the showcasing, the honoring, the memory, and the herstorical significance of this under-acknowledged group of women.

Black Lesbians in the 70s and

Before: An At Home Tour of the Lesbian Herstory Archives was created by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz and can be heard from the QR code below with a bonus track that describes the creation of the zine! The entire zine is scanned an online in the Queer Zine Archive Project database: https://archive.qzap.org/ Additionally, Black Lesbians in the 80s, Black Lesbians in the 90s, and Black Lesbians 2000-10 was created by She rley C. Olopherne as part of a Black Lesbian DIY conference held in NYC. The Salsa Soul Sisters zine was created as a part of an exhibition series for the Salsa Soul Sisters to celebrate their donation to the collection after the 2010 event which introduced the first zine. The exhibition was first held and zine printed at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. For more info, contact shawntasmithcruz@gmail.com or visit the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Antracoli, Alexis A. et al.(2020). “Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia: Anti-Racist Description Resources. https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/a rdr_202010.pdf

Arroyo-Ramírez, Elvia, Jasmine Jones, Shannon O’Neill, and Holly Smith. (2021). “An Introduction to Radical Empathy in Archival Practice,” in “Radical Empathy in Archival Practice,” eds. Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Jasmine Jones, Shannon O’Neill, and Holly Smith. Special issue, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 3, no. 2.

Caswell, M. (2019). “Dusting for Fingerprints: Feminist Standpoint Appraisal,” Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 3, no. 2. https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/vi ew/113/67

Caswell, M., & Cifor, M. (2016). From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives. Archivaria 81, 23-43. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/687705.

Chou, Rose L.; Pho, Annie; and Roh, Charlotte, "Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS" (2018). 2018 USF Faculty and Staff Books. https://repository.usfca.edu/faculty_books_2018/11

Collins, M. (2022). The Purity of Scraps, The Black Scholar, 52:4, 16-26. 10.1080/00064246.2022.2111649

Cifor, Marika and Stacy Wood. (2017). “Critical Feminism in the Archives,” in “Critical Archival Studies,” eds. Michelle Caswell, Ricardo Punzalan, and T-Kay Sangwand. Special issue, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies no.2.

Documenting the Now. (2022). Archivist Supporting Activists: https://www.docnow.io/archivists-supporting-activists

Genovese, T. R. (2017, March 10). Decolonizing archival methodology: Combating hegemony and moving towards a collaborative archival environment. https://doi.org/10.20507/AlterNative.2016.12.1.3

Hughes-Watkins, Lae'l. (2018). "Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices," Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol.5, Article 6.Available at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol5/iss1/6

Matković, D. (2020). Ethical Questions in Name Authority Control. Jane Sandberg, ed. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2019. 418p. College & Research Libraries, 81(4),743. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.4.743

Powell, C., Smith, H., Murrain, S., & Hearn, S. (2018). This [Black] Woman’s Work: Exploring Archival Projects that Embrace the Identity of the Memory Worker. KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies , 2(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.5334/kula.25

Radical Empathy in Archival Practice Issue (2021), Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 3(2). https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/index

Smith, H. (2022) “Wholeness Is No Trifling Matter”, The Black Scholar, 52(2), 16-27, DOI: 10.1080/00064246.2022.2042764

Tairako, T. (2018). Reification-Thingification and Alienation— Basic Concepts of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy and Practical Materialism. BASIC Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies, 49(1), 1–28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44594760