Amongst the Archives: An Interview with Sarah Kanu Carly Tagen-Dye
Sarah Kanu is the president and sole officer of Pratt’s chapter of the Black Student Union. Starting this year, Kanu has been working closely with Pratt Institute Archives to collect and display artifacts from the BSU in the 1970’s, and to keep the current organization alive for years to come. While still in the early stages, this project is one Kanu is dedicated to continuing, particularly when it pertains to the transformative ways archives, and other people, can do better to preserve a collective and accurate memory. Read our conversation below. Carly: How did you begin this project? Was there a specific catalyst that inspired you this summer, or was it an ongoing idea? Sarah: Ever since I got to Pratt, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that organizations are 90% studentformed, led, run and maintained. Although of immense value, this also presents issues of inconsistency and a potential inability to establish legacy and a passing down of knowledge. I frequently use the phrase “dropping the ball” to describe how being a member of the Black Student Union 8
for the past four years has felt; not as a phrase to chastise any former leaders, but to express how exhausting and isolating it can be for anyone new trying to fulfill [its] goals. Due to this, it’s always been at the back of my mind to figure out methods of saving and passing down the work that was done by the Presidents before me, [as well as] the work I’m currently doing as president. It wasn’t until the July Community Meeting, however, [which was] graciously hosted [by] Black Lives Matter Pratt, that I decided to begin this work. At the meeting, we were collectively presented with the last recorded demands on the BSU from the 1970’s. The fact that many [past] issues have persisted throughout the [fifty plus] years since then—and the fact that in the fifty years since, no recollection of the work done by any iteration of the BSU exists in our institution—was harrowing. You’ve emphasized how important the Pratt Archives’ role in this project has been. Can you expand on that; what do they do exactly? The work of the Pratt Archives predates me. I’m simply an opportunist who
