Events

In recent years, archivists, librarians, and historians have begun discussing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives, specifically restorative and reparative practices, in the archive. Yet they frequently omit the Black archivists who have created new techniques, roadmaps, and practical guidelines transforming the discipline. In this conversation, archivists and memory workers Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, Zakiya Collier, and Olivia Dorsey will discuss techniques, accountability, and ethical principles they employ in their daily practice within educational institutions and community archives.

Zakiya Collier

Zakiya Collier (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based, Black, queer archivist and memory worker. Her work and research explore the role of cooperative thought and improvisation in the sustainability of im/material cultural memory, particularly in marginalized communities and cultural heritage institutions. Before joining Shift Collective as the Community Manager for Documenting the Now (DocNow) in 2022, they have centered African-diasporan, queer, and community-based organizations, including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Weeksville Heritage Center, SafeWordSociety, Marilyn Nance’s FESTAC ’77 collection, and other private archival collections. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, an MLIS from Long Island University, and an MA in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University. Zakiya is a Certified Archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) and a guest co-editor of a forthcoming special issue of The Black Scholar on Black Archival Practice.

Olivia Dorsey

Olivia Dorsey (she/her) is a creative technology professional who is working to make Black History more visible and to minimize obstacles encountered when conducting African American genealogical research. She holds BS and MS degrees in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a family historian, she has been researching her own family’s ancestry for over a decade. As a web developer, she uses her personal time to develop new digital tools and projects at the intersection of Black History, genealogy, and technology. Her projects include Franklin Memories, a communal repository of her own family history, and Digital Black History, a searchable directory of digital Black History projects. Her work recently featured inThe New York Times. You can learn more about her personal projects atOliviaPeacock.com. Professionally, she works at the Library of Congress as a Program Specialist.

Lae’l Hughes Watkins

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins is the Founder of Project STAND, a first-of-its-kind collaborative effort among archival repositories within academic institutions across the country to create an online portal, featuring analog and digital collections that document student activism for historically marginalized communities. The project has received over $800,000 in grant funding from The Mellon Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). She is the University Archivist for the University of Maryland, in College Park, where she also serves as a Co-chair for the 1856 Project, a chapter of Universities Studying Slavery. From 2013-2018 she served as the University Archivist at Kent State University. She is a 2019 Mover and Shaker. She is a 2019 ARL Leadership and Career Development Program fellow and serves on the Advisory Board for the Archives Leadership Institute. She is the Co-PI for the CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American and African Studies grant. She is the creator of the reparative archive framework and workshop and has given multiple national and international keynotes.

The Hemispheric Institute is proud to present Agency + Process, a series of virtual conversations curated by Camille Lawrence celebrating individuals who are shaping the future of memory work, creating outside of traditional archival models. Those featured employ ethical methodologies to access and recover hidden Black histories. Lawrence refers to this intentional practice as “seeing in the dark”, where Black folks have the ability to see themselves where others cannot.

This series will explore, challenge, and celebrate the ways that Black memory workers are taking agency over the preservation, documentation, and representation of Black life, and will feature speakers who are transforming how communities interact and engage with archives and performance art. The series will begin with two events in which archivists discuss ways to address institutional inequities and share their reparative practices in the archives. The subsequent conversations will highlight creatives, archivists, and artists whose work centers Black visibility and the body as an archive.

Hemi is also excited to announce Camille Lawrence as a Mellon Curator in Residence for the 2022 calendar year. Lawrence is an artist and archivist whose work focuses on the diversity of artistic expression across the African Diaspora. To learn more about Lawrence’s work, click here.

​​These events are made possible by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the "World Making and Social Emergency at the Hemispheric Institute" initiative.

​​Event series page click here