VIRTUAL MEET UP 

ABOUT: 

 

Manifesto: About the Grassroots Archivist Collective of Black Women (GACBW) 

“It is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.” –– Sankofa 

 

A collaboration between Black Lesbian Archives (BLA) and Black Women Radicals (BWR), the Grassroots Archivist Collective of Black Women (GACBW) is a transnational virtual convening of Black women and gender expansive grassroots archivists and/or aspiring archivists. The GACBW seeks to bring together Black women and gender expansive archivists who are doing the critical grassroots and communal work of reclaiming and preserving our stories and our narratives.

 

The idea for the GACBW was conceptualized by Krü Maekdo, founder and creator of the Black Lesbian Archives, an archive for Black lesbians with a mission to build awareness, build community, educate, and preserve Black lesbian culture while building intergenerational gaps. Having collaborated on several events and initiatives previously, Maekdo reached out to Jaimee Swift, the founder and creator of Black Women Radicals, a Black feminist advocacy organization dedicated to uplifting and center Black women and gender expansive people’s radical activism in Africa and in the African Diaspora, to collaborate on the project. With both organizations engaging in grassroots archival work and recognizing the importance of telling and recovering Black women’s stories, narratives, political productions, memories, and leadership, the GACBW was birthed out of a dire need to create community and connect with Black women and gender expansive people from around the world who are doing this radical grassroots archival work. 

 

We recognize we are a part of a lineage and long history of Black women and gender expansive people who root themselves in the concept, politic, and praxis of Sankofa, an Akan word that translates to “go back and get” or “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.” The GACBW is an extension of this legacy and seeks to affirm and uplift Black women and gender expansive archivists and to create a safe and informational space for us to engage in transnational dialogues and share resources on how we can continue in sustaining our stories. 

 

What is an archivist? 

What does it mean to engage in archives? 

 

An archivist by definition is “a person who has the job of collecting and storing the materials in an archive.” We know that Black communities have been excluded, objectified, exploited, rendered faceless, and nameless in the archives. Black feminist scholar Saidiya Hartman in the article “Venus in Two Acts” (2008) writes about the dangers and white supremacist violence of the archives. There are many violences of and to the archives––one of them being accessibility. Oftentimes, archives are held and stored at academic institutions who often serve as gatekeepers to these materials. Sometimes, these academic institutions only allow students, faculty, and administrators who attend their universities or colleges and/or who are apart an academic consortium to access their archival information. This lack of accessibility sometimes prevents community members from having access to archival records and materials––even though these community members have lived in the area for generations. 

 

While it is important to acknowledge the work of archivists at academic institutions––especially Black archivists––we believe you do not have to be affiliated with or attend an academic institution to be an archivist. We recognize there are countless Black grassroots, hood, and maroon archivists who do the critical work of preserving community, familial, cultural, and political archives and memories. Their work is important and should be recognized and resourced. Our goal is to work in collaboration with both grassroots and academic Black women and gender expansive archivists. 

 

This is why the GACBW was created for this very reason––to uplift, center, and affirm the powerful work that is being done by Black women and gender expansive archivists.