Creating POC-Spaces in Community Archives and Public Programming
Event Type
Presentation
Start Date
23-7-2021 12:00 PM
End Date
23-7-2021 1:00 PM
Description
Queens Memory is a local community archiving and oral history project, co-administered by Queens Public Library and Queens College Library, CUNY. During COVID-19, we had focused on documenting experiences of the pandemic through collection of oral histories, videos, writing, photographs, and oral histories. Over time, documentation efforts on campus expanded to focus on the double pandemic of racism and COVID-19, via oral history interviews and public programming.
Prior to the pandemic, members of Queens College have been conducting oral histories with the institution’s SEEK Program, which has strived to support economically disadvantaged students and has assisted in creating a more diverse campus student body. This work continued, despite the pandemic.
With current events in mind, members from both institutions embarked on a collaborative Facebook Live program series that covered social justice, current events, and creating positive social change. We felt that it was imperative to address these present-day topics and their historical contexts, while also maintaining the safety and accessibility for our participants. For these roundtables, we wanted to amplify the BIPOC voices on campus. As such, we reached out to SEEK, for advice on which speakers we should reach out to. As such, the roundtable panelists included diverse students and faculty that spoke specifically on anti-racism, the importance of developing student leadership, and challenging power and oppression in the archive by creating a diverse historical collection.
Because this program series led us to work with many on-campus organizations that serve BIPOC students, the programming helped us reach new audiences, make stronger connections with these other organizations, and facilitated opportunities for diverse members of our communities to add their voices to the archives.
Creating POC-Spaces in Community Archives and Public Programming
Queens Memory is a local community archiving and oral history project, co-administered by Queens Public Library and Queens College Library, CUNY. During COVID-19, we had focused on documenting experiences of the pandemic through collection of oral histories, videos, writing, photographs, and oral histories. Over time, documentation efforts on campus expanded to focus on the double pandemic of racism and COVID-19, via oral history interviews and public programming.
Prior to the pandemic, members of Queens College have been conducting oral histories with the institution’s SEEK Program, which has strived to support economically disadvantaged students and has assisted in creating a more diverse campus student body. This work continued, despite the pandemic.
With current events in mind, members from both institutions embarked on a collaborative Facebook Live program series that covered social justice, current events, and creating positive social change. We felt that it was imperative to address these present-day topics and their historical contexts, while also maintaining the safety and accessibility for our participants. For these roundtables, we wanted to amplify the BIPOC voices on campus. As such, we reached out to SEEK, for advice on which speakers we should reach out to. As such, the roundtable panelists included diverse students and faculty that spoke specifically on anti-racism, the importance of developing student leadership, and challenging power and oppression in the archive by creating a diverse historical collection.
Because this program series led us to work with many on-campus organizations that serve BIPOC students, the programming helped us reach new audiences, make stronger connections with these other organizations, and facilitated opportunities for diverse members of our communities to add their voices to the archives.
