Related Papers
Archiving Disaster and National Identity in the Digital Realm: The September 11 Digital Archive and the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank
Courtney Rivard
Collecting Disaster: National Identity and the Smithsonian’s September 11th Collection
Courtney Rivard
International Journal of Applied Research
Histological pattern of prostate biopsy specimens at a private hospital in South Southern Nigeria
2022 •
Uzodimma Onwuasoanya
Future-proofing the Past?: Digital History and Preservation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
2017 •
Travis Waguespack
Fashion Studies
Hurricane Katrina Hair: Rereading Nineteenth-Century Commemorative Hair Forms and Fragments Through the “Mourning Portraits” of Loren Schwerd
2019 •
Esther Berry
This article examines sculptural portraits by artist Loren Schwerd. Fashioned from hairpieces discovered in the 2005 wreckage of Hurricane Katrina, they are memorials to the African American victims and evacuees of the storm. Their title, Mourning Portrait, recalls nineteenth-century traditions of mourning and commemorative hairwork in which the locks of living and dead loved ones were manipulated into intricate fashions and home décor. They also incorporate African American hairstyling techniques to interpret the flood-ravaged homes of local residents. Thus, on one hand, they take inspiration from Victorian hairwork traditions, which channeled the talismanic power of hair fragments to evoke absent bodies and memory. On the other hand, they expand and politicize the meanings of commemorative hair forms and fragments toward evoking collective histories, memories, and larger social issues, bringing new urgency and immediacy to fashion-related material cultures of mourning. Exploring the interlinked narratives of Schwerd’s “mourning portraits” and Victorian hairwork, this article uses cultural theory, material culture studies, archival research, fashion theory, and African American studies to broaden critical insights into state-sanctioned racial and class-based violence, and modes of resistance that take shape through aesthetic and representational forms. https://www.fashionstudies.ca/hurricane-katrina-hair/
Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies
Archival Amnesty: In Search of Black American Transitional and Restorative Justice
2017 •
Tonia Sutherland
Archives as memory institutions have a collective mandate to document and preserve a national cultural heritage. Recently, American archives and archivists have come under fire for pervasive hom*ogeneity – for privileging, preserving, and reproducing a history that is predominantly white and further silencing the voices and histories of marginalized peoples and communities. This paper argues that as such, archives participate in a continuing amnesty that prevents transitional and restorative justice for black Americans in the United States. Using the history of lynching in America as a backdrop, this article explores the records and counter-narratives archives need to embrace, in order to support truth and reconciliation processes for black Americans in the age of #ArchivesForBlackLives.
Museum and Society
The ‘Manchester Together Archive’: researching and developing a museum practice of spontaneous memorials
2019 •
Konstantinos Arvanitis
On 22 May 2017, a homemade bomb was detonated in the foyer of Manchester Arena as people were leaving the Ariana Grande concert. Twenty-three people (including the bomber) were killed and over 800 were injured. Within hours of the attack, people of Manchester began to leave flowers, candles, soft toys, balloons, written notes and other items in St Ann’s Square and other locations around the city. In June 2017, the Manchester City Council tasked Manchester Art Gallery to oversee the removal and collection of material objects from St Ann’s Square. Manchester Art Gallery ultimately stored more than 10,000 objects to form what is now known as the ‘Manchester Together Archive’ of the public response to the Manchester Arena attack. An associated research project, co-designed by the author with Manchester Art Gallery staff, aimed to document creatively the evolving thinking, interactions with different stakeholders and decision-making about the archive, as well as the impact of those decis...
Giving life to the truth": Indigenous art as a pathway to archival decolonization
2018 •
Petra Lundy
The impact of colonialism has left its legacy on Indigenous people in many detrimental ways: less access to education and health facilities for Indigenous communities; disproportionate levels of poverty, mental health issues and addiction; overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system; institutionalized racism; and disproportionately high levels of violence against Indigenous women and girls, among many other effects. Archives are a site of power, and the archivists who appraise, describe and create access to the records hold great responsibility as they enact that power. Archival institutions are a key site where colonialism has been enacted with real and multiple effects on Indigenous communities. Looking to advance the decolonization of the archive and support Indigenous people in Canada working to reclaim their truth on a national scale, this thesis advocates the collection of Indigenous art as a social memory medium that holds the same weight as any oth...
Power to the People: Documenting Police Violence in Cleveland
Stacie M. Williams, Jarrett Martin Drake
Archivists have long recognized the inherent historical and social mandate in preserving stories of those who endured violence at the hands of the state. Examples of this responsibility include archivists who recorded public tribunals in post-apartheid South Africa, documented stories of Japanese Americans forced into internment camps during World War II, and acquired collections of 1960s civil rights activists who experienced military intervention while fighting to end segregation. These endeavors align with the historian Howard Zinn's call for archivists to " compile a whole new world of documentary material " about the lived experiences of marginalized populations and communities. Drawing upon Zinn's charge as well as scholarly literature around community archives, social justice, and human rights, this article describes the joint effort of community organizers and professional archivists who collaborated to establish a community archive for victims of police violence in Cleveland, Ohio. The archive, A People's Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland, provides a sustainable, autonomous means for Cleveland residents to share their first-hand accounts of police violence in the region. The authors will narrate the archive's conception and development as well as advance the archive as a post-custodial model for other grassroots organizations protesting various forms of state violence.
Participatory Knowledge
Documenting COVID-19 for Future Historians?
Mark Tebeau
