Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Michaëlle Sergile, an artist and independent curator completing an artist residency with McCord Stewart Museum. Michaëlle joins us to speak about her artistic practice of capturing and rewriting historical memory through textiles.

Episode Resources:

Artworks. Michaëlle Sergile. Retrieved May 10, 2024, from https://en.michaellesergile.com/oeuvres

Michaëlle Sergile. [@michaellesergile]. Instagram profile. Retrieved from, https://www.instagram.com/michaellesergile/

Archival Alchemy. Joyce LeeAnn Joseph. Retrieved May 10, 2024, from https://archivalalchemy.com/

Cheryl Thompson (2019). Black Canada and Why The Archival Logic of Memory Needs Reform. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ateliers/2019-v14-n2-ateliers05462/1071133ar.pdf

Saidiya Hartman (2008). Venus in two acts. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/241115

Fantz Fanon (1952). Black Skin, White Masks. https://groveatlantic.com/book/black-skin-white-masks/

McCord Steward Museum (2019). The Notman Photographic Archives on Unesco’s Canada Memory of The World Register. https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/blog/notman-archives-unesco/ Black Memory Collective [@black.memory.co]. Instagram post. What is a memory worker? Retrieved from, https://www.instagram.com/p/C5QiZnJg4qm/?img_index=1

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at ⁠https://melissajnelson.com⁠. You can connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠ or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com.

Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Dr. Meredith D. Clark, Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. Meredith joins us to speak about her project Archiving Black Twitter, which seeks to empower Black Twitter users to create their own “small histories” from their data.

Episode Resources:

Juana Summers, Sarah Handel, Jonaki Mehta (May 26, 2023). She's trying to archive Black Twitter. It's a delicate and imperfect task. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/05/26/1178262041/archiving-black-twitter-elon-musk-meredith-clark

Archiving Black Twitter (n.d.). Meredith D. Clarke, PhD. Retrieved January 2, 2024, from https://www.meredithdclark.com/archivingblacktwitter

Archiving the Black Web (2021). https://www.archivingtheblackweb.org

Donovan X. Ramsey (April 10, 2015). The Truth About Black Twitter. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/the-truth-about-black-twitter/390120/

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at ⁠https://melissajnelson.com⁠. You can connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠ or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com.

Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Kelann Currie-Williams, lens-based artist and doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program at Concordia University. Kelann joins us to speak about the poetics of the archives.

Episode Resources:

Kelann Currie-Williams. (2021). Prolonging the Afterimage: Looking at and Talking about Photographs of Black Montreal. Concordia University. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/988140/13/CurrieWilliams_MA_S2021.pdf

Kelann Currie-Williams (2021). Makers and Keepers: Two Lives, Through Photographs. Canadian Journal of History, 56(3). https://utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cjh.56-3-2021-0044

Patrick Lejtenyi (September 29, 2020). Concordia undergrads explore Montreal's Black history through the Negro Community Centre Archives. https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2020/09/29/concordia-undergrads-explore-montreals-black-history-through-the-negro-community-centre-archives.html

Tina M. Campt. (2017). Listening to Images. Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/listening-to-images

Saidiya Hartman. (2019). Wayward lives, beautiful experiments: Intimate histories of riotous Black girls, troublesome women, and queer radicals. WW Norton & Company. https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393357622

Melissa J. Nelson. (November 9, 2023) Black Sound and the Archives. https://melissajnelson.com/explore/information-management/black-sound-and-the-archives/

Vance Woods. (Jan 16, 2023). “There is a tangible tension between what is held in Caribbean archives and what is remembered in Caribbean communities”: Interview with Stanley H. Griffin, of the University of the West Indies (pt. 1). https://www.archivozmagazine.org/en/interview-with-stanley-h-griffin-pt-1/#:~:text=marketing%20marketing-,%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20a%20tangible%20tension%20between%20what%20is%20held%20in,1

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at ⁠https://melissajnelson.com⁠. You can connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Twitter⁠ or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com.

Summary:

Welcome to the opener for season 3! In this episode, I welcome Dr. Elizabeth Shaffer, a critical archives scholar and Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Information. Elizabeth joins us to speak about her research on the intersections of Black memory production and technology.

Episode Resources:

Association of Canadian Archivists. “Archives Spotlight Melissa J. Nelson: Black Memory Collective.” https://archivists.ca/Blog/13316265  

Dr. Cheryl Thompson. MOBA: Artists and Archivists in Dialogue. Toronto. September 21-22, 2023. https://drive.google.com/file/d/176y5F7mX6PIFbK-EXS-fP5b4fTQqJaNX/view?usp=sharing 

Transformative Memory Digital Archive. https://omeka.irshdc.ubc.ca/s/Transformative-Memory/page/welcome 

Melissa J. Nelson. “Reclaiming the Narrative: Black Archives at the Archives of Ontario.” Niagara Falls Museums. February 8, 2024. https://youtu.be/TDmrmDgaE68?si=pCt6pBEHzB-zUfhn 

Christina Sharpe. “In the Wake: On Blackness and Being.” Duke University Press. 2016. https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-wake 

Katherine McKittrick. “Dear Science and Other Stories.” Duke University Press. 2021. https://www.dukeupress.edu/dear-science-and-other-stories 

Tonia Sutherland. “Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife.” University of California Press. 2023. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383876/resurrecting-the-black-body 

Ehiko Odeh. Golden Beauty Supply. 2024. https://designto.org/event/golden-beauty-supply/ [video: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3sinahtTDr/]

Ehiko Odeh. Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow. 2024. https://www.rhpl.ca/hair-today-gone-tomorrow-exhibit [video: https://www.instagram.com/p/C22JkX_Lg_q/]

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at https://melissajnelson.com. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com. 

Summary:

It's the last episode of the year. In this bonus episode,  I welcome Elaine Young, Program Officer, Communication and Information at the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO) and Cody Groat, Chair of the Canada Advisory Committee of CCUNESCO. Elaine and Cody join us to speak about the Canada Memory of the World Register, which promotes the rich diversity of the country’s documentary heritage.

Episode Resources:

Canada Memory of the World Register. https://en.ccunesco.ca/our-priorities/memory-of-the-world 

Cody Groat. (May 24, 2023). Guardians of our Knowledge. CCUNESCO. https://en.ccunesco.ca/idealab/guardians-of-our-knowledge-memory-of-the-world 

Dorothy Berry. (2023). The Dorothy Berry Collection of What Are Black Archives, 2023. https://syllabusproject.org/what-are-black-archives/

Sheryl Assam. (September 22, 2023). Quilting exhibition celebrates Nova Scotia’s Black communities. Broadview. https://broadview.org/secret-codes-quilts-nova-scotia/ 

Alison Duke & Ngardy Conteh. (2018). Archiving Winston LaRose. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/archiving-winston-larose 

Sean Smith. (July 12, 2023). Collective Healing in our Black Archives. InsideOPS. https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ajJfo5jFsS1eXtquzWFMlIsn8iuNX4j/view?usp=sharing 

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Anchor, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at https://melissajnelson.com. You can connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com. 

Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Désirée Rochat, a Black memory worker and postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) and the Department of History at Concordia University. Désirée joins us to speak about her initiatives to preserve and promote Black community archives in Quebec. 

Episode Resources:

Désirée Rochat. (2022). Cultivating Black diasporic memories and communities through community archiving. In Cindy Maguire and Ann Holt (eds.), Arts and Culture in Global Development Practice. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003148203-8/cultivating-black-diasporic-memories-communities-community-archiving-d%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e-rochat 

Jeannette  Allis Bastian. (2003). Owning Memory: How a Caribbean Community Lost Its Archives and Found Its History. Libraries Unlimited.https://www.amazon.ca/Owning-Memory-Caribbean-Community-Archives/dp/031332008X 

Kimberly Christen & Jane Anderson. (2019). Toward slow archives. Archival Science, 19(2). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-019-09307-x 

Zakiya Collier and Tonia Sutherland. (2021). Black Archival Practice. The Black Scholar. https://www.theblackscholar.org/call-for-papers/black-archival-practice/ 

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Anchor, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at https://melissajnelson.com. You can connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com. 

Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Nana aba Duncan, Associate Professor and Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion Studies at Carleton University. Nana aba joins us to speak about her plans to launch the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging.

Episode Resources: 

Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging. https://view.genial.ly/61e58f69c08f6f0ceda67f2a

Diversity Survey. The Canadian Association of Journalists. https://caj.ca/programs/diversity-survey/ 

Sam Winn. (April 24, 2017). The Hubris of Neutrality in Archives. https://medium.com/on-archivy/the-hubris-of-neutrality-in-archives-8df6b523fe9f 

Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Jasmine Jones, Shannon O'Neill, Holly A. Smith. (2021). An Introduction to Radical Empathy in Archival Practice. In Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Jasmine Jones, Shannon O’Neill, and Holly Smith (eds.), Radical Empathy in Archival Practice. Special issue, Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 3, no. 2. https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/171 

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Anchor, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at https://melissajnelson.com. You can connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com. 

Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Dr. Funké Aladejebi, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Funké joins us to speak about her work conducting oral histories with Black women educators. 

Episode Resources:

Dr. Funké Aladejebi (November 4, 2020). Seeing Themselves: Race, Education and Black Life in Canada. McMaster Humanities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdTUFIRaIDw 

Dr. Funké Aladejebi. (January 19, 2021). Liberatory Pedagogies: Black Women Teachers in Ontario. Amherstburg Freedom Museum. https://youtu.be/VKB6u-Wl4g4 

Funké Aladejebi. (2021). Schooling the System: A History of Black Women Teachers. McGill-Queen’s University Press. https://www.mqup.ca/schooling-the-system-products-9780228005391.php 

Funké Aladejebi. (2022). “I don’t know if I should say this”: Black Women, Oral History, and contesting the Great White North. In Michele A. Johnson and Funké Aladejebi. (Eds.), Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History. University of Toronto Press. https://utorontopress.com/9781487529178/unsettling-the-great-white-north/ 

Stay Connected:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast you can follow, rate, and share it on Anchor, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

To learn more about my work, visit my blog at https://melissajnelson.com. You can connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter or contact me at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com.