There have been a lot of times when this research process has been incredibly frustrating. I haven’t found what I wanted to find in the archives. I have been worried that what I’m finding did not fit the narrative that …
Resisting by Doing What She Had to Do
I am unavailable for servitude. I refuse it.
These words, from Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals (New York: W.W. Norton 2019, p. 299), encapsulate what I imagine was …
What I Wish I Could Find in the Archives
Looking into the archives, I continually had to steel myself about what I may find or may not find.
I went to the Temple Special Collections Research Center in the new Charles Library on Temple University’s campus to look …
Imagining Alternative Immigration Realities
As I research Indonesian immigration and the evolution of the concept of citizenship in the United States, I am looking at three time periods for my research: Pre-1965, 1965, and 1998 to today.
Early on, I knew that I wanted …
Whispers from the Woods: Plantlife, Wildlife, Blacklife
Last summer I was blessed enough to be among the first cohorts for Now Memories: Spiritual Anthology of Black Herbal Wisdom, hosted by Nana Catherine’s Apothecary. Each week we would gather, a gaggle of passionate Black femmes, budding spiritual herbalists, …
Throughlines in Migration and Citizenship
I’ve been thinking about throughlines, threads, and what could be weaving our stories together. One of the unique joys of this project is being in fellowship with the other activist-curators. Our bi-weekly check-ins are grounding and illuminating.
Migrants
During our …
Old Black Business
My fellowship activity will amplify North Philly Black and Brown legends, social health, economy, pleasure, presence, and well being. I am remembering how care and beauty were made and performed by the Black North Philadelphians who raised me while living …