This page shares insights into my experiences throughout this course and conducting this research on Black queer and trans feminism’s offerings for improving the Invisible Histories Project’s support for Black queer and trans Southerners.
I appreciated being able to explore memory and archival work that is relevant to my life and the lives of my loved ones. Thinking about how community archival organizations can better address queer Black people’s needs and wants has helped me think of the praxis I want to develop in my work beyond this program. My biggest takeaway is the understanding that any work I pursue in archives and memory must prioritize combatting racialized capitalism as a source of the systems of oppression that target different groups who are also harmed by institutional repositories. This will require grounding my praxis in my political, cultural, and religious understandings of how important it is to not only question harmful practices from institutions but actively create alternative ways of pursuing memory work that truly center knowledge systems outside of institutions.