Summary:

It’s the last episode of the year. In this episode, I welcome Cheryl Foggo, an author, filmmaker, playwright and community historian. Cheryl joins us to speak about her work recovering Black Prairie histories through film and storytelling.

Episode Resources:

Cheryl Foggo (January 24, 2022). Here: The Prairies are rich with the collective memories of the Black people who came before us. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/here

Cheryl Foggo (2020). Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West. https://bookpublishers.ab.ca/titles/pourin-down-rain-2/

Cheryl Foggo (2020). John Ware Reclaimed. (Film). https://www.nfb.ca/film/john-ware-reclaimed/

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 website at⁠ ⁠https://melissajnelson.com⁠⁠. You can connect with me on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ or by email at ⁠melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com.

Summary:

In this episode, I welcome Phil Vassell and Donna McCurvin, co-founders of Canada Black Music Archives. Phil and Donna join us to speak about this digital archive which aims to research, preserve, and amplify the rich, largely untold music history of Black Canadians.

Episode Resources:

Canada Black Music Archives. https://thecbma.com/

Kayla McLean (August 10, 2024). A walk through time: New tour spotlights Little Jamaica’s music history. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/10690013/toronto-little-jamaica-tour/amp/

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 website at ⁠https://melissajnelson.com⁠. You can connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠ or by email at melissa.j.nelson@outlook.com.

Summary:

In this episode, I was joined by my colleagues Désirée Rochat, Dr. Elizabeth Shaffer, and Aaron T. Francis of the Black Memory Collective. We presented virtually at the Association of Canadian Archivists Annual Conference. Our roundtable, “Black Dreams & the Archives” reflected on current/future possibilities within traditional archive spaces.

Episode Resources:

Ruha Benjamin (2024). Imagination: A Manifesto. https://www.ruhabenjamin.com/imagination-a-manifesto

Robin D.G. Kelley (2003). Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/206173/freedom-dreams-by-robin-dg-kelley/

Melissa J. Nelson (2024). Dreaming with Archives: A Writing Workshop. https://www.instagram.com/p/C9Ke--5gB4Z/?img_index=1

Black Memory Collective [@black.memory.co]. Instagram post. Black Dreams & The Archives. Retrieved from, https://www.instagram.com/p/C7eMSRugo8u/?igsh=M2w4OTQ4a2Yxa2Jh

Black Memory Collective. https://blackmemorycollective.com

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 Kadeem Dunn, a video game creator at Diaspora Games. Kadeem joins us to speak about his work recreating memory through historical video games.

Episode Resources:

Diaspora Games. Games for us, by us. https://www.diasporagames.ca/index.html

Channon Oyeniran (February 8, 2019). Sleeping Car Porters in Canada. Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sleeping-car-porters-in-canada

Black Memory Collective [@black.memory.co]. Instagram post. What is a memory worker? Retrieved from, https://www.instagram.com/p/C5QiZnJg4qm/?img_index=1

Tonia Sutherland (2023). Resurrecting The Black Body: Race and The Digital Afterlife. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383876/resurrecting-the-black-body

Replika https://replika.com/

Hirun Cryer (May 17, 2024). Who is Assassin's Creed Shadows' protagonist Yasuke? The history behind the first Black Samurai explained. Games Radar. https://www.gamesradar.com/games/assassin-s-creed/who-is-assassins-creed-shadows-protagonist-yasuke-the-history-behind-the-first-black-samurai-explained/

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 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.