newsletter #1: welcome to the archipelago

Written By Diaspora Solidarities Lab

With the first year of the Mellon Diaspora Solidarities Lab completed and another year on the horizon, we wanted to take a moment to reflect upon and share the exciting work we seeded in 2022. We want to thank you for being part of this journey, for your support, participation, and critique as we’ve slowly found our way. Check out some of the projects underway below and don’t forget to subscribe to keep up with all of the DSL updates.

Yours in Solidarity, 
Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez (Director)
Jessica Marie Johnson (Co-Director)
Tatiana Esh (Project Manager)

HIGHLIGHTS

DSLxLAUNCH

This summer we hosted a hybrid launch for the DSL at Michigan State Universities Libraries. Over thirty members of the DSL traveled to MSU and joined online to meet and map their 2022 projects. We hosted two virtual keynotes from Kaiama Glover and Mayra Santos Febres, and gifted DSL swag bags with goods from Alt Print Lansing, Good Neighbor, and We Are Maude. We included two books: Boat People by Mayra Santos Febres (translated by Vanessa Perez Rosario) and Black Is The Journey, Africana the Name by Maboula Soumahoro (translated by Kaiama Glover)…read them with us! 

INAUGURAL COMMUNITY FELLOWS

Community Fellows are non-academic/non-institutionally affiliated community organizers, artists, farmers, cultural workers, or groups who collaborate on projects with other participants and innovate DSL-sponsored projects of their own. The Community Fellows program is the regranting arm of the DSL that focuses on collaborative community work with $5K grants. In 2022 the DSL welcomed our inaugural 2022 community fellows:

A flyer promoting an art show called "The Fires Hoboken: 1978-1982" at the Hoboken Historical Museum. The show opens January 22, 2023. The photo in the center of the flyer shows a charred photo of a young boy in 1980s style clothing.

The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982:

DSL Community Fellow Chris López’s exhibit, The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982, opened at the Hoboken Historical Museum on January 22, 2023 and will show through April 2023.

DSL MICROLABS

The research body of the DSL resides in our two archipelagos: the Open Boat Lab (MSU) and the Community Knowledge Lab (JHU). Each archipelago supports a series of microlabs (or islands).

The Open Boat Lab [OBL] (dir. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, MSU) comprises four microlabs which engage in digital humanities methods that center community story-telling, documentation/archiving, and creative/public art. Together the OBL is creating digital archives, museum and gallery exhibits, and community workshops. OBL builds ethical digital archives informed by community centers, public art and organizing practices, and offers online and in-person workshops that help to transform how we approach knowledge production, storytelling, documentation, and archiving. Building on existing relationships at MSU and institutions in New York, Hoboken, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic the four microlabs of the OBL include graduate and undergraduate students and consultants from across the U.S. and the Caribbean.

  • Afro-Latinx Lab, led by Mary Peña [Princeton] with members Melanie Rodriguez-Vázquez [MSU], and Jennifer Mojica Santana [MSU], has continued its work on the Femicide Archive Project by interviewing two community organizers, Altagracia Jean Joseph from the Dominican Republic and Gloriann Sacha Antonetty from Puerto Rico. Through these powerful interviews, we got a closer look at the process of collecting data for the femicides of Black women and femmes amidst the reality that the state does not care enough for these women’s lives or deaths. To continue this conversation, the Afro-Latinx Lab will run an event featuring both community organizers to share strategies and imagine together future collaborations. Additionally, the curatorial wing of our lab will present an art exhibit “Alive in their gardens” at the RCAH Gallery (MSU) from March 17 to April 28 where we will feature four Black Latinx artists: Joiri Minaya, Nitzayra Leonor, Felli Maynard, and Star Catherine Feliz. Our team is soon to expand to continue listening to familial stories and honoring the lives of victims of femicide in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

  • After the Storm members Kiana Gonzalez-Cedeño [MSU], Anais Couvertier Garay [UPR, Cayey], and Dr. Teona Williams [Rutgers] have been focused on copy-editing the testimonios of Afro-Puerto Rican women after Hurricane María in 2017. Through their oral histories, collected by the #ProyectoPalabrasPR research team, we see the way these women created pathways of care and survival after the storm, and resisted austerity measures across the archipelago of Puerto Rico. Currently, our lab is crafting a co-written article for submission to Chiricú Journal and we are building a digital site where we will publish these interviews alongside Dr. Teona William’s archival material on Black community survival after tornadoes in Mississippi. We are also excited for the future directions of the lab, such as a potential book project–stay tuned for more on that front!  

  • Archivo Tres Diez, directed by Stephany Bravo [MSU], co-presented “Shoeboxes, Panty Drawers, and ‘The Bottom of the Colchón’: Examining Our Mami’s Refusal, Intervention, and Storage Strategies While Mija Plays Archivist” at Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social alongside Gabriella V. Sanchez. Stephany Bravo and Gabriella V. Sanchez submitted their work on theoretical approaches to “mija archivist” for publication. Archivo Tres Diez was awarded the “The Maximillian Monroy-Miller Memorial Fellowship” from the Chicano/Latino Studies Program at Michigan State University. The funding will be utilized in the purchasing of archival materials for community partners in Compton, Ca during the Summer of 2023.

  • Survival of a People members Imaida M. Durán-Mariñez [UPR, Rio Piedras], Nicole Hernandez [Arizona State Univ], Yuleysy Ortiz [UPR, Rio Piedras], and Ariana Costales Del Toro [MSU], has focused on transcribing and archiving the 140+ audio interviews from the 1970’s-1980’s project The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Themes in the Survival of the People by the late social documentary photographer and community organizer Frank Espada. An estimated 43 interview files were transcribed during Fall 2022, and a similar goal is expected by the end of Spring 2023. Team members have also started envisioning individual projects based on questions surrounding diasporic relationships and gender dynamics with the help of the Espada interviews as reference. SOP is currently planning a trip to visit the Espada home in California in order to meet with Frank Espada’s son Jason who tends to father’s archive and has offered us access to important contextual and historical documentation that will support our efforts to illuminate various aspects of this landmark documentary project. 

The Community Knowledge Lab [CKL] (dir. Jessica Marie Johnson, JHU) trains DSL members in digital skills, supports research initiatives, and runs incubators where members learn methods and theories for centering Black and community-driven knowledge practices. The CKL microlabs engage computational humanities, digital archives, documentary editing, public humanities and art projects.

  • Archipelagos of Marronage, led by Halle Mackenzie-Ashby (JHU), with members Greg Smaldone (JHU) and Arianna Browne (JHU), Archipelagos of Marronage worked on transitioning from its former work under the Keywords for Black Louisiana LifexCode project (with former member Nicole Viglini (Berkeley), and into bringing its data set of nineteenth-century Louisiana runaway ads into presentation format. Using StoryMaps and the runaway ads research, AOM is building out a digital project focused on reproduction and fugitivity in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. As part of this work, AOM attended the American Studies Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, where Halle Mackenzie-Ashby presented work-in-progress and AOM members met with Drs. Molly Mitchell and Ryan Gray of the Midlo Center (UNO), Rachel Breulin, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, and Matt Sakeeney of the Neighborhood Story Project, and leaders of the Louisiana Museum of African American History (LMAAH). The next goal for AOM is building out a module for the Open Curriculum for New Orleans Culture (PI: Bryan Wagner) and continuing to build partnerships with projects like Freedom on the Move.

  • Black Louisiana Incubators, co-led by Maya Hogarth (JHU) and Chenise Calhoun (Tulane), with support from Dr. Robin McDowell (WUSTL) has begun an intensive partnership with the Louisiana Museum of African American History. Their aim is to digitize, transcribe, and translate archived issues of the New Orleans Tribune and L’Union. An incubator on these documents and future publications with LMAAH is planned for Spring 2023! Many thanks to the LMAAH, especially Mr. Leon Waters, for allowing us the opportunity to build and partner with you all!!!

  • Remains // An Archive, is the newest microlab in the CKL! Created by Solidarity Fellows Kevin Ah-Sen (McGill University) and Jessica Newby (JHU) in Fall 2022, RAA is a microlab and collective that enacts interdisciplinary practices to explore archipelagos of real and conceptual grief. Follow RAA on IG/Twitter @remainsarchive  

  • Southern Digital Culture Lab (SDCL): Led by Kelsey Moore (JHU), with co-lead Joshua Strayhorn (Duke) and Teona Williams (Rutgers), the SDCL focused on its Black Southern Studies Working Group (BSSWG) and building a broader community of scholars who are interested in understanding what the ‘Black South’ is and how it is produced and produced by the digital space. The BSSWG hosted a weekly writing group, monthly reading group, and began working on two digital projects, an ArcGIS Story Map and an Omeka site to map thousands of black cemeteries flooded and removed in South Carolina during the construction of the Santee-Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation project. Visit the website for more!

  • Taller Entre Aguas: Led by Dr. Sarah Bruno (Rice University), TEA spent this semester building out two Black Puerto Rican data sets: The 1872 Registro Central des Esclavos and the Criadas Project (formerly known as the Fernando Picó Papers LifexCode project). TEA’s launch featured authoress Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Melanie Maldonado, and a writing workshop co-hosted by the JHU Black World Seminar for DSL, LxC, and Black World Seminar members only. TEA members Carlos Boglio-Casado (UPR-Cayey) and Essah Diaz (UPR-RP) presented at the 2022 Puerto Rican Studies Association meeting, and Dr. Bruno and Dr. Johnson presented new work at the New Literary History Symposium at UVA. Dr. Johnson also represented for TEA at the 2022 Caribbean Digital Symposium at University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. TEA is continuing to build its data set, focusing on data entry as well as move into the creative and imaginative phase of processing and visualizing their data, and furthering community engagement with Black resistance in slavery’s archive in Puerto Rico. TEA also welcomed a new member!!! Welcome Daniel Morales-Armstrong (University of Pennsylvania) as the newest TEA member and DSL Solidarity Fellow. Follow TEA on IG/Twitter @tallerentreaguas 

Thank you to our extended team of members and collaborators who help make these projects happen, including Jes C. Neal, the DSL Archivist, our DSL Digital Tech-In-Residence Lucien Mensah, Alex Gil (LifexCode Digital Strategist), Ellie Palazzolo (LifexCode/JHU Center for the Digital Humanities Digital Dissertation Fellow), staff at JHU Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University, and the staff and libraries at Michigan State. Our team continues to expand, reach out if you want to collaborate!

*Please note, the above microlabs are the only official DSL microlabs. Kitchen Marronage and Digital Junkanoo are no longer with the DSL. For more information about those projects and how to be involved, contact Dr. Tao Goffe (Cornell) directly. 

WELCOME

We want to extend a warm welcome to: Dr. Treva B. Lindsey our new Director of the DSL Writers & Manuscript Workshops; Windy Cosme Consultant on the DSL x Broad Art Museum and Avery Center 2024 Art Exhibitions; Editor Jada Similton and Electric Marronage who will support experimental writing and visual audio art across the DSL; and Stephany Bravo Lab manager for the OBL who will now serve as the interim Lab Manager of the CKL. We also want to welcome three new members to the Open Boat Lab microlabs: Aurelis Troncoso [Univ of Michigan], Alana Cordero Montesinos [UPR, Cayey], and Ayleen Correa Rodriguez [Univ of Michigan].

PAST EVENTS

SOLIDARITIES: CASTING SPELLS

The inaugural event of the DSL was held on September 1, 2022 and featured Ibeyi. Recording artist Lisa-Kaindé Diaz joined Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez and Tatiana Esh in conversation on questions of craft, the Sacred, sisterhood, kinship, and love. You can watch the conversation here.

Community Knowledge Lab Workshops

  • In September, the DSL partnered with the Black Beyond Data Reading Group and the Digital Inquiry Speculation Collaboration Optimism Network (DISCO) to host Dr. Catherine Knight-Steele for a rich discussion about black feminism, social media, and discourse online. Knight-Steele is the author of the award-winning book, Digital Black Feminism (NYU Press, 2021). View the video archive here.

  • In December, the DSL partnered with the Black Beyond Data Reading Group for a conversation with Dorothy Berry, inaugural Digital Curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian. Dorothy Berry is an archivist and curator whose article, “The House Archives Built” went viral for its critical read of Black heritage material and the preservation landscape.

Solidarities Speaker Series

  • In Conversation: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa: In October as part of our Solidarities Speaker Series and to celebrate the launch of the CKL microlab Taller Entre Aguas, the DSL hosted celebrated Afro-Puerto Rican writer Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa. Llanos-Figueroa is the author of Daughters of the Stone (shortlisted as a 2010 Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize); A Woman of Endurance (2022), and Indómita (2022). Llanos-Figueroa led a writing workshop (hosted by the JHU Black World Seminar) and participated in a conversation on Afro-Puerto Rican writing and African ancestral legacies. Llanos-Figueroa was joined by Melanie Maldonado, Founder of PROPA: Lugares Históricos and Executive Director of Alianza Center of Florida. 

  • The Chorus: Saidiya V. Hartman's Trilogy and the Black Feminist Tradition: In November, the DSL partnered with the Center for Africana Studies at JHU to host a two-day event honoring the work of Saidiya Hartman. With a special book talk featuring the work of Maboula Soumahoro (University of Tours) which was co-sponsored by the JHU European Seminar, and a panel of scholars that included Minkah Makalani (JHU), Marisa Fuentes (Rutgers), Derrais Carter (University of Arizona), Asma Naeem (Baltimore Museum of Art), Robbie Shilliam, and more) exploring the “Hartman Trilogy” (Scenes of Subjection, Lose Your Mother, and Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments), this event drew in scholars from around the country and the world. Special thanks to Dr. Minkah Makalani and the entire JHU Center for Africana Studies for collaborating with us and truly making this event a success!

  • DSL Members Only Events

    • Ethics of Translation Workshop: In November, we welcomed editor and translator Beatriz Llenin Figueroa (Editora Educacción Emergente) to the DSL for a Solidarity Fellows workshop on the ethics of translation, transcription-based projects, and editing oral histories. 

DSL ROOT WORK

Our projects are taking root. Here is a glimpse of the projects we are undertaking this year in collaboration with community partners and hosts:

  • DSL Black South Retreat: In March 2023, the DSL will head to Charleston, South Carolina, for a weekend building with our community partner, the Avery Center for African American History and Culture (dir. Dr. Tamara T. Butler).This is a DSL member only event.

  • DSL ReMemory Lab in Puerto Rico: In July 2023 the DSL will travel to Adjuntas and San Juan to collaborate with our community partners Yagrumo (dirs. Jose Arturo Ballester Panelli & Mayra Santos Febres)on location at their rural community artist space “Limani”. This is a DSL member only event.

  • DSL ReMemory Lab in New Orleans: We have begun work on our Summer 2024 ReMemory Lab in New Orleans with our community partner The Black School (dirs. Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier) in the Tremé.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Virtual/Hybrid Events

  • Jan 25: CKL Omeka Workshop with the Omeka Team 1pm EST (This is a DSL member only event.) 

  • Jan 31: A Writing Workshop with Alexis Pauline Gumbs of the Mobile Homecoming Project (This is a DSL member only event.) 

  • Feb 9: Artist Talk & Workshop with Brenda Torres-Figueroa of the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Center in Chicago. February 9 from 12PM EST to 1PM EST

  • Mar 15: CKL Copyrights Workshop with Sandra Enimil (Yale) (This is a DSL member only event.) 

Exhibitions 

  • Afro-Latinx Lab Exhibition “Alive in their Garden” curated by Solidarity Fellow Mary Peña (Princeton) in Collaboration with MSU Residential College of Arts & Humanities. As part of this exhibit there will be a series of in person artist workshops at MSU and a virtual artist talk featuring all four artists in the exhibition. This exhibit will also be digitized and made available via AbleEyes.

    Subscribe to the DSL newsletter for more information about the following events (dates TBA):

  • Solidarities Speaker Series with Christina Sharpe, author of Ordinary Notes (2023)

  • The Hoboken Fires: A Conversation with Photographer Chris Lopez & Remains//An Archive

  • M. Jacqui Alexander & Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez in Conversation, co-Sponsored with Smith College Department of Africana Studies

  • Black Feminist Organizing Across the Archipelago with Gloriann Sacha Antonetty Lebron of Revista Etnica & Altagracia Jean Joseph of Fundación Codigo Humano in Conversation with the Afro-Latinx Lab

Alive in their garden

The Afro-Latinx Microlab inaugural spring exhibition, Alive in their garden, will feature works across media by artist from the Black Latinx diaspora, engaging in plant materiality and aesthetics as life -affirming portals of gender subversion, ecological justice, and ancestral knowing and healing.

LXC

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DH AGAINST ENCLOSURE

The DSL is a LxC Member Lab. Learn more about LifexCode: Digital Humanities Against Enclosure at lifexcode.org.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!

DSL COMMUNITY FELLOWS
We are holding an open call for DSL Community Fellow Grants for 2023! Community Fellows—are non-academic/non-institutionally affiliated community organizers, artists, farmers, cultural workers, or individuals or groups who collaborate on projects or initiatives and innovate DSL-sponsored projects of their own. The Community Fellows program is a regranting arm of the DSL that focuses on collaborative community work. Community Fellows will receive up to $5,000 in grant funding to do their work, engage in mutual support networks, and will report back to the DSL at the end of each year.
APPLY HERE
Diaspora Solidarities Lab https://dslprojects.org
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Fall 2023 Call for Solidarity Fellows