Archives as Revolt: Chronicling Resistance and Building Power in History
Zainab Jaffry
Chronicling Resistance is a project based in occupied Lenapehoking (Philadelphia) aiming to tell the stories of marginalized groups through historical archives and relate them to today’s liberation efforts. The exhibition reveals buried truths and explores oral histories with an intersectional lens. The art of eight local organizers covers realms of food justice, mutual aid, immigration, slavery, colonialism, movement, and more. The initiative serves as a revolt to structural suppression of Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ perspectives within traditional archival spaces. The objectives are to preserve histories otherwise overlooked, to support current organizing efforts, and to build templates for public libraries to empower oppressed communities to see themselves reflected in historical archives. Chronicling Resistance invites us all to honor the past in our own ways and to imagine better futures, here in Philly and beyond.
Work by VietLead's Farm Food Sovereignty Director Lan Dinh, titled Resistance Rooted in Community, explores themes of displacement and methods of rebelling against ongoing gentrification and assimilation in the Southeast Asian community. When asked how her research informs her organizing practices, Lan responded, “I’ve been most inspired by the journey of refugees and how they adapted homeland cultural farming techniques here–guerilla farming, food sovereignty, homestead gardening.” From a family of Vietnamese refugees and farmers, her research delves into the issues faced after resettlement to West Philadelphia. Lan describes discovering old newspaper clippings of Southeast Asian resistance, noting, “Over forty years later, we could hear each other’s stories, process, hold space, laugh, celebrate, grieve, and heal from the past.”
Resistance Rooted in the Ancestors, a project by Wit López, honors Black queer and trans elders and recognizes how they have paved the way for Black LGBTQ+ communities. Along with several other endeavors, Wit is the Artistic Director of Till Arts, an organization that provides space and resources for queer artists in Philadelphia. They describe their research as work that “spans the way that Black LGBT creatives are using their creative work as a tool of resistance against oppression.” Wit emphasizes the intersection of Blackness and queerness in suppressed histories and amplifies the hidden stories of activists like Clarissa Sligh, Anita Cornwell, and Alain Locke; Wit’s own activism, they explain, is “also the people that I’m lifting up within my work, whose work I’m shining a light on.”
Anita Cornwell, speaking at the Burger Roast, 1987
Archival Image as part of exhibition by Wit López
Displayed at Parkway Central Library
What does Chronicling Resistance provoke us to ask ourselves? For some it might prompt a desire to preserve their own familial or community history in some way. Many marginalized folks have relied on oral histories and the maps that exist within our bodies to understand, remember, and persist toward liberation. Generational trauma, generational blessings, and everything in between may not be able to be captured in its fullness, but this is arguably what makes it all so sacred to begin with. The violence of colonization as well as continued imperialism by the west cannot suppress the vastness, wholeness, and rebellion that is at the heart of Black, Brown, and queer experiences and identities. Honoring the past may allow us to reimagine the future and inform our practices in the present.
Other Chronicling Resistance fellows are Charlyn Griffit-Oro, Khaliah D. Pitts & Nia Minard, Katherine Sarwopeni, Germaine Ingram, and Malkia Okech. Find their work for the initiative and more information on their website. The exhibit is no longer on view in person; however, you can view the virtual tour here.
Zainab Jaffry (she/her) is a queer Pakistani artist and cultural worker whose creative expression is deeply rooted in collective liberation. Her work explores radical love, intersections of identity, community healing, connection to the land, and decolonial praxis.