In “Constituting an Archive” (2001), British cultural theorist Stuart Hall explores the implications of a “living archive”: an ongoing, never-completed project that remains open to reinterpretation and new possibilities. Unlike conventional understandings of “tradition,” which often position the past as fixed and unchanging, a living archive understands the past as active, and continually reshaped by the present. How might stories from the past become living forms of memory that open up new possibilities for curating a Black archive? This workshop will introduce the concept of the living archive through case studies from ArchiveBlack’s work and invite participants to consider how Black communities can preserve and archive materials that have historically been overlooked or excluded from traditional archival practices. These might include funeral booklets, Black burial grounds, and family photographs documenting everyday life.
Join us for the third session of Archives & Anecdotes, a virtual series that builds on the themes of the Remix Residency by inviting archivists and cultural workers to explore how archives can help us imagine and shape liberatory futures.
ABOUT DR. CHERYL THOMPSON
Dr. Cheryl Thompson is the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Black Expressive Culture and Creativity in the Diaspora at Toronto Metropolitan University, a Member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Founder and Director of ArchiveBlack (formerly Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives, MOBA), and the author of four books on race, performance, and cultural memory in Canada, including her most recent, Staging Blackface in Canada (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2026). Her book, Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom, 1812–1897 (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2025) was recently nominated for a Heritage Toronto Book Award. Her research has attracted over $5.9 million in competitive funding, she is a TEDx speaker, documentary narrator, and one of Canada's leading public voices on the history of anti-Black racism in Canadian popular culture.
This program is generously funded by the Centre for Community Engagement and Social Change (CCESC).