What happens when Black people enter archives looking for ourselves—and discover that we are missing, misrepresented, fragmented, or described through someone else’s language?

Archives do not simply preserve the past; they shape how the past can be encountered, understood, and imagined—and Black archival practice gives us an opportunity not only to recover what has been lost, but to question the record, reclaim our narratives, and remix the past toward more liberatory futures.

Join us for the first 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 CHARISSE BRENT

Charisse Brent is a Black archivist, librarian, and emerging scholar exploring the relationship between Blackness, memory, and the archive. Her work is rooted in a simple but powerful question: What happens when we go looking for ourselves in the historical record? Through her archival practice and scholarship, Charisse examines the gaps, silences, and stories embedded within archival collections, while thinking critically about who gets remembered, how histories are described, and whose perspectives shape the record.

Based in Southern California, Charisse is passionate about creating more inclusive and discoverable archives, particularly for communities whose histories have been overlooked, fragmented, or interpreted through colonial frameworks. She approaches archives as more than repositories of what has already happened—they are spaces for questioning, reclaiming, reinterpreting, and imagining. Her work invites us to consider how we might not only recover the past, but remix it toward more expansive and liberatory futures.

This program is generously funded by the Centre for Community Engagement and Social Change (CCESC).