How Black archives are highlighting overlooked parts of history and culture

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Pinder is part of a larger movement of archivists, curators and memory workers who seek to elevate overlooked parts of Black history and culture.

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How Black archives are highlighting overlooked parts of history and culture
In recent years, a movement of archivists, curators and memory workers have sought to elevate overlooked parts of Black history and culture. Though their mediums vary, their missions are the same: To...
4:00 PM · Feb 19, 2022

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/19/us/black-archivists-history-culture-cec/index.html

(CNN)To scroll through We The Diaspora is to meditate on the mundanities of Black life.

Vintage photos show Black people splashing around in water, dancing in a nightclub, kissing their partner on a balcony. Portraits capture Muhammad Ali waiting in a hallway before an exhibition match, Prince playing basketball, Diana Ross eating a rib. Whether the camera is aimed at regular people or famous figures, the moments on display are delightfully ordinary.

That quality is intentional, says the Instagram account's curator Jiya Pinder. She launched We The Diaspora during the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020 -- a salve for the barrage of images depicting Black pain and trauma. It's not that there wasn't truth in those images, she says. But there was so much more that wasn't being reflected.

"It was an accessible way for people to peek into the past," Pinder says of the project. "I really just wanted to create a photo archive that captured the history, cultural diversity and everyday life experiences of people across the African diaspora."

Outside of her day job as a social media manager, Pinder says she spends a few hours each week combing through digital archives and photographer portfolios to source images for We The Diaspora. The result is a rainbow of imagery -- metaphorically and literally -- that provides a glimpse into Black life over the last century.

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