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Hi there, and Happy Middle of January!

Thanks for signing up for monthly updates from Chronicling Resistance, Enabling Resistance. This first update contains a note from our project director, events and announcements, and links to things we think you might find important. If you see something good here, please share this newsletter with your networks.

Before you throw that out ...

A note from our Project Director

 

It's January, and some of us made decluttering one of our new year's resolutions. We're making space in our closets, in our children's toy boxes, in our kitchen cabinets, on our bookshelves, on our phone and computer hard drives, and in our Dropbox, Google Drive, or other cloud-based storage. We're following tidy-up guidelines based on variations of the quote, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful," attributed to William Morris, an English textile designer associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. Most tips for decluttering have to do with getting rid of the old, unused, or worthless to make space for the new, useful, and desired. They're about living in the now

Tossing seemingly useless objects and documents out is practical for my daily life, but frightening when it comes to my work on an archives project. I imagine someone in need of physical, mental, or emotional space and who doesn't know how their photos, ticket stubs, journals, or books a used bookstore didn't give them enough money for could ever  be useful to anyone, throwing them away. I want to yell, "Stop!" and snatch their hands from the drawstring of the trash bag. A bit overdramatic perhaps, but when historians, students, journalists, and other researchers put together narratives of lived experience from the previous generation or century, they find material in the everyday things that, if we kept them, might make us seem like hoarders, not archivists.

This is true even when it comes to records of resistance.
We've been asking the public to define resistance and tell us who their Philadelphia resistance heroes are. So far, not one person has defined resistance as a public protest or participation in other mass action. So far, most of the people named as heroes are anonymous or are known in select communities. They are family members, community elders, artists, poets, self--names unlikely to make it into a K-12 or college textbook but imperative to our existence now, important for personal or community self-determination in the future, and a career highlight to historians who know how challenging it is to find voices of "everyday people" in the historical record.

So before you toss that embarrassing box of notes you passed to and received from your friends in fourth grade, rethink how useful, beautiful, and valuable your history is.

And if you just don't want the stuff in your house, perhaps you can learn from Democratic political strategist and author 
Donna Brazile's decluttering experience.


 --Mariam Williams, Project Director

Events -- You're Invited!

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the integration of Girard College and the acts of resistance that made it possible, we invite you to share your memories of resistance. Bring a document or object you own that’s part of your individual, family, or community resistance narrative. Your story can relate to education, race, gender, class, work, the environment, your neighborhood, or any other subject that’s important to you!
All in attendance will have an opportunity to share their story with 6-12 people in a small group story circle. Explore the oral history exhibit, “Opening the Gates: Desegregating Girard College,” and tour Founder’s Hall Museum from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. All ages welcome! Childcare and parking provided onsite. Register now!
More upcoming listening sessions:

1/19, 11 AM - 1 PM, African American Museum in Philadelphia
2/8, 7 PM, Uncle Bobbie's Cafe, following screening of Sisters in Freedom
2/16, 4 PM, Free Library of Philadelphia Parkway Central Branch, during Community Day
And more! See our website for updates.

Also, catch Mariam on the G-Town Radio show, Life Grooves, Friday, Feb. 8, 4-5 PM.

 

Have you shared your thoughts about resistance with us?

How do you see yourself in Philadelphia’s resistance history? Would you have fought back against colonization? Been a revolutionary? Preserved your ancestral culture and traditions? Fed and clothed children in your community? Held hands in public with a forbidden partner? Stood against ratifying the 13th, 14th, or 19th amendments? Tell us!
ATTN: PACSCL MEMBERS!

Have you told us about the resistance-themed documents in your collections? Let's help students, activists, artists, and non-academic researchers find them.

Catch up on our Blog


 
Did you know the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River in Western Pennsylvania was built in violation of a 1794 treaty with the Seneca Nation? PACSCL member institution Haverford College Libraries holds several example of media produced to protest the displacement of Seneca families for the dam. Learn more about these documents, other collections, and previous listening sessions on our blog.



 
Read More

Partner/Affiliate Events


 

One Book, One Philadelphia Begins January 16


Events for Philadelphia's city-wide reading program kick off Wednesday, Jan. 16, 7:30 PM, at the Parkway Branch, and continue through March. This year, we're all reading Sing, Unburied, Sing, by two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. Learn more.

 

Anita Hill at Lehigh University

Anita Hill will speak on "From Social Movement to Social Impact: Putting an End to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace" at Lehigh, 7:30 PM Thursday, Feb. 7, in Baker Hall of the Zoellner Arts Center. FREE and open to the public. More details here.

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Support for the research and development of this project
has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

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