L: Sierra King at Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Library
R: Build Your Archive Tote Bag placed on couch surrounded by books
My name is Sierra King, and I am a Master’s student and Social Justice for Archivist Scholar in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama. I have created this Social Justice ePortfolio (SJ-eP) as part of my work for CIS 668 (Social Justice and Inclusion Advocacy) course FALL 2023. In addition to, my work completed in Diversity & Inclusion ePortfolio (D&I-eP) for CIS 650 (Applying Diversity Leadership Theories and Praxis), I will be continuing working with the communication agency Build Your Archive, a nomadic memory work lab for Black Women Artist to build their archives in real time.
In my SJ-eP, I will recommend strategic changes regarding language and distribution informed by promising practices gleaned from Black Feminist Text, Black memory work and community participatory archiving. It is my aim to complete a refined mission, vision and values statement that will inform the direction of the communication into the next 3-5 years of community work.
Through further development an updated environmental scan of similar workplaces and projects. I will then be able to suggest through research any and all relevant paradigms / methods best suited for the Black Women Artists, Organizations and Estates that inquire about the process of building an archive.
This research will also be based on analysis of existing communication and information that is being distributed across their digital platforms of the newsletter, Instagram and forthcoming zine.
I also propose a range of responsive strategies to further cultural competence and effective leadership in the diverse workforce environment. As part of my analysis I will critically evaluate a variety of existing information responses (e.g. collections, services, programs, resources, policies, and best practices) to ensure equality and equity of representation, access, and information use of diverse stakeholders in my community-centered organizational setting.
I will also develop a strategic social justice action plan for Build Your Archive to identify future directions of progressive growth and professional practice.
As the founder and principal archivist of Build Your Archive, I established this organization in response to providing the service of building an archive to my family as that I had provided to other artist and cultural workers like Kathleen Cleaver, Jasmine Nicole Williams and Ebony Blanding. As I moved deeper into my own familial archives, community members, scholars and families also recognized the timely need for preserving the narratives and their histories on their own accord.
With continued interest in data science and analysis, photo preservation and community care. I am determined to expand what is known as Build Your Archive 101 into the digital humanities space by integrating tools and technology like airtable to make the process of archiving less overwhelming and more accessible.
Throughout my work, I have come to an understanding that storytelling is a communal experience built in relationship. Most importantly, where Black Women and their stories are centered their community's organizations, cultural spaces and estates are provided with the necessary resources and tools to continue document preserve and archive within their own right.
As a communication and informational professional, I am interested in integrating Social Justice praxis and theory into the community work that I do. Overall, I am concerned with ensuring that Black people and women are highly aware of the value of their contributions to society-at-large and well as how to protect the interiority of our knowledge and practices.
In Civil Wars, June Jordan speaks to this and says, “We are the Truth: We are the living Black experience, and therefore, we are the primary sources of information. For us, there is nothing optional about Black Experience and/or ‘ Black Studies: we must know ourselves.” As I continue to orient my political stance, it is too my belief that there is truth and value in understanding that the lived Black experience is, both individually and collectively, is a valid primary source.
Jordan, J. (1995). Civil Wars. In Google Books. Simon and Schuster. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Civil_Wars/v8ql0L_HMLYC?hl=en&gbpv=1