Join us for a performance reading by artist-researcher, writer, and curator Nydia A. Swaby, drawn from her book Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Future of Black Feminist Archives (Lawrence Wishart, 2024).

Through archival images, autoethnography, and visual storytelling, Swaby traces her research into the legacy of Pan-African feminist Amy Ashwood Garvey, reflecting on what it means to curate a Black feminist archive from the fragments, silences, and scattered geographies that shaped her life.

Following the reading, Swaby will be joined by archivist and memory worker Zakiya Collier for a conversation on Black feminist archival practice and the possibilities it opens for reimagining both historical memory and contemporary cultural work. Together, they will reflect on how they tend to the traces of Black women’s lives and consider what it means to build and sustain archives rooted in care, kinship, and collective memory.

Image: Snapshots from Amy Ashwood Garvey's journey to West Africa, 1946-1949. Amy is pictured wearing kente, engaged in a gathering with Ashanti King Prempeh II, and addressing an audience with her characteristic poise. Courtesy of Patricia and Phillip Maillard.