Shange & New Archival Practices
Our introduction to Shange’s Archives allowed me to theorize archival space and the process of archiving in new ways. Since our session, I have been pondering the significance of Shange’s collection — what makes the archive of a living, black woman, and Barnard alumna, so significant and distinct?
In pondering this question, I was struck by Shannon Miller’s account of the history of archival work and the etymology of the word “archive” from the Greek “arkhe” meaning “magistracy, office, government”. There is a historic relationship between the traditional practice of archiving and maintaining governance and control of access to information. Understanding this relationship is integral to recognizing the unique space and place of the Shange collection.
The nature of Shange’s work teaches us new archival practices. The concept of physicality, fundamental to Shange’s writing, places emphasis on touching something (papers, photographs, jewelry, etc.) that Shange has touched. Emphasizing touch in archival practice counters enforced surveillance and use of gloves in archival spaces. By interrogating the word “archive” rooted in oppressive practices, Shange’s interrogation of grammatical and linguistic constructs is affirmed and reproduced. Interrogating the word comes from an acknowledgment of the limitations of language as well as the desire to create new forms and functions of language.
Sharing the experience of handling the items of Shange’s archive, alongside Shange herself, reminded me that she continues to be a source of information and that the items found in the archive do not make up all the information we could possibly learn from Shange, the person. Reassigning power to Shange, rather than to the archived pieces alone, reminds us to not limit our interpretative space to the physical archival space. This counters the idea of the archive as an authority on information.
During the session, we discussed “collective understanding” of the intrinsic value of what is to be archived. Sydney noted that, in the case of black people’s work and livelihoods, it is crucial that black people engage in archiving before a “collective understanding” develops. From my interpretation of her point, I concluded that waiting for non-marginalized people to recognize the intrinsic value of marginalized people’s work is ineffective and unnecessary. From Shange’s work, we learn the importance of realizing self and collective value for people of color in marginalized spaces. Shange’s archive serves as a valuable and accessible space for marginalized people to engage in self and collective reflection and, ultimately, build on Shange’s work, which thrives both within and without her archival collection.
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