Archives For Black Lives in Philadelphia (A4BLiP) is a loose association of archivists, librarians, and allied professionals in the area responding to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. The group was inspired by Jarrett Drake, formerly Digital Archivist at Princeton University, and his work to end archives’ erasure of Black lives.
Join the A4BLiP Google Group to become involved.
A4BLiP is a completely volunteer-run organization with no formal structure. The group communicates via a Google Group which currently has 200+ subscribers. Members have embarked on a number of projects including:
- Publishing a statement of principles advocating for just policies around records of police violence, affirming the importance of documenting Black lives in the historical record, and acknowledging the need to make the archival profession more inclusive of archivists of color;
- Processing community-based archival collections and seeking opportunities to advise organizations serving Black communities on archival and records management questions;
- Devising standards for anti-oppressive archival description and procedures for auditing repositories’ description for racist language.
Current Organizing Committee:
Faith Charlton
Jennifer Garcon
Beaudry Allen
Alex Palma
Caitlin Rizzo
Archives For Black Lives 