Introduction
As a librarian and a woman of color working in the archives, I have often felt like a conundrum.
I work to protect this history, and help make it accessible, but at the same time, the stories of my own ancestors and communities are so often missing from these spaces. “Ancestral Futures” was dreamed up as a way to combat this erasure, to reconnect these materials with their communities, and to inspire new ways of thinking about the archive as a whole, all through a means more accessible than traditional research: art. By welcoming artists, writers, and other creatives to the archive, we open the doors to new beginnings, and new pathways to engaging with these materials and histories.
I hope that the art shared here inspires and moves you, as it has me. I will always remember these narratives and stories anytime I see these archives and materials again. That connection is powerful. For that reason, we have chosen to include images (and if applicable, institutional descriptions) of the archival materials that inspired each submission.
With appreciation,
Sandy Enriquez
Organizer for Ancestral Futures