By HESSEM LADCANI
Contributing Writer
The complex, pervasive, and often hidden role that archives and surveillance play in perpetuating power was explored in an online panel discussion titled “Collecting Power” held on Thursday, Oct. 20.
Organized by English professor Eurie Dahn, the panel discussion brought together Christopher Gregory-Rivera, Leesa Kelly, and Jasmine Bumpers with John Diefenderfer in a joint panel to discuss the unique research projects each has done in exploring the role of archives and power.
Gregory-Rivera, a New York City-based Puerto Rican photographer who works on reconstructing historical narratives through documentary still life and archival research, studied the longest illegal and unconstitutional surveillance the American government conducted on its citizens.
For 30 years, Puerto Ricans were surveyed and blacklisted for their ideals and beliefs supporting Puerto Rican independence. As a result, 150,000 citizens were brought in for questioning, and many more were discriminated against once targeted as being surveyed. Some lost their jobs and were criminalized for owning and displaying the Puerto Rican flag.
Gregory-Rivera presented evidence he collected from each of the victims’ files containing photographs of Puerto Ricans in the street. “They were identified, and then labeled with numbers on the back often sometimes with their corresponding file,” he said.
Later, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico declared the surveillance unconstitutional and started a process to figure out what to do with the documents. He said the court decided these documents were the personal property of the people who were surveilled, so they belonged to them. The sole copies of the surveillance documents were then handed directly to the victims of the surveillance.
Archiving and collecting the data needed, Gregory-Rivera explained, took extensive months of research to find and get permission from those citizens to later open an exhibition showing the story of Puerto Ricans’ history to power.
Kelly, an activist writer, public speaker, and curator discussed her collection of wooden panels that store owners had displayed during the pandemic titled Memorialize the Movement. During the lockdown, the Black Lives Matter movement was catapulted into the forefront due to the death of George Floyd.
Kelly explained her experience after May 25, 2022, the day Floyd was murdered by a police officer. Kelly divulged the emotions she felt as a Black woman living in America, focusing on her struggle with expressing her sentiments until she came upon a closed storefront with wooden panels boarding it.
The importance wasn’t so much on the slab of the wood itself but on what it contained, she said. On it, and later on, many other similar wood panels were paintings that the Black community in Minneapolis had done to express their frame of mind on the events occurring at the time. Her collection has since grown, and Kelly has even had the opportunity to present a live exhibit of all the panels collected during the height of BLM.
“People would ask me ‘who’s the artist who created this?’ – that one was created by a child that was a scared child who created that mural,” Kelly said. “That was a teenager, that was a student, that was a mom, and once they understood the context it just became such a powerful experience.” Later, Kelly mentioned the prospect of opening a museum for a more permanent exhibit of the panels.
Jasmine Bumpers and John Diefenderfer worked together and discussed their project.
Bumper is an archivist in the Access Services unit of the New York State Archives, and Diefenderfer works at the New York State Archives in the Archival Advisory Services unit coordinating documentary heritage program, advisory, and grant services. They examined how language has and will continue to change in the New York State Archives based upon a diversity inclusion team they formed in 2020 that aims at ensuring their collections, services, and staff reflects respect.
They explained their process of changing the language used for the New York State Archives to support the diverse populations of New York state. One example Bumpers showed was the dehumanizing language used for prison records, presenting an edited record where previously the word ‘inmate’ would’ve been used but has now been changed to ‘incarcerated individuals.’
“You know people are more than a crime they commit and you know incarcerated individuals. They’re deserved as much respect as anybody else,” Bumper said.
Dahn thanked the departments and dean of the School of Arts and Humanities that helped sponsor and support the event, ending the panel with hope for the future. “We’re not really sure what digital archives will look like. But we’re hoping to kind of keep in mind with that story map and create something that can really teach people and impact them as well,” she said.
