Digging into Montreal’s Black Community Archives
Over two packed days in late May, the Black Community Archives Discovery Days drew a full house to Concordia’s Webster Library to explore the living history of Black Montreal. Roundtables on Black collections and community publishing were held alongside hands-on workshops in visual culture, oral history and artmaking.
The event also marked the official launch of “Black Lives in/and Archives,” a collaborative archival project dedicated to preserving and cultivating Black histories. Funded by the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Fonds de recherche du Québec, the project was developed by Désirée Rochat, History professor and Discovery Days co-organizer, during her postdoctoral fellowships. The project is now based in the Department of History.
“The Discovery Days and the Black Lives in/and Archives project are part of efforts that have long happened inside — and, importantly, outside of — university walls to disseminate the intellectual history of Black Studies in Montreal,” Rochat says.
A chance to participate
The days offered attendees the chance to dig into community archives, trace the relationships between archives, interpret historical photographs, learn from oral traditions and make art directly inspired by archival sources.
Activities were guided by facilitators such as Kelann Currie-Williams, a Concordia PhD candidate whose research explores the photographic archival practices of Black Canada’s Caribbean Diaspora, who led a workshop on reading archival images. Leon Llewellyn, a founding member of Black Art Histories Montreal and photographer whose work is held in Concordia's Special Collections, guided participants in creating art from archival sources.
In addition to Rochat, the organizing team included Kristen Young, Black community engagement co-ordinator at the Office of Community Engagement, as well as members of the Library's Special Collections and Archives team. Sankofa Archives and Collections, Black Symposium Noir, and the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) also contributed their expertise.
Cultivating Black-centred scholarship
Incoming PhD researcher Keisha Cuffie, who will pursue her doctorate in history under Rochat’s supervision, described the event as "spectacular."
"It was so well planned — from the talks, to the breaks, to the activities and the insights I gained from attending, the Discovery Days related so much to my upcoming research, and I feel more empowered than before," Cuffie says
Rochat notes that these initiatives, as well as the new minor in Black and African Diaspora Studies in the Canadian Context, are an opportunity to cultivate Black-centred scholarship.
“The new minor also brings together scholars and students from a diversity of disciplines who are committed to honouring local Black intellectual history, while participating in the continued development of an international intellectual field that centres Black thoughts and liberation.”
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