Thread by @krisknisely

It's about to start! 👇🏻 So glad to get to be here for this launch!

https://twitter.com/TransArchives/status/1328761843410554881

@morganmpage begins the convo after a bit of situating by the organizers. She discusses her own intellectual journey as a writer, public historian, & artist within and against the historical moments in which she, like many, "had a limited sense of what our lives could be" [2/]

She points out the "inaccessibility of archives" and what that means for the challenges in unearthing documents (making a beautiful and important hat tip to @tourmaliiine), particularly for people who are not institutionally affiliated (me: cough, cough gatekeeping cough). [3/]

(This is not the point of any of this brilliant panel, but the internet needs to know about the whole vibe @morganmpage has going on in her set up! This red shirt she picked out and this *chefs kiss* collection of string lights! Stylé. File this under Zoom goals for me.) [4/]

Continuing the conversation, with such joy, @syrusmarcusware underlines the critical role of an accessible Trans archive. Syrus talks about the value work done via archives -- "Whose memories are we considering so precious that we must preserve and store?" [5/]

"This idea of a future where trans people get to live long enough to become elders is rooted in a look-back to the past [...] remembering these pasts to imagine a future where we all get to survive and to thrive" - @syrusmarcusware 🔥🙏🏻 [6/]

Next, @susanstryker talks about her experiences working on Lou Sullivan's papers and Lou's role in the San Francisco GLB historical society where she volunteered in the 90s and where she was later Executive Director. [7/]

(I can't help but take this opportunity to note the amazing work done by a dear friend, Brice Smith on Lou Sullivan's life. Check out his book: Daring To Be A Man Among Men transgresspress.org/lou-sullivan.h…) [8/]

Susan Stryker continues to discuss how different movements, time periods, discourses, etc. afford us certain opportunities for how we construct a particular 'we' and foreclose other possible articulations of what 'we' meant or could mean in the context of particular orgs. [9/]

It is hard to do the work of "figuring out how to survive under circumstances that don't favor us" - @susanstryker [10/]

"Before we do the work of interpreting and preserving history, there has to be the material means of doing it, and that can be very hard work to acquire and to maintain those means," notes @susanstryker, bringing her remarks to a close. [11/]

Noting how specific moments can be hard to put our fingers on, Syrus invites us to think more deeply about how we imagine what archives are, where they are, and what and where they could be, stating: [12/]

"I just know that we need more. We need to somehow meet or bridge the gap b/w community & archive. I'm talking here about some of the access issues that we've been talking about today & also about how particular communities find them absented from archives"-@syrusmarcusware [13/]

He continues, "[...we need] the archive to also come out into the community where [...] the narratives and histories are being formed and shaped in real time" - @syrusmarcusware [14/]

@morganmpage questions whether Universities will ever come to us & whether that is even something we should seek: "How can we galvanize communities to do some of that archival work ourselves?" Part of this is a Q of ownership & how that is felt in (counter-)archival work. [15/]

"We owe everything to them"- @syrusmarcusware on Black trans women, who have always been at the forefront of our movements. [16/]

Let me tweet that one twice for the people in the back 👀: "WE OWE EVERYTHING TO THEM"- @syrusmarcusware on Black trans women, who have always been at the forefront of our movements. [17/]

As we move into time for dialogue among panelists and those of us in the audience, I want to quick note that I am capturing only the smallest bits of all of the brilliance and deep thinking and the weaving together of those things in dialogue that is happening here today. [18/]

Answering a question from someone in the audience about archives and erasure, Syrus reminds us that identifying the practices to not engage in is also a part of identifying avenues for imagining new, alternative possibilities: [19/]

"Not falling into the practices of erasure that traditional archiving creates [...] it allows us to re-imagine everything" - @syrusmarcusware [20/]

(Can I please just listen to @syrusmarcusware speak all day? It is an absolute pleasure & privilege to be in this virtual space, to listen & to learn 🙏🏻 I cannot keep up w/ everything I wish I could archive for myself here. This is maybe the best transition to Morgan's🌟point👇🏻)

"The internet is currently the largest archive that has ever existed" -@morganmpage notes, as she simultaneously advocates for the digitization of archives and questions the ethical implications of such a robust digital archiving. [22/]

Morgan continues: "What is the right to be forgotten in the archive? [...What is] the consent of the archival process [?... Particularly] if people are still alive digitizing some of that information can endanger them (e.g., immigration status, sex workers)"-@morganmpage [23/]

The question is ultimately: What does "the right to be forgotten and the right to not be archived" look like? -@morganmpage [24/]

"Why are we not outraged that the only conditions under which some of us can be safe is to be erased (entirely) [...]? I honestly don't know why we're not out in the streets every day." -@syrusmarcusware [25/]

The conditions in which we continue to live makes it so that "invisibility is still the only possible safety. And I ask, why are we not outraged? [...] We should be so outraged that we are marching in the streets. [...] How are we still in this moment?" -@syrusmarcusware [26/]

Let's take a minute to really listen to that question, to sit in the discomfort of our reality: "How are we still in this moment?" -@syrusmarcusware [27/]

As we think about what it means to prepare continued and future generations of trans archivists, trans scholars, and trans activists, Syrus puts some of the best words on this that I have ever heard: [28/]

"Our work has to be to make the revolution irresistible, [...] so that never again will we be in this situation again where cis people have created so much violence that our only safety is to disappear." - @syrusmarcusware [29/]

(@syrusmarcusware --- Who was it that you referenced on 'making the revolution irresistible'? I missed the person's name in trying to capture as much as I could of what you were saying.) [30/]

Let me tweet that twice, so as to really SIT w/ this: "Our work has to be to make the revolution irresistible, [...] so that never again will we be in this situation again where cis people have created so much violence that our only safety is to disappear." @syrusmarcusware [31/]

(I missed capturing so much! Broadly speaking, we've gotten into talking about how the movement for trans liberation necessarily entails solidarity w/ trans sex workers of color -- ) [32/36]

Often people & organizations try to distance themselves from sex work, but sex workers have been integral to these movements, especially Black trans sex workers and trans sex workers of color (One very well known example: Marsha P Johnson) [33/36]

"We know respectability politics doesn't work. It doesn't matter [...what clothes you wear or that you got that fancy professor job..] that is not what is going to actually lead to our liberation and freedom" - @syrusmarcusware 🔥🙏🏻 [34/36]

If you would like a copy of the trans collections guide, it is available as a PDF on the @TheArQuives' website and on the Collaboratory website: lgbtqdigitalcollaboratory.org [35/36]

Aaaand that's a wrap! What a fantastic couple of hours! This is only the smallest glimpse into the depth & breadth of what we discussed today. Deepest thanks to @syrusmarcusware @morganmpage @susanstryker Elspeth Brown @TheArQuives & to all who made this possible!🙏🏻[36/36]

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