A Collector of Me: Art, Play, and Archival Practice

Archivist and educator Zakiya Collier presents an interactive workshop on memory work, archival practices and cultural preservation.
About this Event

The Free Black Women's Library is a literary hub, reading room, Black Feminist archive, and community care space that features a free store, period pantry, backyard garden, reading club, weekly book swap, and a wide array of free public programs, as well as a collection of over 5000 books written by Black women and Black nonbinary authors.
This social art project was created by artist and cultural worker OlaRonke Akinmowo in 2015, and is funded by merchandise sales and direct donations.
Sustain her work by becoming a monthly patron at ❤️

The Free Black Women's Library presents
A Collector of Me: Art, Play, and Archival Practice
with Zakiya Collier
Saturday, July 25
3PM - 5PM

I SHALL BECOME A COLLECTOR OF ME…AND PUT MEAT ON MY SOUL.
- Sonia Sanchez
An in-person hands on workshop for Black women and Black nonbinary and gender nonforming people that will focus on how we preserve the stories we carry within us and decide how we want to be remembered.
Engaging in playful archival practice, participants will have the opportunity to move through different art-making stations, exploring methods for becoming collectors of ourselves. People will have the option to participate in collective poetry writing, Polaroid photography & preservation, and archival collaging.
This workshop asks:
What do you want to remember? and How do you want to be remembered? as we creatively and collaboratively expand access to Black histories and challenge who gets to tell our collective histories.

Supplies will be provided, though participants may bring copies of photos and documents they want to work with, and no prior experience is required.

Facilitator's Bio:
Zakiya Collier is a multidisciplinary archivist, memory worker, and educator whose work explores the role of cooperative archival practices in sustaining cultural memory. She leads The Black Memory Workers, a community of over 350 members committed to practicing care and intention in the long-term preservation of Black life. Zakiya is currently an Adjunct Professor at Queens College (CUNY) and New York University, Program Director for Archiving the Black Web, and was recently a 2025 Artist-in-Residence with The Laundromat Project. She is also a co-producer on the forthcoming documentary, Somebody’s Gone, and co-editor of a special double issue of The Black Scholar on Black Archival Practice.