Archival Encounters: Writing on Black Ecological Memory

The traditional archival record has long been critiqued for the absence of depictions of Black life. Moreover, notions of Black livingness in sites of climate and environmental injustice, often known as “sacrifice zones” are often limited. Port Arthur, Texas is in many ways a “classic” example of one of these sites as this predominantly Black community is nestled within one of the world’s largest oil refining networks. It is also often in a state of recovery from intense hurricane events as it sits along the U.S. Gulf Coast. In this talk, I intervene in the normative archival record of Port Arthur through creative archival methods. I collaborate with community partners to co-develop this archival intervention that aims to foreground Black life and relationships to place and environment over time in Port Arthur. These methods include building a community-based oral history database, creating and installing a historical marker, and integrating environmental records.

Speaker: Tianna Bruno, UC Berkeley

Hartley Conference Center