We The People

Words by Brea Baker

July 4th is around the corner and we are about to see a Tale of Two Americas.

One America will be celebrating in, as Donald Trump promises, “one of the grandest displays of patriotism that the world has ever seen.” Those present in Washington D.C. will descend upon the National Mall to exhale the founding fathers and harken back to the America they carved out of someone else’s backs. With a backdrop of pyrotechnics and music from mid artists, this America will revel in the promise that the last 250 years have largely worked in their favor.

The other America — our America — will take the day off but we won’t really be celebrating. Perhaps commemorating is a better word. Or acknowledging? We won’t be able to ignore the weekend or what it symbolizes because we are the ones holding up a mirror to the ugly history of the past 250 years. We’ve read the books, watched the documentaries, attended the protests, signed the petitions, donated dollars, and fought to make America what we know She could be. We are reflecting, archiving, and dreaming of the 250 years to come and we hope you will do it with us.

OURCHIVES is our special initiative to counteract the noise coming from Washington D.C. It is our people’s history of America’s 250th where we are telling a fuller story and inviting you to curate that archive with us. They can’t erase a story that the community has vowed to protect. This is our invitation to not shy away from the contradictions around us. Highlight them. Interrogate them. Contribute to this archive by being critical and also by preserving what we hold to be beautiful and emblematic of what can be better about America. Memorialize the photographs, recipe books, letters, political posters, and other materials that will give future generations insight to how we live, play, work, and resists.

Below you’ll learn more about all the ways we at Kinfolk Tech have been building new, living archives in honor of this counternarrative. You’ll also find additional ways to connect and get involved with us. Don’t be a bystander in this critical crossroads America is facing. What will the next 250 years say about us? What safety and freedom will we extend to the generations to come? The next story that gets written will be penned by those who come off the sidelines and take the field. Suit up.

Reflections on We The People and Reclamation Day with our Friends and Collaborators at BLIS Collective

This June held two transformative moments in partnership with BLIS Collective — our third teach-in in The People’s Archive series, We The People, and our Kinfolk activation at BLIS Collective’s Reclamation Day. Both programs were deeply rooted in community care, land, water, and unity — bringing people together to reclaim our histories and dream of a liberated future, ahead of the 250th anniversary of America.

The People’s Archive: We The People teach-in brought BLIS Collective members Claire Maracle, Aymar Jean Escoffery, and Brea Baker into a beautiful conversation about kinship and the possibilities of our movement work if we cultivate our collective dreaming power. Moderated by BLIS Collective’s Emi Aguilar and me, this teach-in offered a grounding into the land as a relative and archive, calling us into community.

At BLIS Collective’s unifying Reclamation Day, we showcased Water Way, an immersive experience around our monument to Juan Rodríguez, the first non-Indigenous immigrant to live on Manhattan Island. Participants sat in an installation filled with plants and green and blue hues, emerging in digital water space with iPads and headphones, connecting to his story. For many, it was their first time learning and embracing narratives in augmented reality!

We are deep in gratitude for BLIS Collective’s partnership, expanding our definition of collective power. We look forward to continuing to build together.

Building Technology with Community

We believe that the tools that shape and hold our histories should be built with the people they’re meant to serve. Which is why we’re excited to be hosting a series of demo sessions for our new digital storytelling platform, starting Thursday July 9. This series is our way of building technology with community.

Community Voice (working title) is a free, community-authored, consent-centered web platform for sharing multimedia stories in a living digital archive. We’ll share an early look at our community voice platform designed to help individuals and communities collect, preserve, and share stories, memories, and cultural history. As part of the session, participants will be invited to submit stories, memories, or other content to the platform and share your feelings and reactions to the platform. Your feedback will directly shape how our community voice archive evolves. We’re especially excited to hear from people who care deeply about history, archives, storytelling, technology, and the power of collective memory.

Session Details
Thursday, July 9
12 PM Eastern Time

Laundromat Project Field Day

Join us on Sunday July 26 at Herbert Von King Park for Field Day, a large-scale free and public event serving as a culmination of the Laundromat Project’s 20th Anniversary celebrations. Field Day has historically been a moment to honor the creativity, culture, and collective spirit of our neighbors. This year, it functions as both a celebration and a reflection of The LP’s 20-year legacy of fostering creative leadership, neighborhood engagement, and collective visioning.

Field Day is designed to showcase the collaborative work of Create Change artists and community partners responding to priorities identified through The LP’s Bed-Stuy Community Needs Assessment. Issue areas include economic justice, climate justice, health equity, and displacement prevention. The event will also include interactive art activations, performances, community resource tables, spotlights on local community-based organizations, and site-specific alumni installations reflecting on milestone years in The LP’s history.

More Upcoming Kinfolk Events This Summer

Film Screening

Alfreda’s Cinema, Drylongso (1998)
Thursday July 30, 8:30 pm
Flatbush Reformed Church Brooklyn, NY

Teach-Ins

Black Archival Imaginaries: Building Imagination Literacy
Wednesday August 5, 6:30 pm ET
Zoom Webinar

The People’s Archive: Seeding Repair & Revolution
Thursday August 13, 6:30 pm ET
Virtual and In person