Who's Linda?

Hi dear readers, this is Linda.

My involvement with Arab.AMP came unexpectedly, from a rejection for an internship. When I started my work in archives, I heard about an opportunity to work in the Dance/USA archiving and preservation department, where interns are placed at a dance company over the summer to assist with arranging, inventorying, processing, and making available materials—usually recordings of teaching, rehearsals, and performances, but also related paper, photographs, and other ephemera—related to the company’s creative output. I received a rejection email that was surprisingly warm and promised to keep my information in mind for future needs. I thought, I will never hear from these folks again, because no one ever does, but that’s okay. However, I was shocked when, months later, I received an email from Dance/USA’s Director of Archiving and Preservation, saying that Arab.AMP director and curator Leyya Mona Tawil was looking for an archivist for her organization’s small but growing collection of media. My interest was immediately piqued, but I also knew that my knowledge of digital archiving and preservation was limited. I took a chance and reached out to Leyya. I was honest from the get go; most of my archives experience was with paper and photographs, things I could assess and see as I held it in my hands. Even though I was beginning to work with films and videos, most of that was analog and not already transferred to digital files. 

However, I also made it clear that this work mattered to me: as a queer person of color who grew up in a place where I was shielded from a lot of my Mexican culture, I have always been seeking the art and stories of people who experience barriers to accessing their heritage through materials. I have always been a curious lifelong learner, and feel as though the most enriching, inspiring learning experiences I had were done outside of theory-heavy lecture halls. 

I’m currently writing my thesis, and came across a podcast about an institution I want to highlight, Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky. The speaker noted that he had grown up not being taught about local music and culture, and hearing from the world via harmful stereotypes that people in Appalachia are worthless and unimportant. When he started interacting with Appalshop’s archival materials and creating films for them, he came to know and appreciate that culture and understand that he was a contributing member to that ongoing legacy. One quote resonates with me still: “A community becomes dangerous when they understand their culture. 'Cause then you have something to fight for.” 

Not getting a seat at the proverbial table for so long makes a lot of people give up the fight and leads to identity challenges or confusions about oneself within their culture, feelings that don’t just disappear in a generation. Arab.AMP is making its own table, expressing themselves through captivating, provocative experimental art and preserving that art and culture in a time where so much is under threat.
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At the AMP Archives, we are growing our digital archival database of programming that reaches back to 2017, containing videos, flyers, and photos. This AMP.Archive Tales is intended to have the archive speak aloud, as we see recurring themes, catch up with past artists, and connect to what is going on around us now. Arab.AMP remains a platform for future-looking experimental art from members of the SWANA diaspora and allied communities, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider how that media can be seen in perpetuity. One striking thing in one of my first conversations with Leyya was her desire to save the Arab.AMP collection “so that it doesn’t go away.” I’m inspired by seeing each addition to Arab.AMP’s platform, and I can’t wait to check in here to tell you about my observations, trajectories, and archive-related advice.