Abstract
This paper discusses activist archives within the context of community archives and the practices of archiving activism. Interference Archive (IA), a volunteer-run independent archive in Brooklyn, New York, is presented as one example of an activist archive. We explain the manner in which IA functions as a transmovement and prefigurative “free space” under Francis Poletta’s typology of movement spaces. Through this explanation, we illustrate how the structures of free spaces can help us understand the way activist archives forge connections between communities and the ways that they create new networks of solidarity through the archival process.
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Notes
For more information about the history and founding of Interference Archive, see Molly Fair’s (2014) essay, “Building an Archive from Below: Reflections from Interference Archive” in Informed Agitation: Library and Information Skills in Social Justice and Beyond.
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Sellie, A., Goldstein, J., Fair, M. et al. Interference Archive: a free space for social movement culture. Arch Sci 15, 453–472 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-015-9245-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-015-9245-5