Event Type
Famously, Derrida wrote: “Why archive this? Why these investments in paper, in ink, in characters? Why mobilize so much space and so much work, so much typographical composition?”
In archives we find a record of our lives: what has touched and made us. From newspaper clippings and Vietnamese language workbooks to pre-1900s seed catalogues and daily gym logs, we will explore how familial, historical, and personal records inspire and inform our storytelling and how there are, as Derrida writes, “stories to be had everywhere.” Our archives are glimpses of our selves—of what we choose to keep, to store away, and return to.
But when memory or records fall short, how does poetry help us fill in the gaps? And how can poetry become, in Ann Cvetkovich’s words, an archive of feeling? In this roundtable, we will discuss how working alongside archives allows us to preserve culture and memory, subvert expected narratives, and transform the seemingly mundane into critical documentation. We will examine not only how archives connect us to the past, but also their potential for building a pathway into the future.