As the Library begins its work on its new “Of the People: Widening the Path” initiative, our funding partner, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is sponsoring an online event, “Storytelling for Justice: How Libraries and Archives Hold History to Account,” this Wednesday, February 10, at 5 p.m. ET.
Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander will lead a wide-ranging conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla D. Hayden, UCLA professor and “Million Dollar Hoods” project director Kelly Lytle Hernández, and liberatory memory worker and Harvard doctoral candidate in anthropology Jarrett Martin Drake. The panelists will discuss how libraries and archives are both empowering underrepresented communities and advocating for increased representation of marginalized stories and experiences in our country’s historical record.
Tune in this Wednesday to learn about the power and potential of these memory institutions to confront race, policing and mass incarceration, to foster equity of access and participation, and to educate and train the next generation of librarians, archivists and activists.