Eye Witness: The Makings of Me

• In Event: The Personal as Political, and Pedagogical: Currere as Foundational Research Praxis

Abstract

My research agenda aims to uplift non-traditional educational spaces and honor non-academic ways of knowing that can lead to co-constructed knowledge fueled by radical thought and lived experiences conveyed through counter-narratives that precipitate self-determination and liberation. I highlight alternative practices that examine social issues and Black diasporic experiences through visual practices which include images, paper art, street art, film, and the usage of archives. bell hooks reminds us that “when our lived experience of theorizing is fundamentally linked to processes of self-recovery, of collective liberation, no gap exists between theory and practice” (pg.61, 1991/1994). In my case, I use my own visual practices as examples of how self-narration within a social context can lead to an education that can be critically reflective on personal experiences as well as the cultural, political, and historical legacies that shape the spaces we interact with (Author 4, 2023).

My paper uses counter-archiving and critical autoethnography to uphold my mother’s archiving practices as preservation of Black and Latinx histories in the face of a rapidly gentrifying Bushwick. I emphasize how my mother, like many non-white marginalized folks, is an extension of a long history of producers of knowledge and place-making practitioners who exist as everyday theorists (Schomburg, 1925/2016). My interactions with institutional archives and my family’s photographed memories, allowed me to connect my family’s story to historical legacies that counter white narratives. My questions on institutional concepts around archives led to me co-creating an ongoing interactive project that allows Bushwick residents past and present, to upload images, sounds, and stories to the community archive.

Author

• christopher colón, Graduate Center - CUNY