I am a teacher, literacy scholar, and practitioner-researcher, someone who both studies and actively participates in the collaborative inquiry process. I believe the most meaningful work happens with communities, not just about them. I work alongside educators, youth, and community partners to co-create knowledge and resources that matter. Our Building a Living Archive team, comprised of 20 teacher-researchers and 20 youth-researchers from across Philadelphia, is uncovering and amplifying Black Philadelphian histories through literacy-rich, collaborative practices that honor the past, connect to the present, and imagine more just futures.

This Spencer Foundation-funded research-practice partnership with The Philadelphia Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM), and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), is unfolding at a pivotal moment. Philadelphia is preparing for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding (the semiquincentennial) in 2026. Further, as we mark BlackPrint 20, the twentieth anniversary of Philadelphia becoming the first district in the nation to require an African American History course for graduation, and the 100th year of Black History Month, the Building a Living Archive project will be at the center of national reflection on the country’s past and future. Our project ensures that Black youth voices and histories are not only included but placed at the forefront of this public memory-making. At a time when political efforts to censor curricula and erase the contributions of Black communities are on the rise, we believe in the importance of going public with our practice through curricular contributions and collaborative inquiry that continues to shape Black history in Philadelphia and beyond.

Our goal is to work toward educational equity by challenging inequitable racial narratives in schools and museums, centering the voices of Black youth as they draw connections between the past, present, and future.

What Is a “Living Archive”?

A living archive (Rhodes, 2014) is not a static collection of artifacts; it’s a collaborative, evolving space, both physical and digital, where historical narratives intersect with present-day stories. In our project, teachers, students, and community members read archival materials, write new narratives, speak and listen across generations, and create multimodal works that “marry the archival and the artistic” (Sabiescu, 2020, p. 497). The goal is to ensure that young people’s perspectives and histories are preserved, valued, and shared.

My Role as Co-Principal Investigator and Practitioner-Researcher

While my title is Co-Principal Investigator, my work is grounded in practitioner research, an approach that blends inquiry with practice, and informed by Black feminist perspectives that value lived experience, community knowledge, and collective care as essential forms of expertise. Black feminist thinkers remind us that history, identity, and power are intertwined, and that those who live with the consequences of injustice hold essential knowledge for transforming it. This project uses literacy as a tool to make hidden histories visible, challenge inequities, and imagine new futures.

I am not standing apart from the work, but engaging directly in it by:

  • Working alongside teachers, museum partners, and students to design lessons, curate artifacts, and integrate archival inquiry into classrooms.
  • Facilitating and participating in teacher collaborative inquiry, helping educators investigate their practice, gather evidence, and reflect on what supports student learning.
  • Translating local experiences into shared knowledge, creating pathways for what we’re learning to inform and inspire educators elsewhere.
  • Co-creating knowledge so that what emerges reflects lived experience, community priorities, and academic insight.

This is not a top-down project. The archive is shaped by the people whose histories it contains, and it belongs to the community.

Teachers and youth researchers are building the archive through curriculum development and implementation, multimodal storytelling, and the creation of artifacts. Public exhibitions will be hosted at The Colored Girls Museum and in the School District of Philadelphia spaces, showcasing student work and amplifying community histories.

Artifacts and curriculum so far include:

  • Virtual reality experiences that immerse audiences in historical and present-day stories.
  • Oral histories and digital storytelling capturing community voices in their own words.
  • Poetry, music, and visual art created in response to archival materials.
  • GIS mapping connecting places, people, and events.
  • Teacher-designed curriculum units integrating archival inquiry into everyday instruction.

Each of these artifacts is more than a creative product; it is an act of literacy and civic engagement, affirming the value of Black Philadelphians’ histories and contributions.

Why This Matters for Parents and Teachers

A living archive is more than a place to store history; it is a means to utilize literacy as a bridge between the past and the present. When students see themselves reflected in what they study, they recognize the value of their communities and identities. Through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and creating, they develop the skills to ask more profound questions, make connections between history and current events, and imagine themselves as leaders and changemakers.

For parents, this means your child’s history education is not just about memorizing dates and events, it’s about developing the literacy skills to understand, interpret, and tell the story of their own lives. For teachers, it means having resources, partnerships, and a community of practice that make history come alive in the classroom through culturally sustaining literacy practices.

As Philadelphia moves toward the semiquincentennial, this work takes on even greater urgency. The Building a Living Archive project ensures that when the nation looks to Philadelphia to reflect on its history, Black youth and their stories will be central, not an afterthought.

A Personal Reflection

For me, literacy has always been more than reading, writing, speaking, and listening; it is a way of seeing, questioning, and shaping the world. As we prepare for the 250th anniversary of the United States, I believe it is impossible to tell an honest story of this country without the voices of Black youth at the center. In co-creating this living archive, we are giving them the tools, the space, and the affirmation to write themselves into the narrative, boldly, truthfully, and in their own words. That is the work that makes me excited, as I am committed to developing the literacies and legacies of all Black people.

This article is one of three in this month’s edition of the Equity Express that focus on literacy and the NCEED Literacy Pillar: 1) Implementation of the Maryland Comprehensive PreK-3 Literacy Policy, 2) Building a Living Archive: Black Youth (Re)Writing Philadelphia Histories, and 3) Reading Screeners, Diagnostic Assessments, and Progress Monitoring.

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References:

Rhodes, T. (2014). A living, breathing revolution: How libraries can use ‘living archives’ to

support, engage, and document social movements. IFLA Journal, 40(1), 5–11.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035214526536

Sabiescu, A. G. (2020). Living Archives and The Social Transmission of Memory. Curator:

The Museum Journal, 63(4), 497–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12384.