The Importance of Representation and Storytelling for BIPOC and Queer Communities

Archiving is the art of memory keeping, but the majority of marginalized communities in Arizona are not familiar with archives or the role they can play in preserving BIPOC and Queer history. In Arizona and across the country, Queer, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are largely underrepresented in history and in archives. History has primarily been shared through a white-dominated lens, minimizing the impact these communities have had on our culture and our world. According to the 2012 Arizona Archives Matrix Project, Latinos, Blacks, Asian & Pacific Islanders, and the LGBTQ community make up over 42% of Arizona's population but are only represented in 0% to 2% of known archival collections in the state. This is why the podcast series; “Archives Glow” was created. Podcasting is a tool that can preserve the history of these communities and tell their stories in their own voices. Members of these communities refuse to be excluded from archiving and history any longer. That is why I interviewed, Todd Bailey, the special projects coordinator at the Arizona Historical Society, Jessica Salow, the assistant archivist of Black Collections at the Community-Driven Archives at Arizona State University Library, Nancy Godoy, Director of the Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative, Pete Dimas, an archivist and educator, Alex Soto, the director of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University Bridget Bravo, an educator and community archivist, and Christine Marin, historian, archivist, and founder of the Chicano/a Research Collection at ASU Library, for “Archives Glow.” Each person is an expert in their field of history because they come from Black, Indigenous, Latinx or Queer communities themselves. They have also dedicated their lives to spreading the stories of others in their communities through history exhibits, projects or community outreach events. In the United States 42% of Americans, 12 years of age or older, have listened to a podcast in the last month of 2023. This is a new record according to 2023 Edison Research compared to previous years. Sharing people’s stories through this platform is a useful tool because it encourages listeners to see life from a different perspective and through the lived experiences of someone else. People want to learn, and podcasting is a transformative platform that helps them do that in a fast-paced world. Instead of having to sit down and listen to a traditional lecture people can receive new information in a short amount of time and on the go as people’s attention spans also have become increasingly shorter, as research from the American Psychological Association has shown. With the support and guidance of Regina Revazova, a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and Jasmine Torrez, assistant archivist at ASU Library’s Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative, I produced and hosted a five-episode podcast series that tells the stories and history of BIPOC and Queer communities in Arizona to preserve their stories and encourage change in history. This project was intended to spread awareness around story-keeping and memory for BIPOC and Queer Communities.