Archives Glow

The importance of Black family history, advocacy, and its influence is of great significance to Shantia. Shantia Estes (they/them), an Institute of Museum and Library Services fellow and an undergraduate student majoring in Elementary Education. Shantia found their passion for family history long before joining the program. Photographs and items are what bring Shantia into the journey of memory keeping and being a part of documenting Black Collections, alongside fellow, Taelor Bishop, and their mentor Jessica Salow, who helped them navigate the pathways of making connections with the past and the future.

Episode 5 features Dr. Magaly Ordoñez, a Latinx Sexualities Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utah, and Dr. Gabriela G. Corona Valencia, a postdoctoral research associate in the Latina/Latino Studies Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Magaly and Gabriela discuss “Archival Alchemy: Chicanx Feminist Memory Keeping and the Transformative Power of Hauntings,” with our guest host Yesenia Ramos, a CDA Graduate Assistant, Knowledge River Scholar, and MLIS Graduate. Magaly Ordoñez, Ph.D. (they/them) research includes historical and contemporary cannabis culture in Los Angeles to understand how queer Chicanx/Latinx cannabis histories, relationships, and spaces refuse subversion to a capitalist cannabis industry by centering care, critical cannabis education, and abolitionist feminist politics. Dr. Gabriela G. Corona Valencia's research includes histories of medicine and public health, pedagogies of pleasure and desire, and critical archival methodologies.This conversation was recorded in Oct. 2023 and is an extension of a conversation started at a Conference for MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social).

Irma Payán is a community archivist and active member of Arizona Barrio Stories, an organization dedicated to recording and collecting data and stories from Chicano communities and families in vanishing barrios in Arizona. Irma was born and raised in central Phoenix, and shares her thoughts on food and culture in the Chicano/Latinx community, and preservation of family recipes and food memories. Irma is an educator who taught in the Roosevelt School District #66 in South Phoenix for 33 years. Upon retirement she returned to aid the district in several programs for an additional 5 years. Irma conducts interviews and hosts a program on Facebook, YouTube, COX Glendale channel 11, Roku, and the Irma Payan Show on Latino USA TV on https://latinousa.live/ too!

Dr. Rafael A. Martínez is an Assistant Professor in Southwest Borderlands at Arizona State University teaching history courses at the Polytechnic Campus in the East Valley. As a first-generation immigrant to the U.S., Dr. Martinez has learned first-hand the power of storytelling in forming connections to place and community. As an advocate of community-based history projects, he is engaged in public projects that seek to connect academic work with community development.

Hand-tapped tattoos are a way to honor Filipino culture and ancestry. The ancestral marks are received in ceremony, using handmade tools, and with designs specific to a person’s lineages and life paths. Nicole Umayam has brought this ancestral tradition back into her lineage and shares how her tattoos can be a form of archiving.

Aging and past traumatic experiences can be difficult to confront, but Arizona State University PHD student, Tanya Burgess, has found a way to deal with those thoughts and emotions through role playing games. As a master of tabletop games, social worker, and aging researcher, she creates and leads games to help players deal with their own past and confront the fear of loss. Tanya is also the C.E.O. of Healed and Refreshed. Healed and Refreshed aims to encourage community healing on the issues of mental health and aging wellness, by building community in innovative and fun ways. Tanya founded The Aging Journey Podcast to amplify the voices and experiences of marginalized communities and the triumphs, trials, and tribulations of aging through tabletop roleplay games. As a game master (GM) for the podcast, she runs collaborative and narrative-driven homebrew campaigns in systems like Kids on Bikes, Cthulhu Dark, and Stars Without Number where players go on an adventure and explore themes of time and age, in fantasy, sci-fi or real-world roleplay games.Listen to this episode to learn more about role playing games and the ways it is healing those from underrepresented communities.Tanya’s podcast Socials:Discord: https://discord.gg/Q96eKRvynrListen to the podcast: https://shows.acast.com/agingjourneypodcastWatch the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@agingjourneypodcast