The Prelinger Library & Archives spheres stand in alliance with Black Lives Matter! Since 2004 this Library has offered a hub for the study of Black history, brown history, and the deconstruction of whiteness. The collections foreground overlooked histories of all kinds, and offer resources for the interruption of power in all its forms. Anti-racism informs all that we do, from our collections strategy to our no-barriers approach to community building and the inclusion of artists, researchers, and scholars of all colors. Anti-racism is a way of life.
While the Library is closed for COVID-19 plenty of film has gotten processed and this week this #BlackLivesMatter piece of footage surfaced. From 1969, it is a reel of raw, unedited outtake footage of Black professionals at work as business owners and professionals in a range of occupations. It was filmed in Rochester, New York by the Eastman Kodak company: https://archive.org/details/outtakes-from-rochester-business-opportunities-prod.-kodak
In the Library we are working to make the room more spacious, to install spatially distributed research tables, and to establish an appointment-calendar format for reopening, to enable a gradual reopening that will start with limits to the number of people in the room at any one time. Please visit when we reopen to explore our holdings in Black history, Black life stories, histories of police and other state violence, how the carceral state came to be the way that it is, prison activism, or any of our other stacks.
Thank you, everyone, for your patience.
THANK YOU FOLSOM PROPERTIES FOR WAIVING THE RENT FOR MAY, 2020. THANK YOU TO OUR ENTIRE SUPPORT COMMUNITY FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO KEEP PAYING THE RENT DURING SHUT-DOWN!
SEE YOU IN THE STREETS!