Archive of the Month: Bay Area Lesbian Archives

Happy end of the semester, SJSU SAASC blog readers! We made it, and I’m proud of us.

For my final blog post as your SAASC Blog Editor, I’d like to highlight the Bay Area Lesbian Archives (BALA). BALA was founded in 2014 by curator, photographer and filmmaker Lenn Keller. Lenn’s vision was “a physical and online archive dedicated to the preservation of the richly diverse lesbian history of the Bay Area.” Although Lenn passed in 2020, her vision of a grassroots, community archive that celebrates activist history within the Bay Area lesbian community is very much alive. BALA hosts cultural events that highlight lesbian and women’s history, author readings, archiving workshops, and community meetings. BALA also trains young volunteers to interview lesbian elders to preserve their stories. 

According to their website, BALA’s collecting area focuses on “memorabilia and oral histories of lesbians who were visible and active during the 1970s and 1980s. Lesbians were leaders in the fight for women’s liberation. They broke barriers to make it possible for women to see themselves as more than society’s limited ideas of what they could be.” 

Why is preserving this history so crucial? BALA emphasizes how today “there is little trace of the culture and communities that Bay Area lesbians created during those decades. Those trailblazers are now aging, dying, downsizing and leaving the Bay Area. We are now at a critical moment, as two decades of this history are at risk of being lost forever if that history is not soon captured.” 

BALA is slowly but surely digitizing its collection so that more people can have access to materials “saved by Bay Area lesbian communities that represent their lives, work, loves, dreams, activism, creativity and art.” 

Here is a small sampling of BALA’s materials that have been digitized. 

 

For more context to the above item, check out Brooke Lober’s 2016 article on the legacy of the Lesbian Feminist Seder for the Palestine solidarity movement. 

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with the SJSU SAASC blog this year. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight archives across the country and around the world that reflect the many ways in which struggling for a better world can manifest. Today, we mark day 10 of the CSU wide hunger strike for Gaza, in which SJSU students join more than 30 CSU students in protest of Israel’s blockade of food and water going into Gaza. Solidarity to the hunger strikers. May we, archivists and librarians, recognize the inherently political nature of our work and our potential to use our skills in the struggle for liberation and the birth of a new world. May we fearlessly defend and learn from the principled steadfastness of our archivist and librarian colleagues in Palestine. Free Palestine. 

Archive of the Month: Left in the Bay

Happy April, SJSU SAASC blog readers! We’re glad you’re here.

This month, we’re giving some shine to Left in the Bay (LITB), an archival history project that aims to research, recover, and retell the history of people’s movements in the San Francisco Bay Area. In their own words, the LITB team reflects on how “in many places, legacies of radical struggle are simply buried and intentionally forgotten. In the Bay, they’re often reduced to a caricature and put on display. The memory of everything from the general strikes to the Black Panthers to the gay liberation movement is sanitized and made safe for power. Our project hopes to help give this history back its bite” (Left in the Bay, 2024). 

LITB was founded in 2021 and started out as an informal project, digging up stories in archives, old newspapers, and books and posting them onto LITB’s social media platforms. Fast forward to today, LITB has expanded its output to include long-form writing and newsletters on its Patreon and in-person events. All of LITB’s writing and events are free to the public. You can support LITB’s work by becoming a Patreon member. Memberships support LITB’s team to put on events, organize walking tours, print pamphlets and zines, conduct interviews, produce podcasts, and much more (Left in the Bay, n.d.).   

LITB’s first Patreon newsletter recounts the trials of Shujaa Graham and Lateef Allen, two New Afrikan/Black prisoners of war/inmates who were framed for the murder of Jerry Sanders, a prison guard at Deuel Vocational Institute (Left in the Bay, 2024a). After four trials and three years spent on death row, Graham and Allen were finally acquitted in 1981. While on death row, Graham co-founded Black August, an organization and monthly celebration of martyred Black prison organizers like George and Jonathan Jackson (Left in the Bay, 2024a; The Shoulders Beneath My Feet, n.d.). 

Figure 1. Poster calling for the freedom of New Afrikan prisoners of war Shujaa Graham and Lateef Allen.

As mentioned above, LITB hosts in-person events to bring people together to talk about radical Bay Area history. On March 13th, 2025, LITB co-hosted a panel discussion entitled Tales of Queer Insurrection in San Francisco about the history and continuation of trans/queer anti-imperialist and anti-assimilationist solidarity movements and political projects in the Bay Area over the last 40 years (Left in the Bay, 2025). A few weeks later, on March 28th, LITB partnered with Street Sheet and East Bay Yesterday for an event celebrating the legacy of grassroots print media in the Bay Area (Left in the Bay, 2025a). 

Figure 2 and 3. Flyers for Left in the Bay’s History, Utility & Legacy of Grassroots Media in the Bay Area and Tales of Queer Insurrection in San Francisco events. 

You can follow LITB on Instagram and Patreon to stay updated on their most recent events, newsletters, and projects. 

 

References 

Left in the Bay. (2024, July 28). Why we need your support. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/why-we-need-your-108350966 

Left in the Bay (2024a, September 2). Newsletter #1: the trials of Shujaa Graham and Lateef Allen. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/newsletter-1-of-110974725 

Left in the Bay (2025, March 10). Event 3/13: tales of queer insurrection in San Francisco. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/event-3-13-tales-124069213 

Left in the Bay (2025a, March 28). Event today (3/28): the history, utility, and legacy of grassroots media in the Bay Area. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/event-today-3-28-125404062 

Left in the Bay (n.d.). Membership. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/c/leftinthebay/membership 

The Shoulders Beneath My Feet. (n.d.). Black August Planning Organization (BAPO). WordPress. https://blackaugustpo.org/bapo/ 

 

The Majazz Project: A Palestinian Audio-Visual Archive

The Majazz Project is an archival platform and record label focused on reissuing Palestinian cassette and vinyl albums and field recordings, with a particular focus on sounds from the 1960s-1990s. Founded by Mo’min Swaitat, a London-based Palestinian actor, playwright, archivist, and filmmaker, the Majazz Project seeks to apply archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance. Swaitat aims to provide the archive’s interlocutors with an opportunity to interact with archival footage and sound that preserves and documents Palestinian heritage and resistance.

Swaitat describes the project’s inception and motivation in the caption of this short video in which he takes the viewer to the source of the archival material: the home of Tariq, owner of the now-closed Tariq Cassettes music shop in Jenin. 

The Majazz Project archive contains an extensive collection of cassettes and vinyl from Palestine and beyond, spanning everything from field recordings of Bedouin weddings to revolutionary albums from the First and Second Intifadas, instrumental tracks, poetry, soul, folk songs, and jazz. Swaitat comes from a long line of Bedouin musicians and storytellers, and the archive references his rootedness in music as a means of celebrating one’s culture and sense of belonging.

Emerging from his work on the Majazz Project, Swaitat created the Palestinian Sound Archive, an in-person and digital exhibition that “weaves tales of joy, grief, love, resistance, and steadfastness” and resist colonial erasure (Majazz Project, n.d.). Visit the digital exhibition here to listen to Swaitat’s carefully curated playlists of sonic stories.

Listeners can explore more of Majazz Project’s recordings on the project’s Bandcamp. A small selection of albums and descriptions from Majazz Project’s Bandcamp are featured below: 

Land Day Compilation

Every year on March 30th, Palestinians commemorate Land Day / Yom al-Ard, marking when six Palestinian civilians were killed and over 100 injured in 1976 whilst protesting against land expropriation across the Galilee.

Palestinian Sound Archive brings you a compilation of newly digitised music from Palestine, celebrating Palestinian heritage, culture and resistance.

This compilation features a number of artists, some of whom were assassinated because of their role in bringing this music to light. Featuring poetry by Toufic Zayyad, whose words were famously used throughout the first Yom Al Ard protests.

Some of the artists remain anonymous upon their request, to avoid being targeted, whilst others are still unknown.

The Intifada 1987 by Riad Awwad, Hanan Awwad and Mahmoud Darwish

Just one week after the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987, Riad brought his sisters Hanan, Alia and Nariman together in their living room and began recording The Intifada album on equipment he had made himself. One of these was co-written with their friend, the acclaimed Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish.

Riad printed 3000 copies of the cassettes which he began distributing in the Old City of Jerusalem and across the West Bank. The Israeli Army immediately confiscated all the copies they could find, the vast majority of which remain in the military archives to this day. Riad was arrested, interrogated and detained for several months.

Straight after his release, he formed a band, Palestinian Union, and put out a new album. He then founded a school, offering kids in the West Bank an alternative musical education, teaching them how to create their own electronic equipment.

In 2005, Riad was tragically killed in a car accident. His legacy lives on through his family, his timeless music and his powerful story, which continues to inspire 34 years on from the First Intifada.

Finally, we encourage readers of this blog to learn more about the role of librarians and archivists in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination by checking out Librarians and Archivists with Palestine.

 

References

Awwad, R., Awwad, H., & Darwish, M. (2022). The Intifada 1987 [Album reissued by Majazz Project in 2022]. Majazz Project. (Original work published 1987)

Centre for Contemporary Arts. (2024, May 4). Archival resistance. https://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/archival-resistance 

Hingley, O. (2024, October 2). Inside the Palestinian Sound Archive: preserving the audiovisual legacy of Palestine, one record at a time. It’s Nice That. 

Librarians and Archivists with Palestine. (n.d.). Who we are. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://librarianswithpalestine.org/about/who-we-are/ 

Majazz Project. (2023, August 22). Palestine sound archive – أرشيف الصوتي الفلسطيني [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/PSR7NDWmVok?si=G6om5ypXOZOOh7R2 

Majazz Project. (2024). Land Day Compilation ي​و​م ا​ل​آ​ر​ض [Compilation album]. Majazz Project. 

Majazz Project. (n.d.). Palestinian Sound Archive. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://majazzproject.com/ 

Nazzal, M. (2024, April 19). Archiving Palestinian sounds with The Majazz Project. The Skinny. 

Swaitat, M. (2022). The Majazz Project and the Palestinian sound archive. This Week in Palestine, 290, 76-81. https://thisweekinpalestine.com/the-majazz-project-and-the-palestinian-sound-archive/ 

A Conversation with Kim Villafuerta Barzola

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Kimberly Villafuerta Barzola grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, and has spent most of her life in and around Boston. She graduated from Boston University with a self-designed major in Agrarian Studies, combining her interests in history, environmental justice, and rural farmworker community organizing. Currently, Kim works as an Assistant Archivist at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and is the senior co-chair of the Society of American Archivists and Archives of Color section. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kim virtually and learning about her background and career as an archivist. 

How did you first get interested in archival work? 

After graduating, I worked for several years in various nonprofits in the Boston area, focused on environmental justice and union organizing. During this time, I got involved with a community campaign to save the historic Harriet Tubman House from being demolished for luxury condominiums. The Harriet Tubman House was an invaluable community resource and a significant part of the Black history of the South End neighborhood—one of the last remnants of the Black community in that area. 

To advocate for its preservation, the community applied to have the Harriet Tubman House designated as a historical landmark. Part of this process involved gathering evidence of the building’s historical importance, which led us to the archives. At the time, I didn’t know much about archival work, but the staff at the Northeastern Library archives were incredibly supportive and eager to assist. 

Unfortunately, the campaign ended with demolition of the building. However, through the process of organizing around its preservation, we recognized a gap in the archival records regarding the community value of the Harriet Tubman House. In response, archivists at Northeastern and librarians from the Boston Public Library secured funding for the Harriet Tubman House Memory Project, an oral history initiative aimed at capturing the community’s feelings about the building after its destruction. I subsequently went down an archival rabbit hole, and decided to start my master’s in Library and Information Science at Simmons University. 

Did you participate in any internships during your MLIS program, or gain LIS-related work experience? 

Before starting my MLIS, I worked as a library assistant at the Agha Khan Documentation Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which focuses on Islamic architecture and building heritage. In that role, I utilized the Arabic skills I had developed during my undergraduate studies to read photography and building notes during the cataloging process. That experience helped me connect with others across MIT’s libraries and led to a similar processing project at Harvard Law School Library. There, I collaborated with their Islamic law librarian on a project involving Arabic gazettes, supported by the George A. Strait Minority Fellowship and Scholarship. 

Did you know you wanted to work in archives at the start of your MLIS program? 

When I started my program, I don’t think I knew a lot of the differences between librarianship and archives. I knew I was interested in archives, but I didn’t actually have a sense of what that was until about a year into the program. My program helped expose me to the day to day grudge work of an archivist. The MLIS gave me the opportunity to get in the weeds of processing and helped me realize that I do actually want to do this type of work. 

Can you describe what your role and responsibilities as an Assistant Archivist are at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund? 

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) primarily serves as a civil rights legal archive. Our department is relatively new, and we’re still building out our team. One of my first tasks was to draft the collection policy for the archives. Just yesterday, we launched our public digitized archive. Each archive is inherently unique, and while it may seem redundant to say that the LDF archive is special, there is so much information about the legal aspects of the civil rights movement that has yet to be made publicly available. We receive numerous research requests, particularly for access to documents and court cases. 

The nature of the LDF archive means that we do so much description at the item level, which is reflected in the digital archive we just created. I recently came across this document from the 1960s that was about desegregation and how in order to actually desegregate a school, you have to include Black history in the curriculum. It’s amazing to have a document like this in the record stating that in order to fully desegregate schools, not only do you have to integrate Black students, but you need to proactively teach Black history. Processing at the item level allows me to have incredible moments of encounter with documents, and that’s largely due to the resources that the LDF has access to. We have nine people on our archives team, which is very rare. Right now, about 25% of my work is processing, but the majority of it is oral history work. 

What advice would you give to aspiring archivists? 

I think it’s worth pursuing an internship to hone in on a skill that you may not know well, or a skill that you think is going to be valuable in the direction of the career you’re aiming for. I initially thought I wanted to do digital archives, so I tried to develop technical skills to help prepare me for work in a digital archive. Now that I’m on the other side of the MLIS program and the job search process, I think it’s really important to have experience processing a collection. For a lot of early career archivists, processing will likely be a part of their work. Getting experience with processing helps you understand documentation, understanding the extent and scope, and how to input that data in the system at hand. A huge part of my interview process was describing my experience with processing. One of the things that helped me was to start looking at job descriptions for the job I wanted, and see what the requirements were to work in a community archive, or oral history position, for example. It might take some time to figure out what you’re interested in, but it makes you that much more prepared for when you’re doing the job search.