Honoring History, Uplifting Voices

The Brownsville Project is proud to partner with Solidarity Arts & Education Decolonial Initiatives (SAEDi) Collective on a groundbreaking community-based participatory archiving project. This collaboration is rooted in the belief that Black communities must have the power to reclaim, preserve, and tell their own histories—especially when official records fail to acknowledge the violence of displacement and erasure.

Many African American elders who lived through the dismantling of their communities have never had the opportunity to add their voices to the historical record. This project creates a space where Brownsville descendants can shape the narrative of their community’s past and future through storytelling, artistic interpretation, and archival research.

What We’re Doing

Through this partnership, we are:

• Facilitating participatory archiving with Brownsville descendants to document family histories and lived experiences.

• Supporting the interpretation of artistic and genealogical research that traces Brownsville’s history.

• Developing best practices for community-led archiving, ensuring that descendants have agency in how their stories are collected and shared.