Community-Builder
Storyteller
Black Girlhood Scholar
Black Feminist
Educator
THE
ROLLING
ARCHIVES
STORY
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THE
ARCHIVIST
I am blessed to be a part of Princess, Pamela, and Kelly’s legacy. My grandmother, my mother, and my big sister: these three Black women raised, nurtured, and cared for me. I often think back to the days of my childhood and the spaces and places that I felt free. My memories are wrapped in various moments with these women that included endless laughs, tears, hugs, games, serious survival conversations, getting my hair pressed or braided in the kitchen, or baking delicious desserts, to name a few. Collectively these women saved me and showed me unconditional love. But there were also physical locations that I remember as my places of refuge. Two in particular are my grandmother’s garden and the roller-skating rinks in Chicago. My grandmother taught me real lessons about life in her garden and showed me what it looks like to plant seeds, patiently wait for growth moments, sort out the weeds, and enjoy the beauty of life as a Black girl. Today and always, I will give Princess her flowers.
As I continued to grow and blossom through my childhood and adolescence I fell in love with skating. You could find me at the skating rink with my best friends every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night. Skating was more than a hobby, it was the place that I experienced pure joy, met people that cared for me just as much as my family did, and witnessed Black people in their element of unmatched creativity, style, and smooth, rhythmic movement. There were skate crews that turned into forever bonds, and a community that celebrated us, our music, our culture, our roots, our city. I’m grateful for the many ways skating rinks kept me safe and protected and the skate community allowed me to feel welcomed, seen, and comforted as a young girl.
These memories deeply inspired The Rolling Archives. Just like the wheels of a roller-skate, our lives take us on new journeys. Sometimes moving us forward into the future and other times shifting us backwards to return and honor where it all started. Through The Rolling Archives I aspire to replace our archival absences and document the stories, histories, memories, and experiences of Black girlhood that Black women and girls shape, co-create, and frequently return to for joy, survival, and refuge.
BACKGROUND
The Rolling Archives was founded by Dr. Ashley Smith-Purviance, Community-Builder, Storyteller, Black Girlhood Scholar, Black Feminist, and Educator.
As both a digital scrapbook and archive, The Rolling Archives aims to amplify the voices of Black women & girls by uncovering the spaces & experiences that shape them, spotlighting the communities they co-create for their collective joy and living and immortalizing their stories for the preservation of Black girls’ presence and existence(s) within our material and imaginative worlds. Our purpose is to ensure that Black women and Black girls’ lives are honored, celebrated, reflected, and represented as we journey to, through and with Black girlhood on our own terms.
The Rolling Archives serves as a visual representation and collection of Black women and girls’ past-present-future selves. While distinctions across Black girls and women’s childhood, adolescence, and adulthood may deserve their own recognition, The Rolling Archives embodies and honors reoccurring memories of Black girlhood as foundational sites of joy, exploration, meaning making, and life-affirming practices on a non-linear trajectory for Black women and girls. The Rolling Archives offers space for Black girls and women to reflect on, engage, and sit with these moments that have inspired and informed their current journeys, practices, and the formation of spaces that nurture their moments of living.
The Rolling Archives is a space that uplifts the creativity, artistic, reimagined, and most authentic spaces where Black girlhood is safe and feels free. We make space for Black girlhood as lived in the present day and equally believe in the power of uplifting Black girlhood memories.We celebrate the continuum of Black girlhood: in the present moment, through the nostalgic pasts, toward a beautiful future, and beyond the limited constructs of time. It is our hope that these moments never leave us and therefore The Rolling Archives seeks to be a home-space for them/us.
We invite you to join us, roll with us, dream + build with us!
Thank you to the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation and The Ohio State University's College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Discretionary Community Engagement Fund for supporting this project.
“May we always make space to honor the Black girls we knew yesterday, the Black girls we know today, and the Black girls we will meet tomorrow.”
DR. ASHLEY SMITH-PURVIANCE
FOUNDER, THE ROLLING ARCHIVES
