The Black Historians’ Department: The Past Belongs to You – Exhibition Opening

Curated by Beyond Glass Cases Project Partner Tafari Robertson

In The Black Historians’ Department: The Past Belongs to You, speculative historian Tafari Robertson has created a space dedicated to the Black historians who cultivate their practice and stories outside of traditional institutions. It is a speculation of what would be different about history as a form if it were built around the ways that Black people hold and exchange information with each other and what it means to amplify and support those processes.  Tafari explored these ideas with other members of Philadelphia’s Black artistic and cultural community in a series of workshops/listening sessions. The exhibition that grew out of these sessions will include an office setting and a living room interior setting where visitors will be invited to engage with reference books, audio tapes, and video clips as ways to experience history. Two cases of items from the Library Company’s African American History Collection will also be displayed. The Past Belongs to You is an invitation to understand Black history as a community practice, not to be discovered or authorized, but participated in. We hope you’ll join us for this reclamation of the past.

Beyond Glass Cases: The Library Company of Philadelphia’s “Collections Lab” has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.