Archives, Memory, and the Power of Data: A Conversation with Savannah Wood and Teri Henderson

On January 20, Art+Feminism partnered with Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries to host Archives, Memory, and the Power of Data at the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, Maryland. This hybrid public conversation explored how archives shape the internet and how feminist approaches to data can reshape collective memory. Participants joined from Baltimore and across the globe, and registration data from attendees in Athens, Ohio, and Athens, Greece showed that nearly 90 percent were attending their first Art+Feminism event, highlighting the reach of these questions and the need for accessible entry points into open knowledge work.

The evening featured a thoughtful conversation between Savannah Wood, Executive Director of Afro Charities, and Teri Henderson, curator, writer, and founder of Black Collages. Together, they explored where stories live, who stewards them, and what it means to care for memory in an era defined by digitization, AI, and misinformation.

Wood shared the history and scale of the Afro-American Newspaper Archives, founded in Baltimore in 1892 and stewarded by her family for more than a century. The collection documents Black life locally and globally through newspapers, photographs, correspondence, audio materials, and ephemera. Henderson emphasized that archives are not static records but living sources that continue to shape how Black histories are understood, circulated, and protected.

The conversation surfaced tensions between open access and privacy. While digitization is often presented as an unquestioned good, both speakers noted that for Black communities, visibility has historically meant surveillance. The Afro Archives contain deeply personal information, much of it created under different norms of consent. Wood described an ethic of care that includes layered access, community accountability, and the right not to be found.

The discussion also touched on place and sovereignty. Wood highlighted the importance of keeping the Afro Archives rooted in West Baltimore through the development of the Martha E. Murphy Research Institute (MEMRI), the future permanent home of the collection. Maintaining a physical, community-based archive is essential for preserving context, trust, and ownership, particularly as institutions and funders increasingly shape how history is preserved and accessed.

Photos from the event are now available on Wikimedia Commons, extending the conversation into the open knowledge ecosystem. Making these images freely accessible reflects the same commitments discussed throughout the evening: visibility with intention, documentation with care, and shared authority over how feminist and Black histories circulate online.

For those ready to move from conversation to practice, Art+Feminism is continuing this work with a hands-on Wikidata training session this Thursday, January 29 presented in partnership with Wikimedia Deutschland. Led by Alan Ang, Senior Partner Manager at Wikimedia Deutschland, and Camillo Pellizzari, longtime Wikidata editor, the session will introduce how archives and structured data work together to shape the internet. Participants will gain practical experience editing Wikidata, learn collaborative tools, and explore current developments including mobile editing, Wikibase software, and work at the intersection of AI and Wikidata.

Together, the conversation between Wood and Henderson, the Wikimedia Commons documentation, and the upcoming Wikidata training reflect Art+Feminism’s commitment to creating welcoming pathways into open knowledge work. Whether joining for the first time, returning with experience, or exploring new forms of collaboration, these programs invite community members to learn together and take part in shaping how knowledge is documented, shared, and cared for across the Wikimedia ecosystem. We hope you’ll join us.

All photos Hygge starch, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons