A mapping of Black womxn and feminist networks in Brussels

In 2021, Black History Month Belgium will be all about archiving and documenting the past and present of Black people in Belgium. The goal is to work towards the creation of a Black community-driven and controlled archive that will collect documentary, audiovisual, digital, material and artistic works related to the Black diaspora in Belgium. The mission of BHM 2021 is to actively provide materials that express and represent the Black experience in Belgium, both past and present, from the Black perspective. The ultimate goal is to gain a more complete understanding of the Black experience in Belgium through primary sources and to provide information that supports the construction of personal and community identities as well as the social life and shared memories of Black communities in Belgium.

The month of March will be seen as a laboratory for what such a Belgian Black Archives could look like. By both thinking about new ways of archiving and diving into the existing archives. Archives that have often emerged within a white, Eurocentric framework and would particularly benefit from being viewed through a Black lens.

In collaboration with Black History Month Belgium, VUB Crosstalks, RoSa asbl and the Archive and Research Centre for Women’s History, Graciela Dutrieue (student Interuniversity Master in Gender and Diversity) will work on drawing up a mapping of Black womxn and feminist networks in the Brussels-Capital Region (organizations, initiatives, key figures, meeting places…). The project is part of her internship during February and March at the Archive and Research Centre for Women’s History. The entire process and results of the research are recorded and shared with the public every Monday in March via video blogs (vlogs) in English (with English subitles).

• Vlog #1: Graciela gives us a glimpse of her research process: watch.
• Vlog #2:  Graciela talks with anthropologist Stephanie Collingwoode Williams and art organization For All Queens
  on archiving material that represents the Black experience in Belgium from the Black perspective: watch.
• Vlog #3: Graciela interviews her friend Olivia on how she, as a Black feminist, experiences black feminism in Belgium: watch.
• Vlog #4: In the fourth and last vlog, Graciela talks to Philsan Osman about the need to create a Black community-driven and controlled archive: watch