The digital archives of Black life are transforming how we document our history

Image by graphic design artist Chuck Anderson

As social media and digital archives skyrocket in popularity, a question for many Black artists and Americans remains: who gets to preserve Black history and culture? Lynée Denise, writing for The Undefeated, collects a series of essays over the last 5 years chronicling Black life in America. To name a few, Denise pulls excerpts from Black Archives founder Renata Cherlise, as well as content creators Darol Ola Kae, Milik Kashad, & Karis Beaumont to describe the massive social media archiving that has taken hold of the ways Black joy and Black life are protected and retold.

"Will intellectual property and copyright issues hinder future digital archiving? And what will happen to the millions of videos, memes and photographs of Black life should the social media platforms collapse or drastically change form?" - Lynée Denise