It’s not often that we hear about the projects of Graduate Interns in their work of documenting the stories of Second Wave feminists. We wanted to share this with our readers and encourage the younger generation to continue this important work for future generations.
Processing the Denise C. Jones Papers
Contributed by Kemisa Kassa, Bingham Center Graduate Intern
When I was tasked with processing the Denise C. Jones collection I felt both excited and intimidated because this was a huge responsibility and wonderful opportunity to learn about a Black Lesbian Feminist I never knew about. Throughout the process I remained vigilant and focused on details because I didn’t want to miss anything. I followed the processing checklist I was given and independently parsed through the papers in the collections….
Most of my experiences with archival description stem from theory and class discussion so I enjoyed getting hands on experience. This collection has eminent research value and references to prominent Black artists, writers, activists, and musicians. One of the challenges I faced while processing was learning to work with the audiovisual materials since that was new to me. Once I finished with processing, arranging, describing and rehousing all the materials it was still only a snapshot into the life of Denise C. Jones. This was a bittersweet experience because I learned so much, yet felt sad sending off the collection after working on the collection for two months.