Fridays in May will take place in person each May Friday from May 3rd, 2024 to May 31st 2024. The program will supply participants with forums for exploratory and site-based conversation in a peer-based community setting, creating an opportunity for skill-sharing, info-gathering, networking, and peer-mentorship. This program will include in-person tours, workshops, and mediated conversations led by, with and among QBIPOC library, archives, and information professionals across the NYC metropolitan area on topics related to engagement, exhibitions, collections processing, queer histories, professionalism in queer contexts, and more.
Find more information about each session below.
Workshop: Grounding in DEI: Entering Work Whole as a QBIPOC Professional - Part 1, followed by lunch
Friday, May 3rd, 2024 from 11 am to 2 pm
Pratt School of Information - 144 W 14th St 6th floor, New York, NY 10011
Room 610
As librarians, archivists, and information professionals of color, you are a coveted few. You may walk with nuanced questions of belonging, office culture, patron and/or student engagement, and how to “bring your whole self to work.” Our institutions across the field that have adopted principles of inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity are committed to the invitation of librarians, archivists, and information professionals of color to join their team. In this two-part workshop, questions that will be explored include: How do we secure the power of the peer network, mentorship, and community? How do we leap into new roles with confidence and a sustaining agenda? What are some strategies to step into new DEI focused roles as a leader, as a knowing person, and with the tools you need to succeed?
For this first session, participants will:
- Introduce themselves and be welcomed into the program
- Locate themselves in ancestral connection
- Brainstorm common points of struggle and points of connection between queer librarians and archivists
- Identify their personal mission in library engagement and practice
This session will be facilitated by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz.
Lunch will be provided by Pratt Institute.
About Shawn:
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an Assistant Curator and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries where she serves as the Faculty Diversity Search Liaison. Shawn is also an adjunct at Pratt School of information, teaching Reference & Instruction, and serving as a DEI Faculty Fellow, allowing her to steer this program. Shawn is a co-coordinator at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, a co-convenor of the Reference & Instruction Special Interest Group at METRO where she co-curated the Critical Pedagogy Symposium and Case Studies in Critical Pedagogy series. Shawn also co-steers the Conference of Academic Library Management (CALM Conference) and the Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium (GSISC). She has a BS in Queer Women’s Studies from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program, an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction, and an MLS with a focus on Archiving and Records Management from Queens College. Her forthcoming two-book series, Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations in Archives and Practice and Queer Conversations in Identity and Libraries is awaiting publication with Litwin Books.
Tour: Whitney Museum Archives with Archivist Tara Hart, followed by lunch
Friday May 10th, 2024 from 11 am to 2 pm
610 West 26th St, New York, NY 10001
In this tour, we will meet with Tara Hart, Managing Archivist of the Whitney Museum Archives, and review the collection. In this tour, participants will:
- Learn about the inner workings of the Whitney Museum Archives as it relates to its space
- Receive descriptive overviews of the collection contents with hands-on accompaniment
- Engage in a Q&A including context to being a queer archivist in the field
Lunch will be provided by METRO.
About Tara:
Tara Hart is an archivist who serves as Managing Archivist at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Prior to joining the Whitney, Hart held archivist positions at the New Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Fales Library & Special Collections at NYU. She has contributed articles to Archive Journal, Metropolitan Archivist and GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and co-curated the exhibitions “XFR STN” (2013) and “Occupied Territory: A New Museum Trilogy” (2014). Tara has an MLS with an Advanced Certificate in Archives from the School of Information at Pratt Institute and a BA in Visual Arts (Media) from UC San Diego.
Tour: Barnard Milstein Center with Director of Milstein Center Exhibits, Programming and Public Engagement, Miriam Neptune, followed by lunch
Friday, May 17th, 2024 from 11 am to 2 pm
3009 Broadway New York, NY 10027
In this tour, we will meet with Miriam Neptune at the Milstein Center for Teaching & Learning at Barnard College, and review the various spaces that make up the Milstein Center. In this tour, participants will:
- Learn about the vision for exhibitions, programming, and engagement of the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning
- Receive descriptive overviews of the various spaces and how librarians and library staff engage with these spaces for students and a wider public
- Engage in a Q&A including context to being a queer library worker in the field
Lunch will be provided by METRO.
About Miriam:
Miriam Neptune is the inaugural Director of Milstein Center Exhibitions, Programming and Public Engagement. She has worked at Barnard College Library in various capacities since 2011, and at Smith College as Digital Scholarship Librarian from 2015-2018. She was previously Barnard Library’s Director of Teaching, Learning, and Digital Scholarship, and Interim Co-Dean, and as the Senior Associate Director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women. From 2021-2023, Miriam co-curated the exhibition Undesign the Redline @ Barnard. She also co-produced the bilingual digital humanities project Nos Cambió La Vida: Our Lives Transformed, and was organizer of the annual Scholar and Feminist Conference and an editor of The Scholar and Feminist Online. Miriam is also a filmmaker whose creative work focuses on resistance to anti-blackness, forced displacement, and gendered violence in the Americas, partnering on activist media projects with Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees.
Workshop: Grounding in DEI: Entering Work Whole as a QBIPOC Professional - Part 2, followed by lunch
Friday May 24th, 2024 from 11 am to 2 pm
New York University’s Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, New York, NY
As librarians, archivists, and information professionals of color, you are a coveted few. You may walk with nuanced questions of belonging, office culture, patron and/or student engagement, and how to bring your whole self to work. Institutions across the field that have adopted principles of inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity are committed to the invitation of librarians, archivists, and information professionals of color to join their teams, manage their collections, and instruct their users.
In this two-part workshop, questions that will be explored include: How do we secure the power of the peer network, mentorship, and community? How do we leap into new roles with confidence and a sustaining agenda? What are some strategies to step into new DEI focused roles as a leader, as a knowing person, and with the tools you need to succeed?
For this second session, participants will:
- Decode silences with the exploration of field-specific language to generate a professional personal statement
- Evaluate the process of obtaining tenure and faculty status for academic librarian and archivist positions
- Advocate for oneself through evaluation of diversity statements
This session will be facilitated by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz.
Lunch will be provided by New York University Libraries.
Tour: Lesbian Herstory Archives Tour with Shawn(ta) Smith Cruz, followed by lunch
Friday May 31st, 2024 from 11 am to 2 pm
484 14th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
This tour will include a detailed overview of the oldest and largest lesbian archive in the world.
In this tour, participants will:
- Learn about the organizational history and principles of the LHA space and collections
- Receive descriptive overviews of the collection contents with hands-on accompaniment
- Engage in a Q&A including context to being a part of a lesbian volunteer collective
Lunch will be provided by Lesbian Herstory Archives.
As the final meeting, in addition to the tour and lunch, participants will share reflections of the Fridays in May program. Following the tour and lunch, LHA will become open to the public, and participants are welcome and encouraged to remain and enjoy the space or invite friends, partners, colleagues, or family to join. Due to space limitations, advance registration of additional attendees will be required.