[News] Bay Guardian - FA Celebrates 10 years

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Freedom Archives celebrates 10 years of keeping progressive history alive

By Melanie Ruiz

http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/11/freedom_archives_celebrates_10.html
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“Preserve the past – illuminate the present – 
shape the future.” That's the battle cry of 
the<http://www.freedomarchives.org/index.html> 
Freedom Archives, an extensive and inspiring 
media archive of progressive politics and culture 
located in the Mission District. This Wednesday, 
Nov. 11, the Freedom Archives is throwing a 
10-year anniversary party at 330 Ritch to honor 
the imaginative volunteers and interns who have 
worked so hard to build the archives and keep this important history alive.

There's plenty for FA and the community at large 
to celebrate. FA director Claude Marks has been 
acting guardian of the many important voices 
comprising its collection, including exclusive 
material from political prisoners, the gay and 
lesbian rights movement, and Native American 
struggles. It's recognized as one of the best 
sources anywhere for material on the history of 
California's prison system and La Raza.

Finding unfiltered history is, well, like finding 
a fallacy-free argument from Bill O'Reilly. At 
FA, you can find Maya Angelou reciting poetry at 
an Angela Davis benefit, interviews with Dolores 
Huerta, and coverage of May Day in 1970. Its 
simple Mission digs are filled with awe-inspiring 
artifacts of our history. The shelves are stacked 
with videos, cassettes, and reel-to-reels 
comprising a treasure trove of speeches, 
interviews, rallies, poetry, music, and community events.

Walter Turner, professor of history at the 
College of Marin and host of “Africa Today” on 
KPFA radio, explains that FA fills a unique void 
in history. “What Claude and the staff of FA have 
done is to look at history and materials that 
were at one time considered to be radical or left 
and established their legitimacy.” Without these 
pieces, there is no complete history. He called 
FA’s documents and recordings “absolutely essential.”

PhD researchers, professors, artists, and members 
of the media all come to FA to dig through its 
archives. UC Berkeley has acquired many materials 
from FA, including recordings for their 
comprehensive Black Panther Chronology. FA also 
produces its own pieces, including music and 
poetry compilations and audio and visual documentaries.

Perhaps the best known of the documentaries is 
“<http://www.freedomarchives.org/BPP/torture.html>Legacy 
of Torture: The War Against The Black Liberation 
Movement.” “Legacy premiered at the Roxie the 
week of the 
<http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/06/sf8_case_postponed_supervisors.html>SF8 
busts. It was given to the press at the first 
defense press conference at the theater,” Marks 
said. “It allowed the defense, defendants and 
black community to talk about 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO>COINTELPRO 
and the history of torture, allowing them to 
weigh in on what is normally only a prosecution and police story.”

This film helped organizers to educate and build 
support for 
<http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/07/charges_dismissed_against_most.html>dropping 
the charges against the 
<http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/05/the_trial_of_the_san_francisco.html>San 
Francisco 8, which was accomplished after about 
three years of work. The film has been used in 
school curricula and has been shown nationally 
and internationally, including on Free Speech TV, 
local cable channels, and at film festivals. “For 
that one reason, specifically, the Freedom 
Archives is great,” Turner said. This winter, FA 
will release “COINTELPRO 101,” an educational 
documentary explaining this history of malfeasance.

Fortunately, Marks didn't want the richness of 
history to be muted forever, so he collaborated 
with fellow media professionals to start the 
Freedom Archives about 10 years ago. This was no 
easy task. In fact, many artifacts are still not 
cataloged. The archives provide over 8,000 hours 
of primary source recordings from local, national 
and international progressive movements since the ‘60s.

Susan Greene, a muralist and visiting professor 
at SF Art Institute, collaborated with Marks and 
FA to complete a talking mural on 23rd St. at 
Mission. La Lucha (The Struggle Continues) 
depicts 38 influential people who Greene selected 
with Marks' counsel. Together they added a 
soundscape to Greene's mural, establishing a 
phone system that plays clips of each of the 
leaders and activists on the wall. Greene 
believes FA is vital for knowing “how we come to 
be where we are, which is a different story than 
mainstream press would have us believe.”
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Marks wants to continue to make these stories 
available to everybody. He likes the idea of 
accessible, multi-media art that people can 
create at virtually no cost. He notes that the 
phone system only costs about $12 per month to 
maintain, and anyone can replicate it, almost 
anywhere. “The collaboration between Greene and 
Freedom Archives provides the opportunity to 
engage people with history in a new way, turning 
communal spaces into peoples’ classrooms,” reads FA's web page for La Lucha.

FA hosts interns from local schools, including SF 
State University. When creating recorded 
histories, such as documentaries, Marks considers 
the perspectives of younger generations 
“essential in ensuring that it's not just 
speaking to people who lived through it.” It 
helps prevent simple seeing history as nostalgia. 
“How it's created and how it's contextualized is 
how history remains vibrant and essential.” 
Freedom Archives is dependent on interns, 
volunteers, and individual researchers to help 
its staff of one and a half expand and make FA's arsenal more accessible.

Beyond in-depth interviews and reports on social 
and cultural issues, the archives boast an 
extensive and unique collection of original and 
recorded music and poetry and footage from 
cultural festivals during humble beginnings. For 
Turner, this breadth of different materials is 
what separates FA from the universities and other 
libraries. FA promotes voices, an essential piece 
in reconstructing a complete, human picture of our complicated history.

The Freedom Archives provide us with an 
invaluable resource for understanding our roots 
and reconstructing our histories, which have been 
misrepresented and denied by mainstream 
institutions from the beginning. The FA and 
everyone involved deserve a celebration, but what 
Marks wants most is to broaden FA's reach. It's 
great that the materials are available, but they 
can't do any good just sitting on shelves. Turner 
praises the FA's great work saying that right now 
“the task for us is to pick up on that and ensure that it continues to grow.”

Only a small percentage of their recordings is 
available online, as the process of digitization 
is quite time-consuming. If you are interested in 
exploring FA's full collection, contact the staff 
by phone at (415) 863-9977 or email at 
info at freedomarchives.org. You can set up a time 
to go wander through their impressive stash of stories.

The 10-year anniversary party for Freedom 
Archives is Wednesday, November 11th from 7:30pm 
to 2:00am at 330 Ritch. There will be a silent 
auction with items such as historical posters and 
original artwork. FA reminds you to, “bring your 
dancin’ shoes.” It's a party, not a tablecloth dinner!
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Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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