Syreeta Gates

Founder, The Gates Preserve

Creative, art collector, and archivist. Syreeta Gates is the founder of The Gates Preserve, a multimedia experience company committed to archiving and preserving hip hop culture such that it lasts forever. She produces “Yo Stay Hungry” — a live culinary competition that bridges hip hop with food and beverage, and is co-owner of Most Incredible Studio which celebrates and commemorates the artists and moments that continue to elevate and define hip-hop culture – through LEGO. She was also on the United States Season 2 of LEGO Masters as the first Black woman. She has produced 4 short films and Gates’ archival work includes research for “The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion” and “A Ballerina’s Tale.” Her feature documentary Shaping the Culture, is the history of hip-hop in print from copy machines to tweets.

Syreeta has been featured in Forbes, RedBull, Black Enterprise, and many other outlets. Her work was lauded in Elena Romero and Elizabeth Way “Fresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style” (2023), Tony Wagner’s, “Creating Innovators” (2015), and John Schlimm’s book, “Stand Up!: 75 Young Activists Who Rock the World, And How You Can, Too!” (2013) Gates was also highlighted in Adam Smiley Poswolsky’s “The Quarter-Life Breakthrough: Invent Your Own Path, Find Meaningful Work.” (2016)

Valencia L. Johnson

Archivist for Student Life, Princeton University

She is the Archivist for Student Life at Princeton University. In addition to being a certified archivist, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and History from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Baylor University. As the creator of Amp Up Your Archives program, she works to create records management and archival initiatives to inspire students to view their records and materials as important documentation that is an equal to the administrative record of the university. She is a co-author of the Project STAND’s Archiving Student Activism Toolkit and the Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Resources.

Manuel Julio Duran Mendez

Chair, DC AfroLatino Caucus

He is the Chair for the DC AfroLatino Caucus, is originally from the Dominican Republic and moved to Washington, D.C., at the age of nine. After graduating from Bell Multicultural High School, Mendez received his bachelor’s degree in African Studies and Communication at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Fortunate to have a host of mentors in his adolescence, Mendez’s passion for supporting positive youth development and the issues that plague the people of the African Diaspora are ever-apparent themes in his pursuit of affecting progressive change in his community. As a constant staple in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, Mendez’s dedicated support has allowed him to forge long-term, meaningful relationships with members of the community. Currently, as the chair of the DC AfroLatino Caucus, Mendez’s goal is to unite “black and brown” people of the Washington metropolitan area. He is also a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland’s School of Information Studies.

Greg Bailey

Archivist

Greg has worked in the archival field for 15 years, working at three universities as a university archivist and now as a department head. He majored in History with Political Science and Geography minors at Eastern Illinois University. He holds an MLS with a concentration in Archives and Records Management from Indiana University – Bloomington.

Jehan Sinclair

Processing and Digitization Archivist, Harvard University

Jehan Sinclair (she/her) is a Processing and Digitization Archivist at the Harvard University Archives where she arranges and describes collections across a wide range of subject areas. She supports the Harvard Library Digitization Program through policy development and identifying potential collections for digitization across the University. Jehan has experience working in libraries, archives, and museums and is interested in making cultural heritage institutions accessible to all.

Molly Rufus

Creative Event Producer and Project Management Strategist

She is a creative event producer and creative project management strategist. Her work is deeply involved within the Black community, focusing on art, culture, and community-based organizing. She currently serves as Programs and Exhibitions Coordinator for CulturalDC, coordinating projects revolving around exhibitions, festivals, and public art installations. Concurrently, she works in creative event production for EatonDC on projects such as concert series, non-profit events, and art initiatives. She is also the Co-Founder and DC Programs Manager for the DC Chapter for Black Girls in Art Spaces and has successfully started and maintained partnerships with Eaton D.C, the Smithsonian, Women’s History Museum, John F. Kennedy Center, and many other local galleries and non-profits. She has overseen expansion for larger scale events, including the upcoming recent screening for the Netflix docu-series Black Beauty Effects with sponsors such as Lipbar, Fenty Beauty, and more.

She is also serving as the 2023-2024 DC Fellow for WESTAF National Leaders of Color, a transformative leadership development experience in order to establish multicultural leadership in the creative and cultural sector. She currently resides in Washington, D.C., where she clearly does too much.

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins – Project Director

Associate Director for Engagement, Inclusion and Reparative Archiving

She is also the Associate Director of Engagement, Inclusion, and Reparative Archives in Special Collections and University Archives, a newly established position for the University of Maryland in College Park. Hughes-Watkins is also the architect of the reparative archive framework, mentioned in her article, “Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices.” She has launched workshops that focus on this archival praxis, which centers on community building as a first step. Her research areas focus on outreach to marginalized communities, documenting student activism within disenfranchised student populations, and utilizing narratives of vulnerable populations within the curricula of post-secondary education spaces. She also serves as a Co-chair for the 1856 Project, a chapter of Universities Studying Slavery, and the Co-PI for the CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American and African Studies grant.

Tamar Chute

University Archivist and Head of Archives, The Ohio State University