The House Archives Built

This talk focuses on the work of Dorothy Berry, author of The House Archives Built and Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities (We Here Press, 2025), which is currently sold out in its third printing since being published in October 2025. Berry discusses family materials offered up to “the altar of higher learning” and struggles for access, accuracy, and locating joy in family photographs stewarded by institutional archives.

Image captions: Left: William Berry, circa 1880, on the porch of the house he built in 1873. [1] Right: Moses Berry, circa 1955, with his grandmother Mamie and brothers Gary and Charles, on the porch his great-grandparents built in 1873. [10] 

Speakers

• Dorothy Berry, Archivist and Writer

Organized by

• Gregory Pardlo, Professor of Literature and Creative Writing and 19 Washington Square North Faculty Fellow, NYUAD
• Montana Ray, Clinical Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies, NYU; 19 Washington Square North Faculty Fellow, NYUAD

In conversation with

• Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Documentary Photographer, Writer and Curator; Professor of Photography, Rutgers University–Newark