SAN FRANCISCO — The Letterform Archive’s Reading Room gallery is set to host a deeply intimate yet structurally expansive exploration of historical preservation, lineage, and cultural resilience. Opening on April 28 and running through July 10, 2026, the upcoming pop-up exhibition, Black Memory Scholar, offers visitors a masterclass in how personal genealogy and institutional archives can intersect. Curated by Jada Simone Haynes, Senior Collections Associate at the Archive, the exhibition defies traditional, sterile archival models. Instead, it operates on the metaphor of quilting—stitching together rare periodicals, contemporary artist books, family heirlooms, and personal histories to argue that Black storytelling is not a peripheral genre, but a foundational pillar of historical preservation. Main Facts: An Exhibition Rooted in Legacy and Resistance At its core, Black Memory Scholar is an interrogation of how memory is captured, valued, and threatened. The exhibition bridges the gap between major institutional collections and deeply personal domestic archives. Event: Black Memory Scholar pop-up exhibition Venue: Letterform Archive, Reading Room Gallery, San Francisco Dates: April 28 – July 10, 2026 Curator: Jada Simone Haynes, Senior Collections Associate Key Works Featured: Rare 1960s and 1970s periodicals like The Black Scholar, Solange Knowles’s artist book A Seat at the Table, Shala Miller’s photo-diary Tender Noted, collaborative multi-media projects like This Is Not A Gun, and a c. 1930 handmade quilt top crafted by Haynes’s great-great-aunt, Birdtee Cornell. The exhibition arrives at a critical cultural juncture. As institutional support for Black scholarship faces unprecedented systemic friction, and as historical narratives are increasingly vulnerable to revision or erasure, Black Memory Scholar serves as a physical manifestation of resistance. It asserts that Black women and femmes have historically acted as the primary architects and caretakers of cultural memory. Chronology: Tracing the Thread from Childhood to the Archive The genesis of Black Memory Scholar spans decades, woven through milestones in Haynes’s personal life, her academic journey, and her professional tenure in the archival field. 2010: The Fifth-Grade Awakening Haynes’s relationship with storytelling began in earnest during the fifth grade. Assigned a routine book report, she was handed a well-worn copy of Marked By Fire, a novel written by her great-aunt, the celebrated author Joyce Carol Thomas. Though initially reading it as a child navigating mature themes, Haynes later understood that Thomas was embedding her own life and community into the protagonist, Abyssinia. The encounter planted an enduring seed about the power of self-representation. Undergraduate Research and Family Archives Years later, during her final two years at the University of California, Davis, Haynes returned to her family’s literary roots in an advanced research photography course. Facilitated by her great-aunt, Dr. Flora Krasnovsky, Haynes gained access to private family archives. She focused intensely on a historical letter detailing her ancestor Birdtee Cornell’s migration from Oklahoma westward to Tracy, California. This genealogical deep-dive birthed early artistic projects, including Mad Black Redacted (a reimagining of a one-woman play by Thomas), proving to Haynes that memory work was a lifelong vocation. Late 2025: Intersection of Family and Institution In late 2025, family connections again catalyzed Haynes’s professional output. Dr. Flora Krasnovsky introduced Haynes to performing artist, educator, and director Omari Tau, who was embarking on a sabbatical project honoring Joyce Carol Thomas. Haynes assisted in displaying Thomas’s works at the Tracy Historical Museum. Simultaneously, while conducting research pulls at the Letterform Archive, Haynes serendipitously discovered one of Thomas’s poems published in an issue of The Black Scholar, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with literary icons like Audre Lorde and Alice Walker. This discovery inside the Archive merged her familial lineage with her professional environment, sparking the vision for Black Memory Scholar. Supporting Data & Artifacts: The Elements of the Quilt Haynes structured the exhibition much like a traditional quilt, utilizing a rigorous framework of selection, layout, and assembly. The artifacts on display are drawn from both the deep holdings of the Letterform Archive and the private library of the curator’s mother, Lorelei Lee-Haynes. Archival Anchors The exhibition heavily features independent and radical periodicals from the 1960s and 1970s—eras defined by free-form Black thought. Key items include: The Black Scholar: Showcasing the intellectual rigor and aesthetic presentation of Black political and cultural critique. Voice of Freedom (1990): Edited by Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer, highlighting the oral histories of the Civil Rights Movement. Contemporary Interventions Haynes pairs these historical documents with contemporary works that utilize alternative book formats and visual languages: Solange Knowles’s A Seat at the Table (2016): An artist book that expands the boundaries of musical composition into tactile, visual design, serving as a portal to broader social practices. Shala Miller’s Tender Noted (2023): A deeply vulnerable photo-diary featuring self-portraiture and family snapshots that explore the intersections of Blackness, memory, and desire. Cara Levine’s This Is Not A Gun (2020): A multi-part collaborative project examining violence, sculpture, and collective trauma. Domestic Archives and Heirlooms Breaking traditional museum boundaries, the exhibition integrates a curated selection of books from Lorelei Lee-Haynes’s personal library. Collected over decades—initially when Haynes’s grandmother returned to school to earn a degree in African American Studies—these books represent a deliberate domestic defense against cultural erasure. At the emotional and visual center of the gallery sits a handmade quilt top crafted around 1930 by Birdtee Cornell. This textile artifact anchors the show, symbolizing how generations of Black women stitched together fragmented histories when official archives locked them out. Official Perspectives: In the Curator’s Own Words Reflecting on the motivation behind the exhibition, Haynes connects the micro-history of her family to the macro-politics of contemporary archival science. "I think my mother’s thoughts on erasure—ones that I share—are why other perspectives are so deeply important in both creativity and preservation," Haynes explains. "The decision to create an exhibition about storytelling was a conscious one as we navigate preservation and memory work today, when words can be backspaced, pages of progress are easily deleted, and institutional policies let us down." Haynes emphasizes that access is not passive; it requires intentional activation by those whose histories are being documented. "Unless people like me are present in these spaces and can interact with, preserve, and share these objects, it is unlikely they will be activated in this way within archives. Black storytelling belongs as a foundational, not peripheral, form of historical preservation. Black storytelling is a language in itself." Implications: Redefining the Role of Modern Archives The arrival of Black Memory Scholar at the Letterform Archive carries profound implications for cultural institutions nationwide. As libraries and archives grapple with institutional blind spots, shifting political landscapes, and historical exclusions, Haynes’s curation models a vital corrective. Decentering Neutrality: The exhibition challenges the myth of the "neutral archive," demonstrating that personal stakes, familial inheritance, and emotional proximity can elevate—rather than compromise—scholarly rigor. Multidisciplinary Preservation: By placing handwritten letters, textiles, musical artist books, and radical political periodicals on equal footing, the exhibition expands the definition of what constitutes "archival material." Amplifying Lineages of Care: Crucially, Black Memory Scholar honors Black women and femmes not merely as subjects of history, but as its primary architects, custodians, and transmitters. By framing the gallery space as a patchwork quilt, Jada Simone Haynes reminds visitors that history is not fixed in stone; it is made from the materials at hand, stitched together through memory, love, and relentless preservation. Black Memory Scholar is on view in the Reading Room gallery at Letterform Archive from April 28 to July 10, 2026. For visiting hours, accessibility information, and related programming, visit Letterform Archive’s Visit Page. Post navigation The Rhythm of the Glyph: A Deep Dive into Fernanda Cozzi’s "Tomasa"
