The Survival Library working group aimed to consolidate and contribute to an ongoing collection of publications and media works centered around the personal narratives of W/Q/T/POC.
Members of marginalized communities have always experienced American society as hostile to varying degrees; our coping mechanisms are correspondingly varied. The new administration promises an even more treacherous landscape, and The Survival Library responds by amassing the knowledge gained in the course of our individual navigations into a shared archive. The Survival Library does not seek to replicate pre-existing nexuses developed for concrete resistance actions, which are invaluable and already available. Instead, it seeks to create an analogous resource for emotional responses: a confirmation that You Are Not Alone in your experiences, a torch warded against this gaslighting world of “alternative facts.” Collecting interviews, anecdotes, and imaginaries, this working group focused on the three main threads of Resistance, Resilience, and Resignation Management into a series of publications. Some topics we care about: Black Mental Health, speculative futures as escapism and guidelines, and the interplay of personal and political black history as inseparable from each other. The fruits of the working group will be made available online and/or in-person—depending on optimal channels of dissemination—as a guerilla hub of valid, examined feelings. A website is currently under development.
This working group was coordinated by the collective Codify Art, a multidisciplinary artistic, curatorial and producorial collective dedicated to showcasing work by artists of color, particularly women and queer people of color. Our output ranges from art exhibitions to evenings of performance to publications to networking events for our community. Codify and its members have recently exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the New Museum, OUTLET, Associated Gallery, SECRET DUNGEON, Trestle Gallery, The Harlem Arts Festival, SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2016, and the Brown Paper Zine and Small Press Fair at MoCADA, amongst others. Performance credits include Dixon Place, Center for Performance Research, and 440 Studios. Codify Art is Jarrett Key, Jon Key, Kat JK Lee, Sharina Gordon, and Leandro Zaneti and is based in Brooklyn, NY.