Everyday People: The Color of Life (Anthology)

Edited by Jennifer Baker

In the tradition of Best American Short Stories and Langston Hughes’s classic The Best Short Stories by Black People comes Everyday People: The Color of Life, a dazzling collection of contemporary short fiction.

This gorgeously wrought anthology represents a wide range of styles, themes, and perspectives on a variety of topics. The carefully selected stories depict moments that linger—moments of doubt, crossroads to be chosen, relationships, epiphanies, moments of loss and moments of discovery. A celebration of writing and expression, Everyday People brings to light the rich tapestry that binds us all.

An eclectic mix of award-winning and critically lauded writers, the contributors include: Mia Alvar, Carleigh Baker, Nana Brew-Hammond, Glendaliz Camacho, Alexander Chee, Mitchell S. Jackson, Yiyun Li, Allison Mills, Courttia Newland, Dennis Norris II, Jason Reynolds, Nelly Rosario, Hasanthika Sirisena, and Brandon Taylor.

If a Bird Can Be a Ghost — Apex Magazine, Issue 99

“Shelly’s grandma teaches her about ghosts, how to carry them in her hair. If you carry your ghosts in your hair, then you can cut them off when you don’t need them anymore. Otherwise, ghosts cling to your skin, dig their fingers in under your ribs and stay with you long, long after you want them gone.”

Douglas, Jennifer, and Allison Mills. 2018. “From the Sidelines to the Center: Reconsidering the Potential of the Personal in Archives.” Archival Science 18, no. 3 (September): 257-77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-018-9295-6.

This article seeks to center the personal in archives, both theoretically and methodologically. After briefly reviewing how personal archives have been sidelined in archival theory and education programs, we suggest that whether a record is considered personal or not is best determined not based on who created it but rather on how it is activated. In two separate autoethnographic case studies, the authors activate institutional records that, for each of them, are intensely personal. In doing so, they demonstrate how centering the personal in this way might inform and impact archivists’ understanding of their responsibilities to those who create, are captured in and consult the records in our care.

Mills, Allison. 2017. “Learning to Listen: Archival Sound Recordings and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property.” Archivaria 83 (Spring): 109-24. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13602.

Intellectual property concerns and sound recordings have a complex relationship: the publication status of recordings is intertwined with worries about the age and vulnerability of their physical carriers. These concerns affect both the access to and the preservation of archival sound recordings. Although unpublished ethnographic field recordings of Indigenous songs, stories, and oral histories can seem like straightforward cases for access, these recordings exist in a unique ethical context. This is characterized by the historic power imbalance between Indigenous nations, non-Indigenous researchers, and settler-colonial state powers, as well as a clash between Western intellectual property law and Indigenous legal orders. This article explores the nature of Indigenous cultural and intellectual property in sound archives, aiming to increase understanding and acknowledgement of Indigenous protocols in the archival profession. It suggests that collaborating with Indigenous partners in decision making about access and taking a nuanced view of intellectual property and ownership are necessary for proper care of non-Indigenous archives.