Sierra King
Sierra King is a multidisciplinary artist, archivist and curator. Her introduction to archiving began with her Great-Grandmother, Annett L. Battle, a well-known child-care provider in the Collier Heights neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. Sierra holds a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Art from Valdosta State University. She is the founder of Build Your Archive, a memory work lab where Black Women Artists build their archives in real time. In 2022, she was an Arts & Social Justice Fellow at Emory University in collaboration with Dr. Paul Bahsin, Director of the Symphony Orchestra. Currently she is an Sweet Auburn Artist-In-Residence at Remerge Atlanta.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
May 2025: SJ4A Scholar Sierra King and Dr. Bharat Mehra Attend the University of Alabama’s Spring 2025 Commencement Ceremony, May 3, 2025, https://alabama.box.com/s/ricq2w8po3qfq3aj53mdojd7hz250x0r
April 2025: SJ4A Scholar Sierra King Awarded the Juliette Hampton Morgan Scholarship by the University of Alabama.
September 2024: Sierra facilitated a One Photo At A Time – Family Photo Archiving Workshop in collaboration with The High Museum of Art, where participants were informed about personal archiving and photo preservation.
August 2024: Sierra collaborated with Sixty Inches from Center to host Remember Me: Oral History + Storytelling Workshop. Participants had the opportunity to create an audio recording of a memory and received tools and resources to continue to build their own archives in real time and create a personal workflows.
August 2024: Sierra will attend and present alongside her SJ4A Graduate Student co-hort members Sandy Yang and Néstor Rave at the Society of American Archivist (SAA). Their poster presentation “Developing Justice Interventions in Archives in Response to Identified Needs” will highlight their collective work at the information organizations. Sierra will speak to how the nomadic memory work labs for Build Your Archive have been informed by Black Feminist Theory.
August 2024: “kin to red dirt on white carpets” a solo exhibition by Jasmine Nicole Williams curated by Sierra King will open on August 1st at Swancoach House Gallery. On August 24th, Jasmine and Sierra will be in conversation for an Artist Talk.
July 2024: Sierra attended the 2nd annual retreat for The World(s) She Made: Composing The Radical Lives of Kathleen Neal Cleaver to continue planning the forthcoming exhibition alongside co-curators Stephanie Alvarado, Dr. Lia Bascomb, Delphine Sims, and John Stephens.
June 2024: Sierra began her internship with The Mildred Thompson Legacy project to work towards a preservation plan and grant preparation for the forthcoming archive and how it can be utilized by artists, researchers, and scholars in the future.
May 2024: Sierra was selected to join the 3rd Cohort of Community Leaders in the Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing. The Institute is an 18-month leadership experience that uses the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation™ Framework (TRHT ™) to strengthen the ecosystem of practitioners who are advancing racial and health equity in their work.
This is critical work necessary for working toward racial equity in our communities. Thirty-nine other talented leaders from 20 different states around the country are joining Sierra in CoHLI to take on work relative to narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and the economy. They possess leadership experience in the policy, law, grassroots organizations, education, and health fields.
May 2024: Sierra collaborated with The Guild to co-design a community documentation program that provided community members the opportunity to document events in the local neighborhood of Dill Ave. They documented their first event, The WayBack Community Block Party on May 11.
April 2024: Sierra facilitated a One Photo At A Time Workshop in collaboration with The Guild. Participants were provided with an archival toolkit to continue the personal archiving practices.
April 2024: Sierra attended the Southern Memory Workers Institute and gathered at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Highlander’s librarians and archivists, Ashby Combahee and Susan Williams, alongside Dartricia Rollins, hosted participants on the hill for five days to train on archival, documentarian, and other memory work skills, as well as Highlander’s six methodologies.
Sierra learned how memory work is a critical intervention for restoring and sustaining the collective memory of our liberation movements. Sessions included training and presentations facilitated by participants on public history tours, personal journaling practices, community-based archives, archival digitization, documentary photography, oral history, zines, and community mapping.
February 2024: Sierra collaborated with The Diaspora Solidarities Lab to present an interactive lecture-workshop moderated by Archivo 310, Kitsimba Project and mij[a]rchives.
THE MEMORY KEEPERS is an exploration of the archival praxis of fore-mothers, grandmothers, sisters, comrades, filminist, muralists, printmakers, cultural workers and organizers before us and among us. It will guide you through memory keeping practice through a photographic description writing exercise. As well as provide additional examples of how you can maintain custodial databases in your living room repositories
January 2024: Sierra began STILL Processing, 2024 for Build Your Archive. STILL PROCESSING is a digital living zoom room where you can come and co-archive, write your descriptions, take some time reading letters and being nosy. Scanning documents and updating your databases.
September 2023: Sierra spoke to the fellows of Project STAND about personal archiving for their residency Archiving Joy and Trauma: The Humanization of BIPOC Communities.
May 2023: Sierra King moderated a conversation on the topic of Lineage and Memory as foundation, with panelists Gabrielle Ione Hickmon and Shefon Taylor hosted by ADAMA ATL.
May 2023: Sierra presented her work at the 51st Annual Conference for ARLIS/NA in Mexico City, Mexico on the panel for “The Visual In Black Life”: Perspectives in Black Memory Work.
In the words of the late scholar, critic, and artist, Bell Hooks, “though rarely articulated as such, the camera became in black life a political instrument, a way to resist misrepresentation as well as a means by which alternative images could be produced.” Black librarianship and memory work has been integral to preserving the evidence of this resistance, the blueprint of an alternative future through ethical and culturally-informed collection, description, and engagement. Even in the context of today’s digital landscape, Black stewardship continues to ensure the preservation of a people’s history into the future, even in spaces yet to be imagined. Centering the work of stewarding collections of Black visual culture and Black artist archives, this roundtable examines some of the ways that this work has transformed and translated over different times and spaces.
The panel included: Independent Archivist, Zakiya Collier and Digital Curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library Schomburg Center Kimberly Annece Henderson moderated by Librarian for African American & Black Diaspora Studies at New York University, Kristen Owens.
You can view the presentation here
May 2023: Sierra King moderated a conversation on the topic of invitation, Preservation and Documentation into Her Practice, with panelists Zakiya Collier and Keondra Bills Freemyn hosted by ADAMA ATL.
MY SJ4A ROAD MAP [STRATEGIC EDUCATION PLAN]
FALL 2024
CIS 675: Community-Engaged Scholarship
I have created this Community-Engaged ePortfolio (CP-eP) as part of my work for the CIS 675 course (Community-Engaged Scholarship) during fall 2024.
In my CP-eP I analyze existing communication and information responses to Black Feminist Theory and Embodiment practices for Black Women Artists, Cultural Workers, Organizers and their communities in the Build Your Archive located in Atlanta,GA.
I also identify existing and potential collaborators and partners in local, regional, national, and international communities (in the physical setting and online) to facilitate actual and/or planned activities of mutual interest to operationalize and implement.
In the process I propose a range of responsive strategies to further community needs, expectations, and representation in the specific setting and workforce environment.
As part of my analysis, I critically evaluate the structure and foundations of the current offerings and develop a strategic diversity action plan for the communication or information organization to identify future directions of progressive growth and professional practice in consolidating future collaborations and partnerships
Analyzing Communication and Information Responses to Black Feminist Theory and Embodiment Practices for Black Women Artists, Cultural Workers, Organizers and their Communities in the Build Your Archive located in Atlanta, GA – https://scking1-cis675-fall24.myportfolio.com
FALL 2023
CIS 668: Social Justice and Inclusion Advocacy
I have created this Social Justice ePortfolio (SJ-eP) as part of my work for CIS 668 (Social Justice and Inclusion Advocacy) course FALL 2023. In addition to, my work completed in Diversity & Inclusion ePortfolio (D&I-eP)for CIS 650 (Applying Diversity Leadership Theories and Praxis), I will be continuing working with the communication agency Build Your Archive, a nomadic memory work lab for Black Women Artist to build their archives in real time.
In my SJ-eP, I will recommend strategic changes regarding language and distribution informed by promising practices gleaned from Black Feminist Text, Black memory work and community participatory archiving. It is my aim to complete a refined mission, vision and values statement that will inform the direction of the communication into the next 3-5 years of community work.
Mapping Black Feminist Legacies in the Build Your Archive Ecosystem – scking1-cis668-fall23.myportfolio.com
SUMMER 2023
CIS 650: Applying Diversity Leadership Theories and Praxis
I have created this Diversity & Inclusion ePortfolio (D&I-eP) as part of my work for the CIS 650 (Applying Diversity Leadership Theories & Praxis) course during Summer 2023.
In my D&I-eP I analyze existing diversity and inclusion responses at Build Your Archive, a nomadic memory work lab for Black Women Artist to build their archives in real time. I also propose a range of responsive strategies to further cultural competence and effective leadership in the diverse workforce environment. As part of my analysis, I will critically evaluate a variety of existing information responses (e.g. collections, services, programs, resources, policies, and best practices) to ensure equality and equity of representation, access, and information use of diverse stakeholders in my community-centered organizational setting. I will also develop a strategic diversity action plan for Build Your Archive to identify future directions of progressive growth and professional practice.
Build Your Archive: Examining Diversity and Inclusion Responses for a Black Women Artist Memory Work Lab – scking1-cis650div-sum23.myportfolio.com/