Defying Erasure, Keeping Black History Alive

Happy Black History (and Black Futures) Month Kinfolk! Our February edition of the For Kinfolk, By Kinfolk newsletter is the first step in a new direction for us. We’re excited to share that starting today our newsletter will take on a more intentional editorial approach—one that creates space for deeper reflection, sharper analysis, and more expansive conversations about history, culture, and the present moment. To support this shift, we’ll be moving our primary monthly newsletter to Substack, where our writing can live as both a publication and an ongoing archive—meant to be read, revisited, and shared.

We’re also thrilled to introduce Brea Baker, who will serve as the lead writer and editorial voice of this newsletter moving forward. Brea is a freedom fighter and writer (in that order) who has been working on the frontlines for over a decade, first as a student activist and now as a movement journalist and national organizer. Her writing will guide this new chapter, helping us slow down and engage more fully with the ideas shaping our world.

Thank you for growing with us. We hope you’ll join us on Substack to continue reimagining how we remember through art, technology, and collective power alongside us.

Defying Erasure, Keeping Black History Alive

by Brea Baker

We are only one month into the new year and it has already been a heavy season of repression and protest. “Who are we,” is the question on everyone’s lips and yet we know who America has always been. We who are Black, Indigenous, women, queer, trans, immigrant — or a combination of the above — have always seen and known this version of our country. Now more than ever we must acknowledge that memory is political and, as Octavia Butler wrote, “we forget history at our peril.” When we evade the past, we sentence ourselves to a violent remembering every time history repeats itself.

Coming off of the deadliest year in ICE’s history, agents have already killed seven people since New Year’s Eve including US citizens Keith Porter Jr, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti. ICE agents have traveled door to door demanding people’s “papers” and five-year-old Liam was separated from his father and detained in the process. Having been established after 9/11, ICE is younger than millennials and, yet, the agency was erected on a longstanding white supremacist legacy.

These echoes of the past have made it clear—collectively, we are not looking to history often enough to guide us through these torrential onslaughts being thrown at us. Book bans and restrictions on what can be taught in schools have plagued this country from its inception but the Trump administration has been meticulous in its aim to whitewash America. This year alone, he has already ordered the removal of signage across the country’s national parks which recognize Indigenous Americans and the very real science behind environmental regulations. An exclusively defensive strategy to Trump’s fascism won’t be enough; we must control our own narratives offensively through tech, literature, the arts, social media, and beyond — just like those who came before us.

It Is Our Duty To Fight For Our Archive

In 1926, historian and journalist Carter G. Woodson announced the second week of February as “Negro History Week” which means this year marks one hundred years of preserving and honoring Black American history and fifty years of doing so all month long. It may not feel like we have much to celebrate considering the state of our world right now… waves hands in the air but we do!

The job of reflecting on our contributions and wins becomes exponentially more important during seasons of turmoil and this year that is especially true because America will also be commemorating its 250th birthday. (Remember 1776?!) All year long, we must hold up a mirror of radical honesty in order to tell the truth about where we come from.

Each Black History Month, we are gifted with the opportunity of memory. Our ancestors’ breadcrumbs guide us back to ourselves and the radical traditions that got us this far in the first place. We can memorialize the power and creativity of our elders. We can take in the wisdom of the griots and freedom fighters whose methods of resistance continue to serve us. We can uplift the names and legacies that “they” would rather erase. We can instill all of these lessons with our children so that we may never forget whose shoulders we stand on. We can carve out space for joy, rest, and community care because there is no better day than today to be Black and happy in a society hell-bent on breaking us.

I am especially inspired by the maroons: Black and Native peoples who refused to submit to genocide or slavery. Instead, they used their ancestral knowledge of land, plants, and animals to build societies that couldn’t be invaded or destroyed. In swamps and on mountaintops, maroons lived and loved without inhibition rejecting racism, sexism, and other forms of hierarchy. They passed down oral history and protected one another fiercely, knowing that community is the only antidote to oppression. That’s the energy I’m signing up for.

When America celebrates its birthday we will reject Trump’s toxic patriotism. We won’t hang his banners or sing his songs. Instead, we will ask what we’ve done worth celebrating. We will build monuments to that America while critiquing and addressing what should be a cautionary tale. After all, it was James Baldwin who encouraged us to love America enough to criticize her perpetually. And we won’t wait until July to get going. We’ll start right here and now.

Thank you for existing. Thank you for preserving. Thank you for fighting. Above all, thank you for joining us in our quest to tell our own stories and transform memory in a force for justice, belonging, and possibility.

What To Expect Moving Forward

So here’s what to expect with this evolution

• In the middle of each month: a long-form essay or op-ed from Brea that invites you to think alongside us.

• At the end of each month: a digest of updates on Kinfolk’s programs, projects, and community work.