Book review – The Social Movement Archive

Book review – The Social Movement Archive by Jen Hoyer and Nora Almeida
by Lauren LaTulip 

The Social Movement Archive by Jen Hoyer and Nora Almeida at creates an archive, explores how participants in social movements view archives, and edges towards a new definition of archive. 

Each of the 15 short chapters in The Social Movement Archive is an interview with spokesperson activists involved in US-based social movements, copiously illustrated with photographs of artwork, posters, banners, and happenings. The extensive illustrations create an engaging book that is itself a useful archive, and while reading I was prompted to start further research on Sikowis (Christine Nobiss), Sky Cubacub, War Resisters League, Laura Whitehorn and the Environmental Performance Agency.

Each chapter explores the aims of the social movement and materials and activities produced by the social movements, then asks questions about archives. Would the movements want to see their materials in an archive? Do they have organisational archives? What kind of access should there be to archive materials and are there privacy or security concerns? Should items have individual authorship ascribed to them? What qualities should the archivist of their materials have? 

The answers are so wide-ranging as to make it clear that blanket policies for archiving social movement materials are inappropriate. Hoyer and Almeida approach some general conclusions in their dense Introduction (which I read last) about the archive as an ecology, being capable of travelling, reuse, re-formation, and new relationships, while also stressing valuing relationships with the creators of the materials. The Social Movement Archive is an excellent mix of concrete examples and head-scratching questions, recommended for anyone building an archive formally or informally.

Hoyer and Almeida are both involved with The Interference Archive in Brooklyn, NY and with social movement organising in New York City. Their book was published by Litwin Books of Sacramento, California in 2021. The copy I reviewed was donated on request to The Feminist Library by Lacey Torge, Editor-in-chief of radical publishers Library Juice Press and Litwin Books.