A part of what we are hoping to re-imagine at Ancestry Books are spaces that are not solely (perhaps not even) about the exchange of currency for commodities. This politics is what opens up the cognitive space for us to see our work as more than a business bending always to the whim of capital but carving a clear ethics into the work. In regards to commodification, I tend to be of the mind that the production of knowledge statically held as a commodity is dangerous. That its history as such has been the reason why historically marginalized communities have always had to be about the business of creating alternatives. When I think about African descendant communities here in the U.S. I cannot help but get excited about the history of the Ida B. Wells-Barnetts and the David Walkers who created, radical, alternative print media and circulated it in a grassroots manner. These radical histories and alternatives are shared by all historically marginalized communities. The question of how that work continues and survives is at the heart of so much of the work at Ancestry. What does it mean when 5 conglomerates control 80% of all published printed material? What happens when radical presses like South End Press close and brick and mortar bookstores, especially ones owned by Indigenous communities and communities of color are closing at alarming rates? How do archives impact the communities out of which the work has emerged when held only at prohibitively expensive institutions that are also often geographically inaccessible? These among other questions guide the work. Ancestry is about the creation of space, as an open and not closed system, that is always under construction (see Massey), reflexive. Thinking a great deal this morning about these and other matters. To be continued.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 18:37:43 +0000
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