Umi's Archive is a multipart, multimedia research project that digs deep into the life of one woman, Amina Amatul Haqq (1950-2017), neé Audrey Weeks, to explore the meanings of being Black in the world. Umi’s Archive launched as a “(re)claimed space where we remember and dream” in 2021 with a six-part online exhibition series curated by scholar-artist-activist, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer. Umi means mother in Arabic, and the exhibitions explored many themes, from anti-Black racism and Black girlhood to Blacks in the military and religion and spirituality, through the lens of Su'ad's mother’s life. The project draws on a family archive that includes over a thousand items dating from the late 1920s and spans multiple continents. Beginning with the questions – Whose account of the past counts? Whose lives should be remembered? – the series, which ran from April to October, was an invitation to think about power in archives and the significance of Black women’s stories.
A relaunch of the exhibition series is in the works!