This workshop considers counter-institutional archiving as a tool to fight gentrification. Counter-institutional archives have a dual struggle in rapidly gentrifying cities, first the labor to archive resistance histories and second to resist displacement and institutional incorporation themselves. In this workshop we will discuss several examples of counter-institutional archives that simultaneously operate as social and political infrastructure and consider how they manage to negotiate the maintenance of their space and improvise institutional relationships. Through this discussion we will also look at various tactics from the collections of these spaces that highlight resistance to gentrification.

Over the past decade or more, Lani Hanna has centered the relationship of counter-institutional archives and gentrification both in volunteering with Interference Archive in NYC and as a researcher. The workshop will be built around several key themes and examples from this research as well as a more informal and open collective discussion and brainstorming.