What Is Solidarity History‪?‬ Solidarity History Initiative

A conversation with Dartricia Rollins

Conversation with Michelle Caswell about community archives, liberatory memory work, and causing trouble at work.

In this episode we talk to Anita Varma, assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Media at The University of Texas at Austin and Lead of the Solidarity Journalism Initiative (yes, we did take our name from her project; yes we did tell her).
We talk about what solidarity looks like in journalism and what a world that didn’t need this initiative would be like.

This week we're hearing from Victoria Ferrell Ortiz.
Victoria uses she  her pronouns and is a neighborhood historian and urban planner in Dallas, Texas.
We talk about historically-grounded solidarity rendered actionable through urban planning.

In this episode we hear from Jasmine Sudarkasa, Executive Director of Curve Foundations.
Jasmine uses she her pronouns and is doing an amazing amount of work to shepherd in a new era for Curve. An era of expanded inclusion and representation, an era that challenges us all to consider the future of queer and trans storytelling. We'll start here with Jasmine talking about the documentary, the history of curve and how this drew her to the work.

In this episode we talk to Rae Garringer. Rae uses they/them pronouns and is the founder of Country Queers, a multimedia oral history project that uplifts often unheard stories of country and small town queer experiences across intersecting layers of identity including race, class, gender, age, religion, and occupation.

We talk about the storytelling through oral history and journalism, and the role of care in different situations. We also discuss the role of solidarity as caring for people from the pas that we'll never meet.