I wish I had started archiving the last four months much sooner. It has taken me almost all day to gather everything I can use for my research. Between applying to graduate school, my undergraduate work, my two jobs, and my activist work, it’s difficult to manage enough time to organize what research I have done so far. But there’s only two days left in January and I’m eager and terrified all at once to start the writing process.
Just to clarify for visitors:
My research has evolved significantly in the last four months. I have been actively involved in the local Occupy Syracuse movement since day three. Since early October I have kept photos, notes, flyers, newspaper clippings, videos, etc…to document my experiences as a woman of color occupy activist in Syracuse, New York. I have been focusing my research on the politics of “occupying” and/or “(un)occupying” spaces within what is also often referred to as the 99% Movement. I plan to analyze how physical, cyber, visual, and auditory spaces are utilized and/or not utilized within the Occupy Movement and what that means for a woman of color like myself.
Since I am still very interested in continuing more in-depth research on the Zapatista women of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional ) and the Chicanas of the Chican@ Civil Rights Movement, I will draw on these movements throughout my research occasionally.
So I started by browsing through all of my photos, videos, articles, and notes online…and slowly realized that this was going to take longer than I expected. I plan to continue gathering everything digital throughout the week and organizing it into its own folder on my computer. Today, my main focus was gathering all hard-copies/un-digital archives of my Occupy Syracuse involvement or anything Occupy-related. Every Sunday evening I will be posting new reflections, so be patient while I make changes on the blog.
Reflections:
As I started flipping through my notebook, I noticed how after volunteering once to be the Occupy Syracuse note-taker, I ended up note-taking more and more. My first night at the Occupy Syracuse site in Perseverance Park in downtown Syracuse, I volunteered to write notes. After that, I was almost expected to write the notes almost every night I came to a general assembly meeting. I remember just a few weeks after first attending, I started to persuade others to take notes, until eventually I stopped because it was taking far too much of my time—not just write the notes at the meetings, but type them up at home and post them to the Occupy Syracuse Facebook page. The notes were the most thorough when I wrote them, but I let it go. I remember almost feeling in the back of my mind like the notes were a way to silence me and to only tell the stories of others. There were several white males that tended to interrupt and talk over others before we started to have meeting facilitators. I have never been quiet at general assembly meetings or at Occupy Syracuse in general, but I felt that the notas were holding me back from what I really could contribute to the movement.
Another important thing I have always noticed is how much I have been photographed, featured, or interviewed in the local media. The Occupy Movement in general, is a very diverse movement, but in Syracuse, NY it’s really not all that diverse compared to bigger cities like New York City, Los Angeles, or Houston. The majority of occupiers and/or supporters at Occupy Syracuse have by and large been “white” males between the ages of 20 and 45. Yes, we have had our big protests and events that have proved we can gather a variety of 99%er’s, but it still looks very much like a white, middle-class, male-led movement most of the time. However, because I have been so involved and outspoken about getting more people of color, women, immigrants, and people living below the poverty line involved in Occupy Syracuse, my photo is often captured in the paper. Everyone seems to want to photograph one of the very few women of color who has even been to (much less very involved in) Occupy Syracuse. While my cara may be in the paper, I am often mis-quoted. And even though my cara is in the paper again, some of what I refer to as “physical occupiers” are mad. They want their cara in the paper. Then I realize, we have even more work than what we imagined. The priorities have been blurred for some occupiers. Revolutions don’t just happen overnight.
It has almost turned into what Andrea Smith calls the “Oppression Olympics” within Occupy Syracuse. Except instead I call it the “Occupy Olympics”—lots of people taking direct action for what could be our modern revolutionary movement and lots of people competing against one another about who can physically occupy downtown the longest or most. It will be interesting to see how Occupy Syracuse and my research as an activist scholar and woman of color within the movement progress in relation to each other. I feel that archiving my position within the Occupy Syracuse movement is essential for my future research and work as a Chicana Feminist. So many storias, so little time...
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