“and i keep on remembering mine.”
“You can own official memory, but you can’t own me.”
I became a Whovian (a fan of the British science fantasy show Doctor Who) when a friend assumed that because I was (am?) a nerd I’d enjoy the show.
She was right.
Everyone has their favorite Doctor (11th until 15th showed up and showed out!) or companion. Mine is Martha Jones for a lot of reasons. Primarily because she was a baddie and I’m from the Issa Rae school of rooting for everybody Black. Martha got the short end of the narrative stick and is criminally underrated by some in the fanbase, but she remains That Girl in my eyes and in the eyes of the girls who get it*.
A Baddie who travelled through time and space.
One of her most epic moments in the series is when she literally saves the world by keeping the memory and name of the Doctor alive.
"I told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words."-Martha Jones
I’ve been thinking about Martha Jones and the power of memory a lot since January 20th, the date when Donald Trump and his cruel, marauding gang resumed residency at the White House and wreaking havoc on the “democratic” systems we thought we had. With companies capitulating and attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico, removal of the “T” as in Trans from THE WEBSITE FOR THE FECKING STONEWALL MEMORIAL, and more bullshit every day I’m increasingly depressed about the dystopian timeline I find myself in. I didn't consent to living in 1984, but here we are.
As an elder millennial, I have surprisingly, begrudgingly, seen a lot.
However, there’s a blessing in having context and references and remembering recent history from having read it in actual physical books or experiencing it. One of my favorite writers, critics, a Macarthur genius baddies is Dr. Tressie McMillam Cottam. In an Instagram Live on 2/13/25, she went in on educating on the mythmaking of Ronald Reagan that was made manifest through the renaming of a variety of public entities: Washington D.C.’s airport being one of the biggest examples.
why some people be mad at me sometimes
they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine.
-Lucille Clifton
This is the time for being insistent about truth and the histories we know to be true. It’s a time for reading more and widely, both fiction and non-fiction.
It’s a time for intentionally preserving memory and archiving.
More Reaching About Memory and Archive
Blk Mkt Vintage Documents its Mission to Preserve and Share Black History in New Book
Archiving a Revolution in the Digital Age, Archiving as an Act of Resistance
How Black archives are highlighting overlooked parts of history and culture
We’re I’m so lucky that as a Black woman I have maps for this task and a rich history of defiance and dancing of revolt and restoration and so much more to commit to memory.
*the other companions could never! 😤