Ourchives: A People's History of America's 250th

OURCHIVES: A People’s History of America’s 250th is an initiative interwoven into all of the work we will be doing for the rest of the year. Throughout this campaign we will highlight the contradictions, and –more importantly– shed light on the histories and contemporary people who resisted imperialism, racial capitalism, sexism, and other forms of domination. 

Remembering and documenting from below, or “a people’s history”, is meant to be an affirmation. And, it is an invitation to everyone in our community to contribute their stories and take care of their own precious archives. This is a training ground for culture bearers who will preserve family photographs, recipe books, letters, zines, political posters, and more that will give future generations insight on how to live and be. This project is also an act of refusal to comply with the current administration’s Executive Order Restoring Truth and Humanity to American History.

This is a call for storytellers, community historians, memory workers, artists, and creative technologists of displaced and excluded communities to tell their own stories—and to shape their own legacies. We believe every community deserves the tools to preserve its past and imagine its future. By using our collective memory as a force for justice, belonging, and possibility, we believe we can co-create a new narrative. Join us in building a new archive for the people, by the people.


CAMPAIGN GOALS

FOSTER participation in the archive

BUILD living archives that support the counter-narrative

KEEP archives open and accessible

KEY COMMUNITIES

Brooklyn, NY

As Kinfolk Tech’s home base, New York City— Brooklyn especially — serves as the foundational hub for our local organizing as we reckon with NYC’s 400 year history. 

Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia is a city of tremendous historical significance to America's 250 year history, and represents the resistance to oppression, surveillance, and erasure that has occurred throughout.

New Haven, CT

Home to one of the oldest universities in the country, New Haven is a fertile ground for conversation around and investigation of the role institutions play in perpetuating harm, and incubating movements towards truth, justice, and liberation.

CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES

Creating Spaces For Collective Memory, Imagination, & Power

A major focus for Kinfolk in 2026 will be creating spaces for our community to engage in activities that strengthen our capacity for collective memory, collective radical imagination, and collective power through online and offline community building, digital storytelling, pop-up activations, community based programs, and large scale events. 

Building Memory Infrastructure

Kinfolk builds technology with and for the people. We are committed to creating digital infrastructures and contexts that make collective memory accessible, and that center and honor the voices of the individuals and communities who have entrusted their stories to each other. These tenets (accessibility, agency, care, and belonging) reflect our learnings from building in community so far, and serve as essential design requirements for crafting technology that is grounded in the needs, values, and lived experiences of the people we build with and for.

Immersive & Experiential Storytelling

Through 2026 Kinfolk will remain committed to our roots as an organization using immersive technology, public art, and community-led design to help displaced and excluded communities tell their own stories—and shape their own legacies. Continuing our work with cultural institutions, community organizations, artists, educators, and funders to create AR monuments and participatory installations that transform public space and cultural narratives.