Memory Workers Fellows

NOVA CYPRESS BLACK (dey/dem/NOVA) writes deir name in all caps as a reminder to take up space as a disabled Black trans gender-expansive lighthouse. This genre-defying writer, choreographer, documentarian, & educator pledges allegiance to liberation & pleasure. Deir work spans television, film, theater & poetry, including being a Staff Writer on The L Word: Generation Q & a fellow in programs such as Film Independent’s 2024 Project Involve; Lambda Literary’s 2024 Writers Retreat; & the inaugural 2024-5 Black Trans Ethical World(un)making Lab. Examples of this nomadic Libra's work can be found at www.novacypressblack.com.

Image description: A brown skin Black trans non-binary person in a mustard-yellow beanie & muted yellow sweatshirt smiles warmly against a yellow-to-orange gradient background.

Matsuko Friedland (they/she) is an MLIS student and student assistant at the San José State University School of Information, where they work on EDI events and the Students: Amplifying Your Voices (SAYV) project. They also volunteer with the Prison Library Support Network (PLSN), Books to Prisoners, Seattle Public Library, and the Northwest Nikkei Museum. They are mixed race Japanese and white, neurodivergent, born and raised on Lekwungen land (Victoria, BC, Canada), and now living on Duwamish land (Seattle, Washington, USA) with their tortoise-shell cat, Kira. Their professional background includes business, public health, information technology, and accessibility. Their other areas of interest include disability justice, liberatory librarianship, languages and linguistics, movies and TV, food, and of course, cats!

Joyce Gabiola (they/them) works as an archivist at a public university in Texas, curating research collections of Contemporary Literature and LGBTQ History. In addition to being a Council Member of the Society of American Archivists (2022-2025), Joyce serves on the Board of Directors for JD Doyle Archives. Joyce is the principal author of "'It's a Trap': Complicating Representation in Community-Based Archives" (The American Archivist, July 2022) and also authored "(En)countering the Archival Sidekick" in Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America (July 2021). Joyce earned a MS in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons University. Lastly, as a parent of an Autistic child, Joyce is beyond honored to have been selected as one of the fellows for The Autistic Voices Oral History Project and knows that their experience will have a lasting impact on their personal-professional life.

Image description: A Brown person with short black hair, smiling, and wearing black-framed eyeglasses, a navy blue button-down shirt, and a black cardigan. They are leaning slightly to the left in front of a white background.

Remington Gillis (she/they) is a MLIS student at Louisiana State University and an elementary school teacher. There, she focuses on equipping her students with the confidence and skills necessary to become leaders in their community. Outside of work, she leverages her documentary and archiving skills to counter mainstream narratives about incarceration and state violence in the South.

Image description: A professional headshot of Remington Gillis, a young person, from the waist up, smiling, wearing a blue shirt and blazer.

Mariah Isbell (she/her/hers) is an early career information professional, currently working in the museum field as a project archivist at the Atlanta History Center. Mariah holds a B.S. in Psychology from Georgia College & State University and an M.L.S. in Archives and Records Management from Indiana University Bloomington. Throughout her life, Mariah sensed she was different (and was often told haha), but didn't understand why until in college when researching her own traits consistently led her to articles, literature, and forums on autism and late in life adult diagnosis. Through those years of research, and a very helpful friend and ally of the community, she was able to become aware and finally felt affirmed and seen that she was indeed on the autism spectrum. With her present experience in archives and passion to preserve the stories of the unrecorded, underrepresented, and historically marginalized, Mariah is excited to be a fellow and help preserve the stories of others in the autism community. 

Kristen (they/she) is the inaugural archivist at the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University. Their professional interests include the development of accessible solo archivist practices, collaboration with community archives (particularly those housing at-risk audiovisual materials), and promotion of personal archiving to preserve narratives and voices traditionally excluded from archives. Outside of work, Kristen enjoys life at home with her wife and pair of lovebug cats, creating fiber art, writing, and playing narrative RPGs.

Image description: A goth, fat, white femme in a selfie with funky blue lighting. They have dark brown hair down to their shoulders, dyed red at the ends, all swept to one side to show an undercut. They're wearing a long black earring, dark lipstick, and a black top with a plunging neckline. They have a blackwork tattoo of glowing crystal shards on their sternum (a reference to the manga Sailor Moon if you're in the know). They're smiling at the camera and sitting close to a blonde white woman who's mostly cropped out of the pic.

Lynette Kwaw-Mensah (she/they), who owes her understanding of her bodymind to her disabled communities before her doing this work, is a student, researcher, and writer in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with concentrations in Black queer feminist thought, disability studies, and oral history. Lynette’s work begins at and centers intersections of disability, race, queerness, class, gender, nation, and migration. Her intellectual and personal pursuits aim to increase accessibility in the field of oral history and memory work (cross-movement cripping of the archives), creating systems of learning and understanding that aid in our collective liberation. She believes that storytelling builds community, sparks personal transformation, and crafts alternative ways of knowing and scholarship that are a necessary prerequisite to our collective liberation.

Robert Manzo (he/him/his): I am an amateur musician and doctoral student in the Humanities living in central North Carolina. Recently, I started reading science fiction novels for the first time and, unrelatedly, learning the Italian language. From a young age, I was given the label autistic, and I am curious to hear others’ stories about being autistic.

Chinyere E. Oteh (she/her) is an emerging memory worker and creative based in the Baltimore area with Midwest roots. Chinyere received her MLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a Spectrum Scholar. She centers care in her personal and professional endeavors and is energized by exploring the intersections of library and information science, history and memory.

Karen Sieber (she/her), is an archivist, curator, and historian of social justice history who uses public history and digital history methods to recover and share stories with the public. She is best known for her research on the Red Summer of 1919, which is used in AP African American History classes nationwide, and for her work on the Underground Railroad in Minnesota. Her research has been featured by the Smithsonian, National Archives, American Historical Association, PBS and others. Beyond her consulting work in tv and film, archives, oral history, and exhibit curation, Sieber also teaches graduate courses in public history at Southern New Hampshire University.

Stephen is a professional archivist who is committed to being of service to Tribal community archives and museums. Stephen finds it imperative for Tribal Nations to bolster these curatorial institutions and programs in order to foster cultural continuity as well as cultivating national identities through the adaptation and development of these nontraditional information infrastructures. Through his work, he continues to reaffirm that Tribal archives stand as monuments to the traditional knowledge systems and age-old institutions which have sustained the cultural memories of Tribal peoples. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Master of Arts in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona with a focus on archival practices and methodologies. He has worked with Tribal governments, groups, and communities regarding the development of cultural heritage institution services, project management, programmatic, and information management capacities.

Valentina Toledano (she/her/ella) is a Santa Ana resident with heritage roots in Morelos and Guerrero. She recently graduated from UC Irvine with a double Bachelor's Degree of Arts in Political Science and Language Science. During her undergraduate experience, she worked on various on-campus internships including UCI Special Collections and University Art Galleries, and completed a senior honors thesis providing an ethnographic study about the significance of community art galleries in Downtown Santa Ana. Valentina currently works as an Archives Assistant Intern at the Heritage Museum of Orange County and as a Community Programs Intern at Bowers Museum. Valentina is determined to enroll in graduate school for a Master's in Library and Information Science Degree where she hopes to become an Archivist prioritizing the ethical storytelling and preservation of marginalized populations and identities in Southern California. She is passionate about disability justice, learning about Santa Ana’s hidden history, and supporting emerging museum professionals in their career trajectories. In her free time, Valentina enjoys watching anime, reading for fun, and exploring museums.

Image description: Valentina is wearing traditional attire from Guerrero holding two statues, a jaguar and a tlacololero. The picture was taken on UC Irvine campus grounds for her graduation pictures.