The Blue Record

A dive into the Brooklyn gatherings where Black women writers shaped ideas, strategies, and archives. Short scenes trace how sisterhood functioned as intellectual collaboration, classroom practice, and organizational strategy. Conversations probe conflict, joy, rest, and the health costs of isolation. Archival letters and classroom ties reveal how collective care became infrastructure for creativity and resistance.

In this episode of the Blue Record, our first-year interns have taken over the mic! Interns Mari, Lillian, and Morgan sit with host Makayla Rivera to question what constitutes as service, and interrogate ways in which rest, collectivism, and respectability politics shape how students conduct service in and beyond our campus.

In the spirit of the Ghanaian adinkra symbol Sankofa, which means “return and get it,” in this episode, Archives team members Denim and Gabrielle will guide you through the fabrics of Spelman College as a site of lesbian/sapphic love since its origination and engage with contemporary voices such as students, memory workers, and faculty. They uplift Black feminist foremothers such as bell hooks and Audre Lorde, who provided us with philosophies like “love ethic” and taught us the importance of establishing “authority over our own definition.” This episode aims to encourage the urgency of love, particularly lesbian/sapphic love, by way of illustrating the complexity and depth of remembering and resistance.

In this episode, editorial staff Amel Mohdali meets with TBR Director Jasmine Patrick. MLK Jr. Day reflections turns into a critical discussion of ICE brutality and its ties to white nationalism and xenophobia. Tracing back to Trump’s Big Beautiful Wall, The Blue Record examines the evolution of border militarization into a full scale domestic assault, from raids and killings in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Minnesota to media wars grappling to make sense of a “perfect” victim. This episode also confronts tensions between Black and Brown communities and begets the question of what solidarity and resistance means in this moment, before closing with essential know your rights information and examples of how communities are organizing to survive and fight back.Edited by: Jordan Grant

In this Social Justice Program Spotlight edition, we sit down with Ericka Mack from Fair Fight U, Aiyana Ringo from Unlocked Minds, and Parker Chambers from the Health Advocacy Initiative to unpack what activism looks like on campus and beyond the gates. From the moments that first radicalized them to the initiatives they lead today, our guests reflect on community needs, obstacles in rallying, and the realities of organizing as Black women at an HBCU. Together, we explore how modern activism compares to movements of the past, the impact of technology on advocacy, and the challenges posed by an evolving sociopolitical climate.

The Spelman College Archives, located in Room 200 on the second floor of the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby, Ed.D. Academic Center, is the official repository for the history of the college. It contains a variety of collections, from the founders' journals to the history of the Glee Club. However, the Spelman Archives' specialty is documenting the lives and experiences of influential Black feminist thinkers, including our very own Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole, as well as iconic Black feminist writers such as Black lesbian feminist poet mother Audre Lorde and radical Black feminist cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara. In this episode, Archivists Gabrielle and Haven engage in conversation with members of the Spelman Archives team, including Ms. Holly Smith, our college archivist, Ms. Nicole Carr, the Archives administrative assistant, and Sienna Keigwin, a student worker in the Archives. They discuss the legacy of the Spelman Archives and the role they play in centering voices that are often repressed and imagine what the future could look like for archives here and everywhere.

In this special episode, join Jocelyn Baker and Dr. Crosby in a conversation about the future of Forced Migration & Refugee Studies at Spelman.

In conversation about political violence, Black women, and discriminatory narratives perpetuated by hateful figures, our newest FTR explores it all.

In this episode, hosts Makayla Rivera and Jasmine Patrick open up with reflections on the transition of leadership from Dr. Helene Gayle to Interim President Dr. Brewer before diving into an honest conversation about Black women’s leadership. They explore what leadership means, why Black women often carry its weight, and how rest can function as a powerful key to leadership. The hosts unpack Spelman’s unique culture of leadership, from classroom expectations to RSO dynamics, questioning both the pressures and the performance that come with being a leader.

African Diaspora and the World (ADW) is a course that all Spelman students are required to take, yet the experiences that students have with the course vary widely. In this episode, Gabrielle, Denim, and Mari from the Archives team discuss the history of ADW and situate it within the context of the movement of Black studies programs. They discuss student experiences and feedback on their ADW experience, concluding with a radical imagining of what the future of ADW can look like.