Jade Rodgers

Free the Archives | This project began with the intent to analyze the black family model in contemporary society. Black families throughout history have been broken and torn due to the effects of slavery, and more presently the stereotypes that surround what the black family model looks like. Following the present-day relationships of my own family members, I aim to highlight the importance of a running documentation of the family archive. Archives, which can be used to keep families closer and give access to the past on a deeper level.

This work is meant to analyze and reinvent the ways in which we look at the black family. In the past, documents like “The Willie Lynch letter” gave step-by-step instructions on how to deconstruct the black family, and make slaves out of them. In this history, we can examine the ways the black family began to crumble, how the separation of family led to the loss of what it means to be Black in America. These ideas were shared through generations orally and internalized. Using images of my own family to examine how these histories have in fact affected their being and the ways in which my family exists individually and as a unit. www.jadethesage.com