Rikers Public Memory Project

Reviewed by: Melissa McDonald

Review date: April 4, 2025

Site Link: https://rikersmemoryproject.org/

Archive Link:

• https://archive.ph/1Gs1i
• https://archive.ph/dLhiH (Project Archive page)

Keywords: Activism and Advocacy, Ethnographic Studies, Oral History

Data Sources:

• Oral histories of individuals who have been incarcerated at Rikers Island and their families
  
• Community conversations
  
• Pieces of digital storytelling

Processes:

• Oral histories uploaded as audio files then categorized and tagged to be searchable
  
• Collections are made by collating oral histories into digital storytelling and topical exhibits

Presentation:

The project is a digital community archive. The homepage for the Rikers Public Memory Project lays out the mission, encourages the user to check out a short documentary on the project, and clearly states the project's goals - remember, repair, and redress and then a call to action. The RPMP has created a Narrative Change Fellowship, which gives five Fellows $4,000 to create projects around Rikers and communities impacted by incarceration in New York City. From the homepage the user can navigate to the two main features of the site, A People's History of Rikers Island and the Rikers Public Memory Archive.

Digital Tools Used:

• HTML
  
• WordPress
  
• Omeka
  
• Curatescape

Languages:

• English

Review

The Rikers Public Memory Project (RPMP) is a collaboration between Freedom Agenda, Create Forward, and Humanities Action Lab in order to document the legacy of Rikers Island and remedy the often dehumanizing narratives about those affected by its legacy. The project is split into two parts - project and archive, which manifests in two sites. The project is focused on the fellowship initiative, which supports future digital projects, and calls to action to assist in the closing of Rikers Island through digital storytelling. The archive exists on an archived webpage, which could imply that the scope of the project changed. The bifurcated nature of the website made it a little confusing to navigate. Additionally, the archive is still being updated, which adds to the confusion. The project seems to be in flux at this time and it is unclear what the final iteration will look like and where or how the archive fits into that. Aside from being featured on the Rikers Public Memory Archive, some of the oral histories are shared with the New York Public Library to ensure long term preservation, and all interview audio files can be found on the Humanities Action Lab SoundCloud.

One notable section of the project is A People’s History of Rikers Island which provides a timeline of Rikers Island as a baseline for what we know about the island and sets the scene for the RPMP, positioning the project as an attempt to complete the history of Rikers Island. This section is a good starting point to understand the basic history of Rikers Island. We learn that the a Dutch family owned Rikers Island before New York City and that in the early 19th century its most prominent decedent, Richard Riker, was a city recorder who used his position of power to prosecute free black people without cause or due process using the Fugitive Slave Act and then transported them to the south to be sold into slavery. Knowing this legacy of state violence, specifically against the black community in New York City, lays bare the scale of trauma wrought by Rikers Island. I was surprised to learn that the conversation about closing Rikers Island began in the 1980’s, but was ultimately crushed by the same NIMBY protests that stymie Rikers closure today. The RPMP wraps up this timeline with the movement to close Rikers that began in earnest in 2015 after Kalief Browder committed suicide. It highlights the integral role that New Yorkers directly impacted by Rikers Island played in forcing the city to confront the human rights crisis happening on the island. This timeline guides the user to the oral histories and emphasizes the goal of the archive to provide a record of those most impacted.

The archive features 76 oral history interviews and seven collections. The Collections are grouped by certain topics like COVID, solitary confinement, why Rikers must close, a history of Rikers, and collections in collaborations with the community and students. The collections are a great way to explore many stories pertaining to a specific topic. The oral histories range from twenty minutes to over an hour. The collections allow the user to hear from many community members without having to sift through hours of interviews to find topics relevant to their interests. Some of the collections contain multiple stories, while others, like the collection on solitary confinement contain only two testimonies. The oral histories each contain a brief description of the person being interviewed, a transcript of the interview, and tags to connect the conversation to other themes across the interviews. I found the interviews moving and was struck by the experiences shared about Rikers. It is one thing to read about abuse at Rikers in the news or attend protests when someone dies in custody, but to hear about the firsthand experience was quite powerful.

I think this project could benefit from some explanation for where the archive fits in with the broader project at this point. It seems like the archive was the initial project for the Rikers Public Memory Project and now the scope has changed to focus primarily on the Narrative Change Fellowship. Despite this shift, the archive continues to be updated with collections. I would like to see the RPMP give some information on how and when items are moved into the archive, how past projects will be differentiated from new projects, and some clarification on the shift in scope.

Ultimately, I think this project and the archive meet the goals laid out by the RPMP. This project is a community led effort and a call to action, which comes at a time when we’re seeing the criminalization of predominantly immigrants of color being disappeared by the government without due process. This is not divorced from the history of Rikers and the effects it has had on marginalized communities in New York City from its founding. The oral histories contained in this archive are a powerful reminder of the human cost of the prison industrial complex on predominantly Black, brown, poor, and LGBTQIA+ communities. I hope this project continues to grow and is the advocacy tool that its founders intend for it to be.

How are the collaborative aspects reflected in the project and are there elements that work particularly well?

This project is a collaboration of advocates and community members who have been impacted by Rikers Island. The community that the archive is serving is also the community that is creating the archive.

Do you see an opportunity for collaboration that would be helpful to the project?

I think there is opportunity for collaboration between prison abolition activists, immigrants rights activists, LGBTQIA+ activists to broaden the reach of this project. I also think there is the potential for more community collaboration. I would love to see the organizers go into communities where they are building jails and share these stories and explain why it is important to have pre-trial detention locally rather than on Rikers.