The Civil Rights Residency: An Archival Research Project for Creative Writing Students

This presentation describes a collaboration between the English Department and Creative Writing Club at Queensborough Community College (QCC) and the MFA in Creative Writing and Literacy Translation at Queens College (QC). Community college students were given access to the Queens College Civil Rights Archives located on the QC campus. This archive of personal papers, community materials, organizational records, non-print materials, and artifacts of civil rights activists during the 1960s was used by students to inform their literary work. The presentation will detail how we navigated the project, give examples of the opportunities created, and exhibit examples of student literary work.