Podcast Summary: Therapy for Black Girls, Session 438

Black Memory Work & Healing

Host: Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D.
Guest: Dr. Tanya Sutherland, Professor and Dean at UCLA
Release Date: November 19, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode unpacks the concept of Black memory work, particularly in the context of technology and digital afterlives. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is joined by Dr. Tanya Sutherland, whose book Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife explores how Black communities preserve memory, the distinctiveness of Black archival traditions, and the intersections and tensions with digital technology. The conversation offers both historical perspective and practical ideas for healing, agency, and intentionality in safeguarding Black stories for future generations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Black Memory Work and Digital Afterlives

• Digital Afterlife: Refers to the data and digital traces (photos, messages, metadata) we leave behind, often outside of our control (06:15).
  • "When you pass away, the question becomes, what is done with all this data? ...We have what I have termed digital afterlife." — Dr. Sutherland [07:45]
• Black Memory Work: Encompasses traditional practices (quilting, braiding, collecting), as well as intentional communal efforts to record and hold memory in ways unique to Black diasporic communities. It's a protective, generative process, often serving as a corrective to mainstream, trauma-focused archiving (08:00).

2. Motivation for the Work

• Inspired partly by childhood distress over exploitative media portrayals (e.g., "Save the Children" campaigns), and the re-traumatization found in disaster imagery (Hurricane Katrina), sparking a desire to understand systemic reasons for the ongoing exploitation of Black images and stories (08:56).
  • "We are once again looking at images of black people's bodies in distress, deceased. And it's being presented to us as something that we should take in, again, [without] any real context." — Dr. Sutherland [09:41]

3. Everyday Black Memory Practices

• Practices include preserving funeral programs, photos, family recipes, and the oral tradition of communal storytelling (10:59).
  • "We understand memory to be braided in someone's hair as a route to freedom... Other people might call someone a hoarder... but when you have been dispossessed of your belongings... that's about a memory process." — Dr. Sutherland [11:44]
• The episode highlights cultural specifics such as the “big black leather purse” filled with family photos and the tradition of collecting funeral programs (12:51-13:32).

4. Contrast with Western Archival Practices

• Traditional Western archives prioritize institutional preservation for dominant cultures and often document Black life as trauma, death, or loss (14:02).
  • "The institutions that hold those archives... have not traditionally made it their agenda... to document black life. If they do, what they're documenting is the Save the Children campaign..." — Dr. Sutherland [14:38]
• Black memory work is communal, fluid, and values accessibility and cultural inheritance over institutional permanence (16:49).

5. Goals of Black Memory Work

• Emphasizes preservation of memory and cultural heritage for Black communities, often done by community members without formal training (16:56).
  • "Your grandmother is a black memory worker... It doesn't matter that she didn't have a master's degree... I would absolutely call both of them black memory workers." — Dr. Sutherland [17:15]

6. Restorative and Healing Elements

• Storytelling as healing: Recording birth stories, sharing joyful moments, and teaching cultural games (spades, dominoes) are highlighted as healing forms of memory work (24:48-26:35).
  • "If we don't know, then we're only bringing the bad stuff with us through the generations. So I know y'all want to gatekeep, but teach the kids, teach them babies how to play spades and dominoes." — Dr. Sutherland [27:55]

7. Getting Started with Black Memory Work

• Start by identifying and valuing personal and family collections—shoes, recipes, music, photographs—and actively involving family members in conversations and documentation (29:37).
  • "I would say look to your people. What are you collecting? Because we're all collecting something, even if we're not really aware of it." — Dr. Sutherland [29:38]

8. Cultural Transmission & Digital Recording

• Encourages participation and “muscle memory” transmission—learning by doing, not just recording (32:06).
  • "Get your phone out. Don't just record mom... learn it with your hands too. There's something really important—an important aspect of black memory work is the... cultural transmission." — Dr. Sutherland [32:08]

9. Ethical & Consent Considerations in the Digital Sphere

• Raises concerns about loss of agency, misuse of digital images, and calls for consent-based approaches to digital sharing (33:43).
  • Example: Deepfakes and manipulated AI images of historical Black figures (e.g., Frederick Douglass), and the risk of trauma images being circulated without context or permission (34:55).
  • "If we have no agency and no ability to say what is going to be done with those materials... that's the first ethical flag. That's where we have to start." — Dr. Sutherland [35:53]

10. Community Gatekeeping and Online Space

• Discusses how Black digital communities (e.g., Black Twitter) inherently developed creative forms of gatekeeping, echoing in-person community boundaries (41:47).
  • "I've seen gatekeeping happening [on social media] where I'm like, that's right, you know exactly what to do... Your people are like, I'm not going to tell you—that's U.S. business." — Dr. Sutherland [42:08]
• Warns of the dangers of dependence on digital platforms not owned by the community (Black Twitter, Instagram), advocating for Black-owned digital spaces (44:33-47:23).

11. Agency Amid Rapid Technological Change

• Highlights the urgency of informed community dialogue regarding data use and digital agency as AI and related tech outpace legislation (48:08).
  • "How much of myself do I want to give up? It's a compromise. It's one that you're making every time you use these technologies." — Dr. Sutherland [51:43]
• Recommends practical conversations among families and communities to “do your homework” on data use and digital exposure.

12. Young People and Digital Consent

• Younger generations often lack awareness of how dependent they've become on digital infrastructures until intentionally unplugged (e.g., 48-hour “offline” assignment) (52:42-54:48).
  • "It doesn't take more than 48 hours for people to realize how much of their lives is absolutely controlled and determined by outside forces that are, you know, run by technology companies." — Dr. Sutherland [54:13]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On digital afterlife:
  "All of this data and our digital detritus lives on after we do. And we have very little say in... how it might be manipulated." — Dr. Tanya Sutherland [07:45]

• On the “big black bag” of family memory:
  "Have you ever thought of a big black bag full of Black memory?" — Dr. Sutherland [13:41]

• On healing through storytelling:
  "In some instances, they may not have a child to hold, but they now have a story that they can hold that has been told to someone who is holding it in care and in community with them." — Dr. Sutherland [25:06]

• On joy in Black memory work:
  "More joy, please, more joy... Part of Black memory work is teaching the kids how to play spades, right?... Teach the babies how to play spades and dominoes." — Dr. Sutherland [27:36]

• On agency in the digital age:
  "If there is no digital video of me, then there can't be an AI deep fake of me saying some stuff I would never say... And then... what my descendants are looking back on and thinking, oh, that was Tanya." — Dr. Sutherland [33:50]

• On intentional moderation:
  "Maybe there's room in there for moderation, for thoughtfulness, for consideration, for taking a bit of a step back and reevaluating." — Dr. Sutherland [55:17]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Topic | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 06:15–08:49| Defining Black memory work & digital afterlives | | 08:56–10:54| What motivates this work (personal memories, trauma in media) | | 10:59–14:02| Black memory practices in community and contrast with Western archiving | | 16:49–18:01| Goals of Black memory work | | 22:11–24:38| Black memory work as communal and restorative | | 24:48–28:23| Restorative storytelling; holding both joy and trauma | | 29:37–33:20| Getting started with Black memory work, cultural transmission | | 33:43–37:02| Ethical concerns and consent in digital spaces | | 41:19–44:33| Community gatekeeping and the lessons from Black Twitter | | 47:24–52:15| Agency, digital consent, and practical protections in the age of AI | | 52:42–55:17| Young people's awareness and intentional unplugging |

Resources & Ways to Connect

• Dr. Tanya Sutherland’s website: tanyasutherland.com [56:22]
• Book: Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife – available via University of California Press, Amazon, or local bookstores [56:42]
• Black Memory Collective: Organization led by Dr. Sutherland — more info via website.

Takeaways & Closing Thoughts

• Black memory work is an essential, living practice for healing and cultural preservation, responsive to the harms of both historic and modern (digital) erasure, as well as the possibilities for new forms of collective joy.
• Intentionality, agency, and community consent are vital when sharing or archiving Black stories and images, especially in digital spaces.
• Everyday actions—holding conversations, sharing recipes and music, teaching cultural games—are valid and valuable forms of memory work.
• As technology changes rapidly, communities are encouraged to remain vigilant, educate themselves, and create or safeguard their own digital and physical cultural spaces.

For more on Therapy for Black Girls and Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, visit therapyforblackgirls.com or follow the podcast on Instagram @therapyforblackgirls. Share thoughts with #tbginsession or join their Patreon community.