Two Pratt graduate students in the School of Information have received the Audre Lorde Justice Endowed Scholarship, established by activist and alum Mariame Kaba, MSLIS ’22. The scholarship supports emerging librarians and archivists who are working to democratize archives and preserve the histories of marginalized communities.
Kaba created the scholarship after receiving a Freedom Scholar award from the Marguerite Casey Foundation in 2022, which recognized her influential work writing and organizing around prison abolition. She has directed over $50,000 of this award toward the scholarship and Delali A. Ayivor, MSLIS ’23, and Kimberly Angelica Barnes, MSLIS ’27 and MA History of Art and Design ’27, have been chosen as the initial recipients.
“What this means to me in Library Science is that we actively democratize archives by improving accessibility for all, especially focusing on marginalized communities,” said Kaba. “I hope this scholarship will help to seed and support future librarians and archivists who are committed to social justice and change. I invite other Pratt alumni to contribute to this fund over the next few years. I invite everyone affiliated with the School of Information to remember that justice making must be a core value of libraries, in perpetuity. I invite Pratt Institute to make good on Audre Lorde’s commitment to diversity and to justice.”
Kaba noted that archives have often been sites of oppression, erasing the stories of marginalized communities. She added that archivists have the power to challenge established histories and shape new narratives rooted in social justice.
The scholarship was named after Audre Lorde, the writer and social justice activist who championed marginalized communities and imagined utopian futures. Through her activism, she fought for racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ rights, using her role as librarian and archivist to promote inclusivity in how histories were recorded and remembered.
“I can’t even begin to describe how much it means to receive this scholarship, particularly because I value the activism, creativity, and words of Black women like Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Angela Davis,” said Barnes, adding that she “was motivated to go back to graduate school and gain the tools I need to become a stronger advocate.”
The Audre Lorde Justice Endowed Scholarship is available to current or incoming students in Pratt’s School of Information archives program who demonstrate a commitment to social justice, and is renewable for recipients in good academic standing.