Raja’Nee Redmond
Raja'Nee is a memory worker, oral historian, and artist who is dedicated to documenting and archiving Black stories. Rooted in a love of ancestors and the legacies of her own family, Raja'Nee's work exists at the intersections of Black womanhood, history and storytelling. She believes the most powerful thing a person can do is define themselves for themselves by telling their own stories.
A Long Way
Documentary
From Holmes
Through a deep dive into her ancestry, a Black woman discovers the will of a slave owner awarding her fourth great grandmother over 200 acres of land in Lexington, Mississippi.
During her visit, she grapples with the complex themes of reparations and systemic harm. She takes us on a journey of rediscovering, reassembling, and rememory, encouraging us all to go back and fetch what’s at risk of being lost.
Preserving Family Legacy
Since 2021, Raja’Nee has been collecting and preserving audiovisual life story interviews of her family members. This idea was prompted by a frustration with the limitations of county records for her ancestors which, though valuable, could never reflect their faces, their mannerisms, the sound of their voices, and their full stories. In an attempt to solve the problem in real time, she thought to use technology to capture living ancestors and archive it for those who will never meet them in person.
Additionally, people who are oftentimes left out of the record or reside in counties that don’t maintain adequate records, there is immense power in hearing about the life of an ancestor in their own words, with their reflections. She hopes that her descendants who are not yet Earthside, will listen to these life stories, learn who they come from, and take lessons for their own lives.
