This event at the Keti Koti festival on July 1, 2017, featured a mini-expo showcasing pieces from The Black Archives. It included interviews with curators and initiators, spoken word performances, and the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to make hidden Black history visible.
On July 1, 2017, The Black Archives participated in the Keti Koti festival in Amsterdam's Oosterpark with a special event that included a mini-expo. This event aimed to share stories behind significant items from their archive, which holds a vast collection of books, historical documents, photos, films, and artifacts related to Surinamese and Black writers, scholars, and movements. The program featured interviews with key figures like Jessy de Abreu, Imara Limon (curator at Amsterdam Museum), Miguel Heilbron (initiator of The Black Archives), and Mitchell Esajas (Chairman of New Urban Collective). Spoken word artists Darryl Danchelo Osenga (Insayno) and Dorothy Blokland performed specially written pieces.
The event also served as the launch for a crowdfunding campaign with a goal of €10,000. These funds were intended for thorough research by a professional team and to continue the digitization and indexing of The Black Archives, enabling the presentation of initial results during a planned exhibition in November. The initiative is part of New Urban Collective's goal to make the archive accessible to a wider audience, highlighting underrepresented aspects of Surinamese, Caribbean, African, and Dutch history.