March 2026

“The Ancestors Are Still Speaking”: Scholar-in-Residence Damarius Johnson Inaugurates DiasporaDNA as Doing the Work of Public Memory

Talk with Scholar-in-Residence Damarius Johnson

DiasporaDNA is proud to have Damarius Johnson join our team as a Scholar-in-Residence, a collaboration focused on meaningful archival work that centers the Global Majority. As part of this project, DiasporaDNA hosted Johnson’s virtual Scholar Talk on February 25th. Johnson is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at The Ohio State University whose scholarship focuses on the global dimensions of the Black Museum Movement. As a bearer of Black history and knowledge, he spoke to the legacy of Black History Month and its ties to ancestral memory.

He explained the role of public memory as an answer to enduring questions posed during Black History Month. What are our responsibilities for connecting to the past, documenting the past, and representing the past? How do these efforts exist within our communities? Johnson acknowledged DiasporaDNA’s relationship to this work by giving Dr. Elvin Montgomery Jr. and Sandra Brannon Montgomery their flowers in preserving Black memory. As a Black scholar and collector, Dr. Elvin Montgomery Jr. directly informed the vision and scope of our work through the expansive archive he curated over the years. Sandra Brannon Montgomery’s art practice inspires the creative application of our work today, as art is an invaluable tool for linking the memory to the present and future. DiasporaDNA’s very existence is the result of kin-keeping and legacy, echoing Johnson’s commentary that ancestry provides a point of entry into public memory through bloodline relatives, through culture, and through community. 

At its core, public memory is how you enact and apply history to our current moment. Johnson outlined this process, offering insight into what images and documents can reveal to us today. By using the present as a touchstone, we can better understand how we connect to the memories of past generations. This framework helps to contextualize the way we understand the past, as it is rooted in our present position and location in the world. In DiasporaDNA’s work to collect and share the stories of the Global Majority across the diaspora, our organization models this concept through our identity-informed methodology across all projects and programs. 

Throughout the Scholar Talk, Johnson referenced Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Eloquence of the Scribes, highlighting one profound passage:

“The ancestors may be contacted in books, songs, prayers, proverbs, music, ritual and art. The soul which wishes to receive inspiration makes a habit of visiting these sites of ancestral existence, to ask questions, to listen and to read, to analyze and to sit. After that, having nourished itself with insights from the ages, courage from beloved ancestors, and clear-eyed observations of present reality, the creative soul can go to work.” (247)

This form of accessing ancestral memory, which Armah calls “The Dance of Inspiration,” offers wisdom about how we, as creative souls, can better engage with the work of our time. As indicated in this excerpt, drawing from ancestors is an integral part in preserving the memories of our past. Driven by our ethos of “Art, Archives, and Ancestry,” DiasporaDNA cultivates a public space wherein we can all see the memory of our ancestors reflecting back onto us. 

Stay tuned for the next DiasporaDNA Scholar Talk and visit our HQ for Archives and Vibes Sundays to deep dive into the archive. www.diasporadna.org

By Nideen Froukh, Archives & Education Consultant