Our Team

Our dedicated team works tirelessly to keep the spirit of Black Bottom alive, curating programs, collecting stories, and building connections that honor the neighborhood’s legacy.

  • mblack@blackbottomarchives.com

    Co-Executive Director, Archives & Education

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    Marcia (she/her) is a proud Detroiter, Black queer feminist archivist, memory worker, and abolitionist organizer. Marcia is an alum of Marygrove College where she received her Bachelors in Political Science and Sociology, and an alum of the University of Texas at Austin where she received a Masters of Arts in Womens and Gender Studies, and Masters of Science in Information Studies. She created and utilizes a Black queer feminist archival praxis in her work to ensure that Black people’s agency, Black cultural memory practices, and Black liberation are always honored and centered in preservation work. Her life’s work is to ignite and support the development of the archivist that exists within each one of us; and to preserve and share the histories of Black women, Black Detroit, and the Black radical tradition. Marcia is committed to Black liberation and believes that archiving and storytelling can be tools to get us there.

  • Communications Associate

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    Jazlyn “AbStract JazZ” Anderson owns ABJZ Creative Services and works as the Communications Associate for Black Bottom Archives. She is a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur focused on storytelling, inspiring visuals, and historical significance through her work. Jazlyn has strong ties to Detroit and Inkster, MI, as well as Chicago, IL. She shares her experiences through design, music, sound, and literature.

    You will find stunning digital graphics that capture special moments and effectively represent brands. Her music and poetry aim to touch your heart and bring you peace. In her free time, Jazlyn manages her family business, Adé Declutter Services, helping clients organize their spaces and create harmony in their homes. 

    Stay tuned to see what she will do next!

  • Digital Archivist

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    saylem m. celeste (they/them) is an archivist, artist and community organizer originating from the West side of Detroit, Michigan. They have compiled an interdisciplinary career in Arts and Culture for the past 9 years both within Detroit and amongst a national community of black feminists, abolitionists, underground musicians, care workers, transformative justice practitioners, and other groups of people necessary for intersectional and progressive sub-cultures.

    saylem stewards Blue Moon Radio and Midnight Care Collective: two Detroit-based, grassroots organizations that center music and creative experimentation, respectively, in order to provide caring spaces to creatively practice outside of the dominant capitalist models in music and the arts. They also volunteer in the archive at Exhibit 3000, the world’s first Techno museum.

    Their vision for their work is to continue to offer educational and creative pathways for humans to build tools to process and heal through late-stage capitalism, and to do their part in offering healthy community spaces that model what generative and transformative cultures can be in the current day.

  • ldrapergarcia@blackbottomarchives.com

    Co-Executive Director, Community Engagement & Programs

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    Lex Garcia Bey, Co-Dreamer, 4th generation Detroiter raising 5th generation Detroiters, and Helper to Humankind (her name’s meaning), is a proud Walsh College graduate with a BBA in Business Administration and an MBA in Management, specializing in Organizational Design and Systems. An event curator, storyteller, and family archivist, Lex is dedicated to preserving and celebrating stories, starting with her own family and extending to broader communities.

    With over two decades of experience in logistical strategy for nonprofits, Lex is a powerhouse in community engagement, program development, and organizational design. She is known for her ability to align brands with organizations, fostering authentic collaborations that prioritize community needs and aspirations. Her expertise extends to curating events and programs that are as meaningful as they are impactful, creating spaces where innovation flourishes, social impact is tangible, and dreams are made manifest.

  • Ifayomí Christine is a proud Eastside Detroiter, carried north by the dreams of her Southern Black ancestors. She is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist whose work explores ritual and collective memory as tools for cultural preservation and healing within Black communities. Working primarily in documentary and docu-narrative forms, she holds that through the storyteller, memory-keeping becomes a form of wellness — political, intimate, and integral to survival.

    Rooted in Detroit at the intersections of cultural program management, storytelling, and healing justice, Ifayomí is dedicated to the relationships that sustain communities across time, the bonds between the living and those who came before, between neighborhood and narrative, between archive and identity. As a family archivist and genealogist, Ifayomí holds the sacred work of keeping histories whole, ensuring that names, memories, traditions, and culture are allowed to live and breathe for generations to come.

Interns

  • Camille Moore, born and raised in Metro-Detroit, is a graduate student at Wayne State University, earning a master's degree in Library and Information Science and a graduate certificate in Archival Administration. After earning a bachelor's in Communication and Media with a minor in Law, Justice, and Social Change at the University of Michigan, she worked at a film museum where she became interested in digital preservation and memory work. She aspires to work in the cultural heritage sector of the information sciences field, specifically working alongside community members to make galleries, libraries, archives, and museums more innovative, inclusive, and accessible for all.