On April 13th, 2022, about 20 members of the English alumni community gathered for a virtual book group. The event featured Captioning the Archives, a recent book that was the collaboration of UM English professor Aisha Sabatini Sloan and her father.
Lester Sloan, Aisha’s father, was a staff photographer for Newsweek magazine for 25 years, and his archive includes celebrity portraits, historic events like Pope John Paul’s visit to Mexico, and everyday moments of Black folk in Los Angeles and Detroit. In Captioning the Archives, father and daughter explored Lester’s archive together to probe the significance of his work and his memories of photojournalism.
At the alumni book group, Lester and Aisha spoke movingly about the importance of Black archives and the documentation of everyday life. Alumni had the opportunity to discuss Captioning the Archives with the engaging father-daughter pair and to learn more about the collaborative process behind their book.
The English Advisory Board hosted this inaugural alumni book group, and plans to host another in Fall 2022. We hope to see you there! In the meantime, please fill out our alumni registration form.