Image: Library of Congress
Some people collect baseball cards, coins, stamps, even Beanie Babies, with the hope they will be worth thousands, maybe even millions one day. For Oakland archivist, collector, and activist Lisbet Tellefsen, collecting relics of the past equates more to a meditative practice on memory, piecing together seemingly unrelated jigsaw puzzle pieces into meaningful pictures one may not fully see until 20, even 30 years later.
Browse through one of Tellefsen’s dozens of binders, overflowing with hundreds of Black cultural memorabilia, and you’ll feel the urgency of the memories stored in her archives.
In OMCA’s major exhibition, Angela Davis — Seize the Time explores the life and legacy of renowned activist and cultural icon, Angela Davis. At the heart of this exhibition are the hundreds of artifacts from the dedicated Angela Davis archive by Tellefsen.