CliP Open Session 5: Public Lecture with Lilah V - When remembering is not enough: building archives for action and change in times of crisis

When remembering is not enough: building archives for action and change in times of crisis

The urgency of community archiving is a response to collective memory under threat in times of crisis. The questions of what we keep, what we carry with us, and what we destroy to ensure our collective survival become matters of life and death. From countries in the Global South like the Philippines to the imperial core we are witnessing processes of mis/disinformation and historical revisionism that disconnect us from our legacies of resistance and aim to stifle our abilities to fight back. In these moments archiving for the sake of memory is not enough; archiving to keep our struggles alive becomes necessary. How we reclaim our narratives and shape them to defend and advance our movements are a critical concern for anyone intent not only on surviving the current context of escalating violence and heightening contradictions, but also on transforming society into more just and equitable forms.

About Lilah V

Lilah is a community archivist and organizer in the Filipino diaspora in the Netherlands. She is the archivist for the JMS Legacy Foundation.

About the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation

The Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation’s mission is to preserve JMS’ legacy for current and future generations to learn from in the struggle of humankind to build a new and better world. Through research, publications, exhibits, events, and public education, the Foundation aims to promote and share the legacy of Jose Maria Sison for all revolutionaries, activists, scholars, and seekers of a just society.

About Jose Maria Sison

Jose Maria Sison, popularly known as JMS or Ka Joma (Ka is short for kasama, the Filipino word for comrade), was a revolutionary leader, a political theorist, an internationalist, and a poet, whose writings have guided the resurgence and development of the Filipino people’s revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. Over the course of his lifetime he was prolific in authoring many of the documents that have today become essential reading not only for activists in the Philippines but for activists the world over who are struggling for a more just and free society.

About CLiP #7: The Garage of Prepping Otherwise

CLiP (Collective Learning in Practice) is an educational program organized by Kunstinstituut Melly. For this edition, curated by the art-education collective The Garage School, young participants explore collective survival in times of global crisis. Over six months (October 2025–March 2026), participants develop skills and tools for collective survival through a mix of creative and practical methods, including discussion, movement, LARPing, food preservation, and mutual aid. They also produce monthly “letters to the future(s) we are preparing for” in any form: text, video, performance, or collage. Outcomes, such as exhibitions, radio shows, or public LARPs, are created collaboratively.