NAP
Past NAP Scholarship Awardees
2025
Esperanza Bey
A third-generation Oaklander and recent graduate of UCLA’s MLIS program with a specialization in archival studies, Esperanza’s work reflects a deep commitment to community memory, archival justice, and liberatory practices within Black cultural heritage spaces. Esperanza’s passion for archives is rooted in personal history — mapping her family’s story within Oakland’s shifting landscape and working within institutions like the African American Museum and Library at Oakland and the Eastside Arts Alliance. Through these experiences, she’s nurtured an archival practice centered on ethics, activation, and advocacy.
Her current project, FRAGMENTS OF A BIP, is a post-custodial community archive and digital zine that documents the collective memory of Oakland’s Black community, examining how it has navigated displacement, state-sanctioned violence, and systemic neglect. The project will feature oral histories, visual essays, and testimonies from community elders, culture workers, and historians — mapping the survival strategies and cultural resilience of Black Oaklanders in the face of ongoing dispossession.With the support of the NAP Scholarship, Esperanza is developing a dedicated website for FRAGMENTS OF A BIP, ensuring broader access to these vital stories, and was able to attend the 2025 Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting to deepen her knowledge in managing post-custodial community archives.
2024
Dartricia Rollins
Dartricia was awarded a scholarship to attend the Society of American Archivists (SAA) conference. She has demonstrated a commitment to archiving and preserving the narrative of southern voices through Georgia Dusk, a Southern liberation oral history documenting the ongoing movement and cultural work in Atlanta, Georgia, of which she is a co-founder. Georgia Dusk has expanded into a collaboration with the Highlander Research and Education Center to create the Southern Memory Workers Institute. As a cultural worker and community organizer, Dartricia understands the need to document and preserve Black histories as a tool for current and future organizing. Learn more about the Southern Memory Workers Institute here. Dartricia’s participation in SAA in Chicago opens the door to meaningful conversations and collaborations within the archivist community that shares her passions. NAP is proud to support her on this exciting archival journey. Please read about her experience at the SAA on our blog page, The Scoop.
2023
Jovante Anderson
Jovante is a writer and researcher whose work is always returning to questions about Black queer life in the Caribbean and Jamaica, in particular. His interest in archival research really began when, as a child, he dubbed himself the family historian, a title which he still holds dearly. Jovante is also the founder of the Jamaica Conversation Project (JCP), which began in 2022 as an effort to document and preserve both the oral and material histories of queer life on the island. This year, the JCP will focus specifically on archival recovery of material objects that can help to tell a better story of the role that the arts played during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in Jamaica. Jovante is also a Ph.D. student in English at the University of Miami. His dissertation explores queer and trans literary and cultural production that provides a capacious critique of how discourses of neoliberal freedom have been mobilized within postcolonial Jamaica. His work has appeared in PREELit, sx salon, and the Journal of West Indian Literature.
2022
Ashby Haywood
In 2022, Ashby was pursuing her MLIS with a concentration in archives and critical pedagogy at the University of South Carolina. She also served as an assistant librarian and archivist at the Highlander Research and Education Center, where her work intersected with oral history to build a holistic, grassroots archive. Ashby is passionate about how younger organizers and students can leverage archives and the wisdom of elders to develop effective strategies and resolve conflicts within and between communities. Her project, the Georgia Dusk Oral History Project, centers on Black women, transgender, and gender non-conforming organizers and activists in Atlanta. The scholarship she received helped her purchase equipment and supplies to help advance this initiative.
2022
Khahlia Sanders
In 2022, Khahlia was pursuing her master’s in library and information science (MLIS) at Kent State, focusing on Archival Studies and Information Access and Discovery. Her passion for archival work sparked at 16 when she was entrusted with organizing her family’s records. This early experience grew into a committed role as the family historian, one she holds dear, ensuring that future generations have access to and can engage meaningfully with their family history. Alongside her personal experiences, Khahlia is particularly interested in ethical approaches within the archival field. She utilized her scholarship to support her first year of graduate school and secure a membership with the Society of American Archivists (SAA).
2021
Killian Kwame Onai
Killian is an archivist currently establishing the Likpe Traditional Area Community Archives in his hometown, Likpe, located in the Volta Region of Ghana. He previously served as the Chief Administrative Assistant at the University of Ghana. Killian used the scholarship funds to purchase equipment and supplies for his archival project.
2021
Lauren Williams
In 2021, Lauren was a Master of Information graduate student at Rutgers University with a concentration in archives and preservation. Lauren’s scholarship helped offset living expenses as she embarked on a summer internship in East Amwell Township, New Jersey.
2020
Sierra King
Sierra is an artist, archivist, and arts administrator dedicated to documenting, preserving, and archiving the work of Black women artists.