Dorothy J. Berry was a Woman of the Week in 2021, nominated for her work as an archivist and as a mainstay in her parish choir. At the time, Dorothy told us,"I've worked in a few different archives with different specialities--audio recordings, film, rare books and manuscripts--but my work has always focused on increasing access and discoverability of African American history. Archives and special collections hold so much of our historical evidence, though they have also long been places where narratives can and have been shaped by the winners. I believe that better understandings of the past can help ground people in the present and also help to gain a sense of self, making it even more important that marginalized people have access to their histories, as we are often told that our histories are only of subjugation and not also of resilience.”
We caught up with Dorothy recently and asked her to update us on what has happened in her life since then, including a big new job with the Smithsonian:
“I'm now a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. I was recruited for the job one year before it existed because creating a new government position here at the Smithsonian takes a long time. For the past 3 or 4 years, I've also been co-teaching a class at Penn State’s Digital Humanities Summer Institute.
“Basically, I do more interpretive and data work, but I'm in our digital strategies and engagement office, so I’m looking at how people interact digitally with our material. One of the big projects I spend a lot of my time on is the Johnson Publishing Company archive. The Johnson Publishing Company produced Jet and Ebony and a slew of other magazines in the 20th and early 21st century, directed to Black audiences. The museum and the Getty out in California co-stewards their gigantic photo collection, which is being processed by an awesome archives team in Chicago. Researchers will also eventually be able to physically access in person, but we're focusing on digital access first.
“I've been helping on things from really technical aspects like best practices for the digital collection viewer, giving the researcher perspective as someone who has worked with digital collections and archives, but also interpretive work, helping to provide broader context. I did a ton of work on a very cool part of the launch that I have to keep under my hat, but it’s all exciting.
“I moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to DC for this job. At first, I thought it was just me, but I've had it confirmed by other people that one of the things we dream of having here would be a centrally located Orthodox church in this city. I go to Saint Nicholas, the OCA Cathedral. Saint Nicholas is a great church, and I also really like the Antiochian church here.
“But on the other hand, there is a huge group of young adults. It's got so many great kids. I have explained to them that I am not a young adult. I am just a regular adult. In this new phase of life, I've had the occasion to be a mentor for some young adults, as a more experienced Orthodox person who others can ask about things as they are getting catechized. It’s a first for me to be in a more guiding position, and so that's cool. I also get to sing in the cathedral choir.
“And one of the things that's really great about this young adult thing is that there's a bunch of kids at this church, and apparently they have a big WhatsApp group that has apparently become a pan-Orthodox network across the DC area for young adults. That's very promising to me. Just this idea of these kids all really committed, and they're all really trying to connect. And I'm saying “kids,” but they're like, you know, in their early or mid-twenties.
“I’ve been really bonding with my mom as she transitions to being a church elder, a widow. It's been really interesting. I think she's doing great (but I always think she's doing great because she's a great mom and a great lady). But it is interesting to watch: she and my father founded a church, and now almost everybody there is new. I keep telling her, “They need you because you're the only one who's been doing this for a long time.” Almost everyone else there are converts.
“Geographically, depending on where you grow up, it's always so interesting to me, you know, what your vision of what it's like to be Orthodox is. It can feel really expansive and full of possibility or it can feel so narrow and oppressive to you as just a living person. And I don't think, you know, we can't ignore that either of those visions exist.”
Thank you, Dorothy!
