In this episode of the Blue Record, our first-year interns have taken over the mic! Interns Mari, Lillian, and Morgan sit with host Makayla Rivera to question what constitutes as service, and interrogate ways in which rest, collectivism, and respectability politics shape how students conduct service in and beyond our campus.

In the spirit of the Ghanaian adinkra symbol Sankofa, which means “return and get it,” in this episode, Archives team members Denim and Gabrielle will guide you through the fabrics of Spelman College as a site of lesbian/sapphic love since its origination and engage with contemporary voices such as students, memory workers, and faculty. They uplift Black feminist foremothers such as bell hooks and Audre Lorde, who provided us with philosophies like “love ethic” and taught us the importance of establishing “authority over our own definition.” This episode aims to encourage the urgency of love, particularly lesbian/sapphic love, by way of illustrating the complexity and depth of remembering and resistance.

In this episode, editorial staff Amel Mohdali meets with TBR Director Jasmine Patrick. MLK Jr. Day reflections turns into a critical discussion of ICE brutality and its ties to white nationalism and xenophobia. Tracing back to Trump’s Big Beautiful Wall, The Blue Record examines the evolution of border militarization into a full scale domestic assault, from raids and killings in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Minnesota to media wars grappling to make sense of a “perfect” victim. This episode also confronts tensions between Black and Brown communities and begets the question of what solidarity and resistance means in this moment, before closing with essential know your rights information and examples of how communities are organizing to survive and fight back.

Edited by: Jordan Grant