story of t.r.a.p.
The Radical Archive Project emerged from practice, pedagogy, and a persistent question: whose labor, creativity, and memory are preserved—and whose are rendered invisible?
In 2019, Dr. shady Radical began working with students in Georgia State University’s Film, Media, and Television program to develop a system for organizing and preserving costumes housed at the Tyler Perry Studios Warehouse. What initially appeared to be a pragmatic exercise in collection management quickly revealed a deeper absence. Despite Atlanta’s central role in contemporary film and television production, there were few archival collections documenting the city’s production culture—particularly those centered on below-the-line workers whose labor sustains the industry.
This gap prompted a broader inquiry into how Black production cultures are remembered, valued, and archived. That inquiry culminated in 2021 with the defense of Dr. Radical’s dissertation, The Radical Archive of Preservation: Acts to Archives in Black Production Culture. The dissertation articulated a framework for understanding preservation not only as a technical process, but as an embodied, relational, and political act shaped by race, labor, and power.
That same year, Dr. Radical founded The Radical Archive of Preservation, LLC as a platform to extend this work beyond the academy. The organization was established to explore new methods for preserving film, theatre, and television histories in Atlanta—methods rooted in care, collaboration, and community accountability rather than extraction or institutional gatekeeping.
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In 2023, The Radical Archive Project collaborated with the Society of Georgia Archivists to launch the Rooted in Memory Workshop Series, a community-centered educational initiative designed to expand archival knowledge beyond traditional professional boundaries. Developed and facilitated in collaboration with Holly Smith, Julie Johnson, Robert Thompson, Sierra King, Jehoida Calvin, Ann Hill-Bond, and Christian Smothers, the series brought together archivists, cultural workers, artists, and community members to explore memory work as a collective and embodied practice.
In 2025, the organization evolved into The Radical Archive Project (T.R.A.P.), reflecting an expanded vision and practice. Today, T.R.A.P. operates at the intersection of archival services, education, and performance, offering community-centered archival consulting, memory workshops, oral history initiatives, and embodied archival practices that honor lived experience as a legitimate and vital record.
The Radical Archive Project continues to ask how archives might function not only as repositories of the past, but as tools for survival, resistance, and imagination—particularly for Black artists, cultural workers, and communities whose histories have too often been excluded from the record.
shady Radical, PhD, MLIS, M.A., CA
Founder and Performance Archivist
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shady R. Radical, MLIS, M.A., CA, Ph.D. works around issues of preservation in performance and production cultures. She earned a Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Moving Image Studies: a Master's in Library Science degree in Archival Science from the University of Alabama; and a Master's degree in Curatorial Arts and Visual Culture from New York University. Currently, she is teaching philosophy and history at Spelman College.
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While writing, archiving, and teaching form the three nodes of her preservation practice, it was her experience as a key costumer at Tyler Perry Studios that ultimately inspired her passion and pursuit. In 2021, She established The Radical Archive of Performance (t.r.a.p.), also the subject of her dissertation. Her dissertation explores the theoretical implications at the intersection between the archive, blackness, and film/tv production culture.
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Press, Research, and Writing
Recent Film, Media & Theatre Doctoral Recipient finds archive of performance at Tyler Perry Studios. Georgia State University (2022)​
The Radical Archive of Preservation. The Disruptive Quarterly (2022)​
Archiving Fellowships Blog: Ballethnic Ballet Company. DANCE/USA (2022)
BEEOMBI: The Catacombs of Drip. Oz Magazine (2022)
Ruth E. Carter at SCADFASH. Burnaway Magazine (2021)
From Cartoon to Concept. Oz Magazine (2021)
Alternate Realities: Research in Atlanta's Field of Augmented Realities. OZ Magazine (2021)
The Day to Day of The Costumer. Oz Magazine (Mar/Apr2021)
All That's Black Ain't SOUL'D. Liquid Blackness Journal (2014)
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​Current Staff
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Lee A. Bailey
Accounts Manager
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Most people are looking forward to telling their story no matter how short it may be. My passion is to help those individuals bring out the best they can in their business experience. My goal is to help my clients feel like they are important, and their business is necessary. I have been successful in helping my clients to find a healthy perspective, strengthen and build a good business.
My educational background includes Associates of Science in Business, Bachelor of Science in Business, and Master of Business Administration in Business and Finance from University of Phoenix.
I have more than 35 years of combined experience in both public and private sectors: as a contracts coordinator, insurance, and trust officer, managing a business center, accounting, taxation, and human resources. I provide consultation services with strategic implementation. My burning desire is to travel outside the country and to see how others in the world live. The key to my success is believe in yourself and trust God in all situations.
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Past Interns
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Menkhu-ta M. Whaley
Archives Intern
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Menkhu-ta Menab Whaley is an archivist in training from Washington, DC. She is a 2022 graduate of Spelman College. As a Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Museum Professions she worked at the High Museum and Clark Atlanta University as a Exhibition and Collections Fellow. Her interests lie in archives, historical material preservation, diasporic oral histories, and filmmaking. She is currently residing in Washington, DC.
Njema Williams
Archives Intern - Ballethnic Dance Company
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Njema Williams, a native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, earned her bachelor’s degree in dance and history from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia in 2022. Williams’ main historical interests include 19th and 20th century American history with a focus on arts and culture, specifically Black dance history. As a sophomore, Williams worked on two public history projects, one researching and documenting the history of professors of color at Agnes Scott College and another studying the history and lasting importance of Antioch AME Church, Decatur’s oldest Black church. Williams was also a content writer and copy editor for Agnes Scott College’s Revolutionary Historians Organization. In 2020, Williams was inducted into the Alpha Theta Psi chapter of the national history honor society, Phi Alpha Theta. Williams is currently earning her master’s degree in public history at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia. Through this program, Williams is interning with the Georgia Humanities Council as a Graduate Research Assistant helping with promotional and archival projects. Along with her interest in history, Williams is also a professional ballet dancer with Ballethnic Dance Company in East Point, Georgia, where she has danced since spring 2023.
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