Buseje Bailey. reasons why we have to disappear every once in while. A Black art history project by Yaniya Lee

As part of her research residency Wayside Archive at Artexte (summer 2021), writer and critic Yaniya Lee was interested by the artefacts and narratives of Black Canadian artists, which rarely surface in archives and historical canons.

Buseje Bailey. reasons why we have to disappear every once in a while. A Black art history project by Yaniya Lee is a chapbook that collects a sample of documents, originally published between 1987 and 1993, related to the career of Black lesbian artist Buseje Bailey, documents which Yaniya Lee found in the Artexte documentary collection during her research residency. These are reprinted alongside a new interview with Buseje Bailey and a letter by artist Sandra Brewster. This is also a record of Yaniya Lee’s experimental approach to archival research which suggests a model for ways of study, curate, and write about Black Canadian art.

With contributions from Buseje Bailey, Sandra Brewster, and Susan Douglas.