Arianne Edmonds is a 5th generation Angeleno, archivist, civic leader, and founder of the J.L. Edmonds Project, an initiative dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the Black American West. She has curated and presented her research about Black history, memory, and legacy at several cultural institutions around the US. Her family archives stretch back to the 1850s and her story as the keeper of her ancestral records can be found in The New York Times 1619 Project, The Root, and LA Weekly. She is currently a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism funded by the MacArthur Foundation and a Commissioner for the Los Angeles Public Library.