AVIVA SILVERMAN is an artist, archivist, educator, and organizer. They believe orality is a powerful tool for building a legal and historical record of one’s community. Their approach to this work is shaped by a long-standing investment in community-based healing through narrative, diasporic Jewish thought, and the transformative possibilities of storytelling. A core collective member of the NYC Trans Oral History Project (NYC TOHP) since 2018, Aviva has co-stewarded the project, a community-driven archive developed in partnership with the New York Public Library. They conducted over fifty interviews with trans New Yorkers across a wide spectrum of experience—including people who have been incarcerated or unhoused, immigrants, and elders from diverse cultural backgrounds—and helped guide the archive’s growth into NYPL’s permanent special collections. They developed curriculum and trained new volunteer interviewers, built the project’s public-facing website, and led public conversations on ethical archival practice with organizations including METRO, The Feminist Institute, and Voice of Witness, where they were a 2023 Storyteller Initiative Fellow. Beyond NYC TOHP, Aviva has worked as an oral history interviewer for institutions including the Franklin Furnace Archive and Socrates Sculpture Park, and currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Interdisciplinary Sculpture department. They are pursuing an MLS at Queens College, City University of New York, specializing in archives, records management, and preservation.
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