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Syreeta Gates

@syreetagates

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🧱@mostincrediblestudio
🗄️ @thegatespreserve
🗂 Founder | Archivist | Aquarius | Collector
White 🧤 service with 🧱 I am Luigi

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I stood on 4️⃣2️⃣nd Street and had to catch my breath. Whewwww. 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

Yo! Syreeta remember to breathe, mama!

Let me keep it a 🫘 ya girl spent hourssssssss on 42nd St as a teenager. It was front street; for us, it was a fashion show right in front of Micky Dee’s.

And there I was. Brenda’s baby. Jessie’s grandbaby.
On the @levis x @nas x @massappeal billboard and inside the Levi’s store ⏭️ holding the #BambooEarrings our squad at @mostincrediblestudio built from #LEGO bricks, in partnership with our Artist-in-Residence and my good sis @yabablay of @professionalblkgrl.

It hit me all at once, how far this journey has carried me.
From the dreams I whispered when nobody was watching.
From wondering if I could do this on my own.
“Syreeta, you doing the most, mama.”
“Will folks GET IT?”
“Nahhhhhhhh, you buggin’, ma.”

To seeing those same dreams reflected back in 💡 on one of the busiest streets in the 🌎

I love this feeling.

I’m deadass; this isn’t luck. It’s alignment. It’s intention. It’s work. It’s patience. It’s love. It’s communication. It’s team! It ain’t easy.
AND
It’s #BIGQueens. It’s legacy. It’s faith meeting follow-through.

Grateful to YOU reading this jawn, the fam and friends, to Big BLAY, and to the #MostIncredibleStudio squad for believing, building, and reminding me that what we imagine can become real.

Welcome to the Most Incredible, baby. 💎

Go see it for yourself, inside and outside of Levi’s 42nd Street. AND grab the limited-edition BAMBOO cultural composition online 🔗 in bio.

#QGTM #ProfessionalBlackGirl #MostIncredibleStudio taken in Times Square, New York City by @syreetagates

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a year ago

Yo I used to ALWAYSSSSSSSSSSSS get in trouble in school cause I was talking too damn much! I know my moms is happy that now I get paid to 🏃🏾‍♀️ my mouth.

This project is near and dear to me. To talk about, acknowledge and work with the artists, stylists, journalists, photographers, executives, managers, and alllllllll the women who CONSISTENTLY PUT ON FOR THE CULTURE ::deep bow::🗣️🗣️🗣️

Thankful to 🏃🏾‍♀️ my mouth about the culture I love ♾️ produce and have a 🖐🏾 in the archival.

Premiering on @netflix TODAYYYYYY Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip Hop on Netflix

@culturehousemedia @dreamhampton313 @raeshem @carritwigg @mrsoulthemovie AND everybody who said YES to being on the team and to sitting in the 🪑 #teamUS

WE OUTSIDEEEEEEEEEEEEE😌

Ohhhhh to my GIRLSSSSSSSS @sincerearmani on 👗 @camilleglawrence on 🎨 and @darknlovely94 on 💇🏾‍♀️ it takes a village to get ya girl camera ready love y’all downnnnnnn 💜💜💜

#LadiesFirst by @syreetagates

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What’s more New Yawk 🗽🗽🗽than making the digital AND print version of the @nytimes on your birthday 🥳 🥂🚀 Nahhhhhhhhhh print hits differentttttttt 📰🚨🗞️

Cheers to @proferomero and @elizaruw for the layup 🤝🏾
Y’all genius’s for this one I promise‼️

Thank you @guytrebay for listening to me 🏃🏾‍♀️ my mouth! South side we outside #QGTM If my 5th grade teacher could see me now 😂

I’m soooooooo thankful forrrrrrrr allllllllllllllllllll the people who grew me up, influenced me, said YES to me, to the VISION. I say WE here cause if I’m here YOU here #teamUS

Realize the energy you give is what you manifested // So understand we positive as could be // The vision is still intact, the show is fresh out of seats

Nahhhhhhh how crazy is it to be talking about the people who built something that you fundamentally believe in. For all those mentioned in this article and BEYOND I thank y’all. For creating a culture they said wasn’t support to last. For YALL I’m eternally grateful 💜💜💜 love is love always and forever

#ArchivingIsAStatementOfValue

🔗 in bio to the article

#HipHop50
#50YearsOfHipHopStyle
#TheGatesPreserve taken in South Side Jamaica Queens by @syreetagates

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4 years ago

I been following @veteranas_and_rucas for YEARSSSSSS. So when this 📕 dropped, you already know I had to have it.

East of the River by Guadalupe Rosales is stunning. And stunning is an understatement. I’m a sucka for archivallllll images and these jump clean off the page.

The customer receipts in the moms chapter had me off the rip. Laid out with intention. That’s archive work right there.

The list of parties. Shout out to Miros who was literally recording this in real time, ‘96 and ‘97. The young love prison letters. ALL 👏🏾 OF CLAP👏🏾 IT CLAP👏🏾

And framing @veteranas_and_rucas as an archive, “a herstoric homegirl imagery” with a clear dedication to all the old school cholas, rucas, and veteranas from Cali? Talk about putting ya city on the map.

My homegirl @elisabetvelasquezpoetry wrote a blurb for this one too, so you already know that’s an added layer 🥹🥹🥹

“We visited the library about three times a week. It was the first space that gave me a way into my imagination through books and other materials I had limited access to otherwise.”

That quote alone tells you everything about why this work matters. Libraries as portals. Archives as imagination. Preservation as possibility.

Chefs kiss

🫡 to the editor @emendezberry by @syreetagates

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This one lives in the vault. 🗞️

XXL issue 7. The Greatest Day in Hip Hop History. Harlem, September 29, 1998.

Close to 200 artists on one block, before social media, before phones in the air. If you were outside the industry, you missed it entirely. Gordon Parks behind the camera. Sheena Lester as editor-in-chief. Miles Marshall Lewis and Henry Allen on the cover stories. Slam and Honey riding for the family under Harris Publications.

Pages like these are why I wrote Word Is Bond. The writers were in the room. The receipts are on the page.

Hip Hop Journalism Is American Journalism. I said what I said. ✊🏾

#WordIsBond #XXLMagazine #TheGreatestDayInHipHopHistory #Harlem by @syreetagates

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go inside the archives with us! we’re hosting a virtual chat featuring @syreetagates, the genius mind behind @thegatespreserve and @wordisbondarchive, to talk about preserving hip-hop journalism, why it matters, and how our stories get saved (or lost)! click the link in our bio to reserve your spot!

see you on 10/6 at 7pm et/4pm pt! by @syreetagates

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Ep. 4 of #LiveFromTheArchive. Pulling from @thegatespreserve: the press copy of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Alfred A. Knopf, 1987, acquired in 2020 📚✨

Quick lesson, because folks mix these up: a press copy is NOT a galley. A galley is the uncorrected proof, made for the author and editors. A press copy is the FINAL book, sent to the media before the public could buy it. It’s the version the CRITICSSSSSSS judged.

So this one holds two archives in one object: the novel itself, and the moment BEFORE anyone told you what to think about it.

And what a moment. In January 1988, a group of Black writers signed a public statement in the New York Times Book Review honoring Morrison after Beloved was passed over for the major awards. That April, it won the Pulitzer.

I collect pieces like this because they were never meant to last. Read once, passed along, tossed. The survivors hold the rememory 📠

What’s a book you’d want to hold in its original form, before the world got to it? 👇🏾

#beloved #rarebooks #literature blackliterature #tonimorrison by @syreetagates

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A whole magazine exists about why music writing is dying 📰

Except the writers aren’t dying! The INFRASTRUCTURE for that jawn is. The outlets folded, we’re getting more 404s by the day, and when the infrastructure folds like a napkin, the records are certainly a wrappppp with it.

That’s why I build archives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🆙 🆙 🆙

Hip-hop journalism ISSSSS American journalism, and it should be framed as such! Ya heard 👂🏾 👂🏾 👂🏾

#musicjournalism #hiphopjournalism #wordisbond #musiccritic by @syreetagates

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When I say I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE THIS BOOK 🤯

@wguidara Unreasonable Hospitality hit different because I used to BEEEEE this. Dream Director was my title — I worked in a high school supporting facility staff and students to fulfill on a project, dream, or goal. And I considered myself the VERYYYYY BEST at it. So reading this felt like someone finally wrote the philosophy I was already living.

My friends knew how I talked about this book constantly, so they sent me to @elevenmadisonpark for my birthday. 🥹 🥹🥹The experience was EVERYTHINGGGGGG.

Here’s the thing from an archivist lens: what Guidara describes is preservation work. Every intentional gesture, every moment of making someone feel seen; that’s documentation of care. You’re saying this person matters, this moment matters, and you’re creating evidence that lives beyond the interaction.

Hospitality as archive. I said what I said.

#MichelinStar #dreamdirector #grit #unreasonablehospitality by @syreetagates

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I said yes before they finished the question. 🆙

This year I’m chairing the @mopopseattle Icons of Pop Culture Gala and the YESSSSS was instant because this is #TeamUs in real time.

Here’s the thing lol what’s the thing Syreeta: I’ve built my whole life around honoring folks out loud. While they can hear it. While they can feel it. Not the eulogy the FLOWERS, in season, in PUBLIC.

And that’s exactly what the Museum of Pop Culture is doing on October 22 (I know y’all gonna meet me there right 👀)An entire institution putting GRATITUDE on the record. The future is now, and the stuff that raised us belongs in glass cases because it DOES duhhh.

To the good people at MoPOP: thank you for trusting me with this. Y’all have been the ones. 🙏🏾

To the 2026 icons — Bruce Lee, Jeremy Scott, HALO, Salt-N-Pepa, the Wing Luke Museum, and a MoPOP employee WE 👏🏾 SEE 👏🏾 YOU 👏🏾 We honor you. In real time. 👏🏾

Honor your people, folks. Honor your people.

#IconsOfPopCultureGala #MoPOP #HonorYourPeople #Gratitude by @syreetagates

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We don’t have to wait until May to show Black moms love. For our “Hold You Down” collection, we had writers @syreetagates, @hinadirah, @veracitysavant and @waldens_block speak to the necessity of Black mothers. Read their full works on our site. 🖤

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. #debbieallen #phyliciarashad #ninasimone #nikkigiovanni #blackmothers by @syreetagates

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Ep. 3 of #LiveFromTheArchive. Pulling from @thegatespreserve — Sylvia’s Harlem NYC, shot by Liz Barclay, acquired in 2020. 🗄️🍰⁠
⁠
And peep what’s actually in the frame: a slice of red velvet cake sitting in front of Sylvia’s family. We preserve photographs, records, garments buttttttt nobody talks about preserving FOOD. That recipe been passed hand to hand since 1962. A recipe is an oral history you can taste.⁠

So this photo is doing triple duty. It keeps the plate, keeps Liz Barclay’s eye, and keeps everything that happens AROUND that plate, the Sunday feeling, the family standing behind it. Three archives in one frame.⁠
⁠
And why this one? Because I keep thinking about what holds you down. Sometimes it’s your people. Sometimes it’s a great plate. Most times it’s both at the same table.
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What’s the plate that holds YOUR family down? 👇🏾⁠
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#livefromthearchive #sylvias #harlem #foodhistory by @syreetagates

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