This paper analyzes the social, poetic and affective labor being accomplished on the street during the first massive popular political movement in Algeria since the 1990s “Black Decade.” In early spring of 2019, a song originating from the soccer stadium became an anthem as political protests erupted around Algeria, in what became known as al-Hirak (“the movement”). The song, Casa del Mouradia by Ouled el-Bahdja, strongly criticized the regime, poetically stating that “the past archived is the voice of freedom” (wle passé raw archivé bla voix ‘nta al-huria), a desire to “archive” painful elements of the country’s past. In this paper, I draw upon 18-months of ethnographic fieldwork in Oran, Algeria before, during, and after the climax of this protest movement. I examine how al-Hirak forced Algerians of all ages to reckon with a variety of difficult and triumphant memories in order to build a popular movement. “Revolution” has long been a central concept for the post-colonial Algerian imagined community, serving over the nearly 60 years since independence as the ultimate source of political legitimacy for Algeria’s autocratic political regime. Since its beginning, many Algerians considered al-Hirak to be the “second revolution,” and therefore, protestors drew readily upon imagery, slogans, and concepts from the Revolution of 1962. Protestors also remixed slogans from other times and places of political uprising, such as the violently suppressed 1988 Algerian protest movement and the 2011 Arab Spring. In this paper, I argue that in addition to this work of “remembering” other times and places of revolution, Algerians were also confronted with the much more difficult task of “actively forgetting” other painful times and places. “Archiving the past,” I argue, has been essential for allowing Algerians to mobilize en mass, including the characteristic participation of women, children and the elderly. Young protestors, many of whom did not experience the 1990s Black Decade firsthand, worked hard to move beyond memories and fears of the “return to violence.” Popular songs such as Casa del Mouradia told protestors they had been “hoodwinked” (Hshawhena) by the political manipulation of the civil war for the benefit of those in power. Drawing upon pictures, videos and commentaries I collected on the street during protests, I argue that an analysis of this political and creative work of remembering and “actively forgetting” can provide MESA scholars with new avenues for understanding how national narratives and collective memories are generated in 21st century Algeria.