I still have that Barney Live! In New York City! VHS, too, and think about it fairly often—especially the RIBBON RAIN. That blew my toddler mind. What a production! 🤩💖
This is reminding me of a project I did in undergrad, making a timeline of pre-Stonewall American queer resistance 🥰 The archive fever is real, thank you for all your work, writing, and thoughts!!
Hi, you may be interested in the work of this organisation the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive and Blog. They archive LGBTQueer books, oral histories and memorabilia.
I used to get all these lesbian newsletters, I wish I still had them. One funny thing, there used to be a Lesbian bookstore that I ordered from called Amazon Books back in the 1990s, so when I first heard about Amazon, I was totally confused…
Yes that was in Minneapolis sadly they lost a lawsuit against Bezos and closed not long after that. However we still have many other great progressive & queer oriented bookstores.
really enjoyed this piece. when i was looking at colleges i visited oberlin where i attended a class on queer archives as part of my admitted students day experience. it was such an interesting class & moment in time to explore & almost convinced me to go there. i’m now planning to take a course on lgbtq+ rights this fall at the institution i ended up going to that involves visiting archives, so im interested to see how that class unfolds!
I love, love, love this. One of my fondest memories is archiving the work of a queerish punk band I worked with for over a decade, after the fact, and collecting and sifting through the ephemera was a big part of that fondness. The spirit of queer memory – asserting that not only we once lived but *continue* to live – is deeply important to me.
(PS: I also had that VHS tape! I had to look up to make sure it was the same one, as the only thing I could recall about it was the Winkster!)
Thank you so much! That sounds like such a meaningful archival project! There’s something so special about piecing together a story from the ephemera left behind, especially when it’s tied to a community and movement you were/are a part of. Queer memory work really is about that ongoing process, not just proving we existed but showing that we still shape and reshape the world around us!
As a steward of a community archive at a 50-year-old [queer/trans friendly] feminist arts org (open invite to your readers and you to visit us in Rosendale, NY, at Women's Studio Workshop) and someone who works with archives in my creative practice, I appreciate so many things about this post, thank you!
I still have that Barney Live! In New York City! VHS, too, and think about it fairly often—especially the RIBBON RAIN. That blew my toddler mind. What a production! 🤩💖
oh my god, the ribbon rain! I LOVED that when this came out.
This is reminding me of a project I did in undergrad, making a timeline of pre-Stonewall American queer resistance 🥰 The archive fever is real, thank you for all your work, writing, and thoughts!!
Hi, you may be interested in the work of this organisation the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive and Blog. They archive LGBTQueer books, oral histories and memorabilia.
https://lavendermenace.org.uk/
Thank you for this link! 💜 I have a special fondness for the name.
https://open.substack.com/pub/danielleorner/p/lavender-menace-an-origin-story?r=hjhka&utm_medium=ios
I used to get all these lesbian newsletters, I wish I still had them. One funny thing, there used to be a Lesbian bookstore that I ordered from called Amazon Books back in the 1990s, so when I first heard about Amazon, I was totally confused…
Yes that was in Minneapolis sadly they lost a lawsuit against Bezos and closed not long after that. However we still have many other great progressive & queer oriented bookstores.
really enjoyed this piece. when i was looking at colleges i visited oberlin where i attended a class on queer archives as part of my admitted students day experience. it was such an interesting class & moment in time to explore & almost convinced me to go there. i’m now planning to take a course on lgbtq+ rights this fall at the institution i ended up going to that involves visiting archives, so im interested to see how that class unfolds!
I love, love, love this. One of my fondest memories is archiving the work of a queerish punk band I worked with for over a decade, after the fact, and collecting and sifting through the ephemera was a big part of that fondness. The spirit of queer memory – asserting that not only we once lived but *continue* to live – is deeply important to me.
(PS: I also had that VHS tape! I had to look up to make sure it was the same one, as the only thing I could recall about it was the Winkster!)
Thank you so much! That sounds like such a meaningful archival project! There’s something so special about piecing together a story from the ephemera left behind, especially when it’s tied to a community and movement you were/are a part of. Queer memory work really is about that ongoing process, not just proving we existed but showing that we still shape and reshape the world around us!
As a steward of a community archive at a 50-year-old [queer/trans friendly] feminist arts org (open invite to your readers and you to visit us in Rosendale, NY, at Women's Studio Workshop) and someone who works with archives in my creative practice, I appreciate so many things about this post, thank you!
Thank you for this lovely comment! It looks like such an incredible space. I'd love to visit sometime ✨
Thank you for this! I’m going to see if the women’s history museum in the city near me will do a screening of the documentary!
thoroughly enjoyed this
Cvetkovich AND Muñoz citations?? It's gonna be a GOOD day. 😋 I loved this piece, thanks for your thoughts!!
Glad you enjoyed it :) Thank you for reading!