Curve: Dear Queerantine: A Virtual Archive For Queer Stories. “Dear Queerantine is a digital writing project for women & non-binary/trans people who are queer, questioning, or curious, however we self-identify (or don’t). Our goal is to crowdsource stories from around the world through writing prompts on our website. Anyone who writes a letter receives one from someone else in the community. Everyone can read excerpts on our Instagram and newsletter. Here’s the thing. Desire is complicated. We can’t be what we can’t see, and it’s hard to express what we don’t know we can feel. By writing, you make it easier for other people not just to share their story, but to let themselves feel in the first place. We hope that you’ll be moved and inspired by others in turn, as we’ve been.”
LGBTQ culture
San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus shutdown pushes Bay Area LGBTQ community to reinvent
San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus shutdown pushes Bay Area LGBTQ community to reinvent. “The Bay Area’s shutdown, now nearly six weeks in, has affected everybody. But there are differing degrees of disruption, and the queer community has been hit hard in its own, unique way. Bartenders and promoters and DJs and drag performers and go-go dancers have all lost their jobs. And the broader community has lost refuge — places to feel free, connect, flirt and make art…. There’s also a strong history of resilience. So, as the community goes online in the short term, it’s also figuring out how to support those in nightlife and the spaces hit hardest, to make sure there’s something to go back to.”
Attitude: Cancelled BFI Flare Goes Online With 230 Films, And We Are Pumped
Attitude: Cancelled BFI Flare Goes Online With 230 Films, And We Are Pumped. “Some cinema lovers are already stuck at home over the coming weeks due to the Corona Virus pandemic, which forced the BFI Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival due to start yesterday [18 March] to cancel. But in great news for queer film fans everywhere, the festival will now become BFI Flare at Home.”
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: UWM Team Receives Prestigious Mellon Grant for “Archive Mining”
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: UWM Team Receives Prestigious Mellon Grant for “Archive Mining”. “The ‘LGBTQ+ Audio Archive Mining Project’ will use machine learning tools and data analysis and visualization to build and process text datasets extracted from a variety of AV materials in these collections, including collections of oral histories, local television news and radio broadcasts, and early LGBTQ+ community cable programming.”
Vancouver Courier: B.C. Gay and Lesbian Archives collection has been digitized
Vancouver Courier: B.C. Gay and Lesbian Archives collection has been digitized. “The collection also reflects a broad range of LGBTQ2+ experiences and activities in the Vancouver area from the 1960s through to the present — including Aboriginal drag performers and HIV/AIDS activists, LGBTQ2+ community seniors, transgender activists, youth groups and LGBTQ2+ religious groups. It documents the evolution of a traditionally marginalized community, which has been historically underrepresented in archival holdings.”
Daily Trojan: USC Libraries to digitize LGBT archives
Daily Trojan: USC Libraries to digitize LGBT archives . “The ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC, the world’s largest collection of LGBTQ materials in the world, will complete its archive of historical documents by November. ONE Archives, which is located on West Adams Boulevard, is the oldest existing LGBTQ organization in the United States and houses over two million items, including texts and art from the 1900s.”
Preserving Queer Life in Southwestern Ontario: UWindsor digital archive project shared with international audience (University of Windsor)
University of Windsor: Preserving Queer Life in Southwestern Ontario: UWindsor digital archive project shared with international audience. “Taught by Dr. Renée Bondy, Queer Activism engages students to research and explore the past and present issues surrounding LGBTQ+ activism. In addition to learning how queer communities are created and sustained, the students also contributed to an experiential learning collaboration project with Leddy Library to build Queer Life in Southwestern Ontario, a digital exhibit and archive to preserve local queer history.”
The Advocate: This Webcomic Librarian Is Protecting LGBTQ Stories
The Advocate: This Webcomic Librarian Is Protecting LGBTQ Stories. “Nearly 1200 webcomics populate the online library created and managed by Luma Lilac, a 21-year-old ‘genderly queer’ asexual archivist who maintains the library in their spare time. Most of the webcomics featured include at least one LGBTQ character. Others include disabled characters, are women-led, or feature people of color.”
Drag Queen vs. David Duke: Whose Tweets Are More ‘Toxic’? (Wired)
Wired: Drag Queen vs. David Duke: Whose Tweets Are More ‘Toxic’? . “Hate speech is often predicated on underlying messages, as well. When subtext promotes hateful or discriminatory ideas, it represents a threat for marginalized and vulnerable groups. By training its algorithm to learn what content is likely to be considered toxic, Perspective’s tool seems to be giving more prevalence to words, rather than their underlying messages.”
Philadelphia Gay News: Digital LGBTQ archive launches, with corporate help
Philadelphia Gay News: Digital LGBTQ archive launches, with corporate help. “The project’s ultimate goal is the digital centralization of LGBTQ materials currently housed in dozens of archives, libraries and museums across the country. Items to be digitized run the gamut of historical artifacts, from photographs, letters and video clips to posters, visual art and historical records. Big-hitting acquisitions include memorabilia from the Stonewall Riots, whose 50th anniversary was marked by numerous events late last month.” The archive is set to launch next year.
Gaystar News: Record your journey to Pride in London and you could end up in a museum
Gaystar News: Record your journey to Pride in London and you could end up in a museum. “Today we are beginning to put the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary people and our allies back at the centre of how we talk about human history as a whole. Part of this is making sure we are recording our lives here and now. History doesn’t have to mean ancient. A photograph from yesterday is every bit as much a part of history as an old pot from 300BC! Moreover, museums aren’t static, they must keep collecting things from today so we can record our lives and experiences for future generations.” I know it’s July and Pride month was last month, but Pride in London takes place on July 6.
Qweerist: Award-winning filmmakers launch LGBTQ+ short film streaming platform to ‘entertain and inform’
Qweerist: Award-winning filmmakers launch LGBTQ+ short film streaming platform to ‘entertain and inform’. “QueerBee is a high-quality online collection of hand-picked LGBTQ+ independent short films of all genres for all ages. With the lack of authentic LGBTQ+ storylines in the mainstream media, QueerBee showcases queer stories and talent that otherwise go underrepresented.” Not free, but not ridiculous either – it’s £3.99 a month (just over $5.00 USD.)
Refinery29: 8 Queer History & Culture Instagrams To Follow Right Now
Refinery29: 8 Queer History & Culture Instagrams To Follow Right Now. “There are dozens of Instagram accounts dedicated to honoring our LGBTQ+ heroes and preserving queer histories, and what better time to follow them that pride month? Some of them are serious archives, which urge us to remember the protests and fights that helped to get close to LGBTQ+ equality, others are just a bit of camp fun… and some are even forging real-world relationships and communities for their users offline.”
Dazed: The Instagram shining a light on trans masc history and culture
Dazed: The Instagram shining a light on trans masc history and culture. “‘Before I started this research, I could barely think of any historic or pop cultural trans masculine figures,’ admits artist and bookmaker Izzy Kroese, … While individuals like spoken word poet Kai Isaiah Jamal, artist Chella Man, and upcoming model Krow are paving the way for greater visibility, the trans masculine experience and its history are still largely absent from the media.”
