Thursday, August 18, 2011

HISTORY IS CREATIVE




“If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win” 


                                    -Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States 

Monday, August 8, 2011

QUEER HISTORY POPPING UP ALL OVER


photo credit: http://www.houseofdandridge.com/events/fundraisers/do-something-help-keep-the-pop-up-museum-of-queer-history-alive-on-indiegogo/

Though I realize we are not reinventing the wheel with our community history project, I was none the less delightfully surprised to hear of this fantastic project out of NYC: The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History. (Thanks for the lead Steve!) This grassroots organization facilitates ‘pop-up’ installations “dedicated to celebrating the rich, long, and largely unknown histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.” The organization first ‘popped-up’ in January 2011 with a one night only installation in a queer communal home in Bushwick, Brooklyn conceived as part of a ten-day festival organized by Queer Forum.  With a mission that resonates with our own goals here at the CC History Project, I was interested in the organization’s articulation of the need for such ‘alternative venues’ for the presentation of art and history. I quote from the project’s site at length:
“In an intellectual climate where even the Smithsonian can be forced to bow to the will of homophobia and remove the work of seminal queer artist David Wojnarowicz, we must create alternative venues for our art and history. By utilizing temporarily empty and/or public spaces, the pop-up format turns economic reality to our favor and expands our reach beyond a single location, while the online presence serves as the connecting thread between physical installations.”
The homophobia cited above came from the top, from Republican leaders in congress, to be exact. After CBS News published an inflammatory story about the exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery titled “Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts,” Representative John Boehner and Majority leader Eric Canter called for the exhibit to be immediately removed and threatened budget cuts for encouraging ‘anti-christian hate speech’ in the institution’s promotion of this ‘questionable kind of art’. No joke. Despite this absurdity Wajnarowicz’s video was removed from the exhibit.
As much as I may like to think that this was an isolated incident of conservative takeover of this nation’s otherwise enlightened institutions, a recent report from Outhistory.org reminds us this is not the case. The report concludes,
“[T]he Metropolitan Museum […] discussed LGBT themes in only 1.8% of its exhibitions over the period from 1995-2005. The Museum of Modern Art […] came in at a mere 3.04%. Some museums, like the New York Historical Society have never, in any context and in any way, mentioned any LGBT theme in ten years.”
(Weena Perry: NYC Museums’ Representation of LGBT Artists and Art, August 2007, released April 21, 2011.)
The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History understands the need to advocate and actively work to make queer narratives public. This is exciting and inspiring stuff.
If anyone is on the east coast this month, check out their current show, Pop-Up SoHo at The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation,

August 6th – 25th
Tues – Sat, noon – 6:00pm
At The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation
26 Wooster Street

AN INTRODUCTION

Dear Readers,


Welcome to our Blog! We (some Colorado College students united by an interest in queer history) are here to share our stories, ideas, and thoughts as we undertake to collect and preserve the undocumented histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals from our college’s past. This project was set in motion in the spring of 2011 when a CC student -after spending a bit too much time in the Tutt Special Collection archives -recognized a major void in the collected (both published and unpublished) history of Colorado College. Though the contemporary LGBT movement has, and continues to make great progress in the fight for equality, the LGBT community continues to face real challenges. This project believes that public queer historical narratives play an important role in present and future community organization. It is our hope that this work, in addition to creating a historically significant collection, will incite dialogue and  provide a solid foundation for ongoing activism and community building on our campus and beyond.
In addition to documenting the progress of the history project, it is hoped that this blog, inspired by the potential of the blogosphere to unite and engage independent voices, will provide a space for the sharing of ideas and events relevant to our contemporary lives. Like  the history project, this blog is for the community, so let’s see what we can do.  Your contributions of any kind - opinion, fiction, art -are welcome.
Looking forward to an exciting year!
Andrew Wallace and the CC LGBT History Project working group
Questions, concerns, ideas, contributions? Contact us @ cc.lgbthistory@gmail.com