Gerber/Hart Library and Archives is hosting its second annual symposium to highlight the unique ways community members have utilized the collections in the past year, from using zines to construct a setting for a play to recreating 2000s internet chatrooms from floppy disks.
The Queer History Symposium will take place at Gerber/Hart, 6500 N. Clark St., from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oct. 4. Tickets can be purchased online for either $35 or $55.
The event is designed to showcase the ways the archive’s collections are relevant to the present day, by sharing the “issues large and small” that have motivated researchers, artists, students, and everyday Chicagoans to explore Gerber/Hart, said Community Outreach and Strategic Partnerships Manager Jen Dentel.
“I think a lot of people assume the kinds of people using archives all have PhDs and they’re writing books, but that’s not always the case,” Dentel said. “The symposium is a way to show there are lots of different ways you can use an archive, especially a community archive like Gerber/Hart. We’re not just here for students or universities; we’re here for everyone who’s curious.”
Skittles is sponsoring the event, which has enabled Gerber/Hart to pay panelists for their time and support the queer-owned businesses helping put on the event, like Smack Dab, which is catering lunch, and Whiskeygirl Tavern, which is hosting an after-party happy hour.
Filmmaker Jose Luis Benavides will kick off the symposium with a keynote speech, discussing why it’s important to pay attention to the “bittersweet” histories of our LGBTQ+ ancestors and apply the lessons we learn to our own lives today. The night before the symposium, Gerber/Hart will host a screening of Benavides’ films, “Lulu en el Jardín” and “Amigas Latinas Forever,” at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3. You can RSVP for that event online.
The first experimental documentary in Benavides’ series, “Lulu en el Jardín” shows a queer son’s journey to retrace his mother’s experiences with homophobia as a lesbian in the 1970s. Benavides’ second film, “Amigas Latinas Forever,” expands on his mother’s story with 11 minutes of archival footage, photos and interviews showcasing the Chicago Latina lesbian organization she was a part of. It serves as a preview for a longer documentary still in progress.
Gay marriage was legalized in the U.S. while Benavides was working on the first film, and he remembered getting pushback from people who were uncomfortable screening a film about homophobia during a time when people were celebrating marriage equality.
“Now, we’re back in this moment again, where rights are being rolled back and the trans community is under attack, and unfortunately, that shows a story like my mom’s is still relevant,” Benavides explained. “We still need to listen to the harder truths about the world. So much of queer history is bittersweet. We can’t just live in a celebratory fantasy. I’m grateful for the symposium being a space for us to talk about those things and see and connect with everyone else’s work.”
The rest of the day will feature panels covering art and film in the archives, digital histories, queer zines, archival sleuthing, and much more. Based on feedback from last year, the event’s format will now include an extra half hour after each presentation so the audience can ask questions and contribute to the discussion.
Gerber/Hart volunteer Larry Wolf will be participating in a panel called, “Queer Zines: Collaborative Zines and Queer Zine History.” He plans to encourage listeners to create new zines and share them with Gerber/Hart to preserve this moment in time in print in the archives. In the past year, Wolf has been systematically cataloguing Gerber/Hart’s zine collection and helping organize events where the community can engage with the materials.
“It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the news and mega events and how the sky is falling,” Wolf said. “But maybe it’s always been falling, and maybe people have always been offering each other shelter, creating campfires to assemble around in the dark of the night. I feel like that’s what zines are. They’re tiny snippets of our lives that we make and pass to each other, and since they’re printed, they can wind up in archives and become part of our collective history.”
Wolf said Gerber/Hart’s symposium offers a refuge by providing a space where the community can come together, share their stories and learn from collective memory.
“Zines haven’t been sanitized, there’s no gatekeeper,” Wolf reflected. “They depict people’s lives, and I very much feel the symposium has a similar feel. It gives people a chance to tell stories about broad sweeps of queer history, but they’re grounded in specific experiences from Chicagoans. Some symposiums get lost in the theory, but this one feels connected to the people whose lives it’s about.”