Gerber/Hart Library and Archives (Gerber/Hart) held an opening event celebration for their new Unboxing Queer History: The Exhibit March 20 at Gerber/Hart, 6500 N. Clark St..
The exhibit features materials from Gerber/Hart’s acclaimed Unboxing Queer History Podcast second season episodes with many artifacts never displayed to the public.
Unboxing Queer History producer Chijioke Williams led a panel discussion with fellow podcast production team editors Bill Healy and Mara Lazer and producers Anna Mason and Quinn Rose. Williams said the podcast was “a labor of love” for all involved.
Rose said she especially appreciated when, “Mara and I got to sit down with three lesbians who were going out to these bars in the Chicago lesbian bar scene in the ‘70s, who knew each other through various interconnected lesbian scenes and it was just so fun to talk to them.”
Williams said being able to work on the podcast at such ayoung age was meaningful, and it was fun for her to dive into Gerber/Hart’s erotic archives. She also enjoyed opportunities to speak with LGBTQ+ seniors.
The panel spoke about the absence of archival materials that they encountered during their research process which created challenges and the impacted their work process.
Gerber/Hart Operations Director and Unboxing Queer History Co-Creator Erin Bell said that the podcast experience illuminated gaps in their archives which need to be addressed to “make our archives more representative of the entire community.”
Healy said he would like to see an episode focusing on the present moment because it “is a crazy time right now and I have to imagine in a generation or two they are going to be looking back on this moment and wondering what people did to stand up and have their voices heard. To make sure that the things that are happening in front of our eyes are documented.”
Mason wants an episode that delves into when and how memorials like the one at Pulse get archived and questions the ethical way to do that when people are still mourning what happened there. Rose meanwhile said she wants episodes that focus on specific interesting queer/trans people in the community whose archival materials are already at Gerber/Hart.
Lazer said there were people in the past “who lived outside of societal pressure to pass. I think there are a ton of people doing that now despite the fascism that we’re living in.” They want Gerber/Hart to ask people who are being subversive right now to document their lives and share their experiences.
Williams said her idea focuses on the “subversiveness that’s happening right now around preparedness” within the trans community, because she is concerned that some of this will get “swept over when we are looking back at this moment.” She added that she would love to be the one who writes that episode.
Unboxing Queer History: The Exhibit will be on display through the end of this summer.
Photos by Carrie Maxwell
