March 7–April 14, 2017
First Friday Reception: April 7, 5:30–7:30pm
What: In 2013, the Multicultural Resource Center and the J. Murrey Atkins Library and Special Collections partnered to establish a local LGBTQ archive focusing specifically on Charlotte and the surrounding community. The King-Henry-Brockington collection contains the manuscript and ephemeral history of Charlotte in both physical and electronic formats. The project has also expanded to include a community lead oral history project designed to add narratives to the current archival holdings. This exhibit “Publically Identified: Coming Out Activist in the Queen City” opened in a suite of exhibits at the Levine Museum of the New South in 2014 marking the first ever exhibits at the Levine dealing with Queer history. The exhibit consists of an interactive timeline of Charlotte history going back to the 1960s and extending to 2016 as well as selected items from the local collection. The panels have been on display at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and at the Salisbury NC Pride festival. This will be the first time the exhibit will travel outside of the state, and the timeline has been updated with new moments from Charlotte history. In 2015 the archival project and “Publically Identified” were selected as an Honorable Mention for the Allen Berube Prize in Queer public history, the highest award given in the US for Queer historical projects.
Who: Joshua Burford is the Assistant Director for Sexual & Gender Diversity at the UNC Charlotte Multicultural Resource Center. Josh is the community liaison for the project and has helped to build community connections between the ongoing work of preservation of Queer history and its potential as a source of community building. Josh is a graduate of the American Studies program and the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama and has been working on preservation of Southern Queer History for the past 10 years.
Why: The preservation, access, and study of Southern Queer history remains at the margins of academic discourse, and at the moment less than 15% of all students (K-12, Higher Ed) have access to Queer history of any kind. This exhibit is an attempt to tell a story about Southern Queer life in order to inspire others to demand access to their history.