In honor of LGBTQ History Month and American Archives Month, Washington State University Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) and the WSU LGBTQ+ Center are sponsoring “Queering the Archives: A Collaborative Art Workshop” from 5–6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in the Terrell Library ground-floor atrium. It is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be offered.
According to Lotus Norton-Wisla, MASC community outreach archivist, and Josie Cohen-Rodriguez, the LGBTQ+ Center’s student life and community coordinator, the event invites attendees to make their own page in a community zine, using copies of images and records from the WSU Queer Archives.
For inspiration, participants will follow a given prompt: How can we imagine queer futures through archival materials? How can art and expression help us create portals to enact these futures together?
David Janssen, a scholarly associate professor in the WSU Department of Art, will also offer a zine-making demonstration and bring scanned images from books, vintage sources, and advertisements for collages to generate zine ideas.
Cohen-Rodriguez said the workshop emphasizes that archival work is community work, a chance for people to look at archives and queer history in an artistic way.
“Archival work tends to be a solitary effort, but this is an intentional space where we can come together and see the archival materials together,” she said. “It’s a transformational experience.”
Find out more about the workshop, the history of zine-making, and the WSU Queer Archives in the full story on the WSU Libraries website.
