As Pride Month comes to a close, the work of Invisible Histories is especially important in preserving and honoring the diverse and often overlooked stories of LGBTQ individuals in the region, ensuring their experiences and contributions are recognized and remembered. Invisible Histories is a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, researching, and educating about LGBTQ history in the Deep South, viewing archiving as a resistance to oppression. They focus on community engagement, archiving, education, and professional development, aiming to create intergenerational connections, research opportunities, and a network for LGBTQ historians and archivists in the South. Read the blog post below and check out their website here. Release: Invisible Histories, Collecting the Past To Preserve Our Future
Invisible Histories locates, collects, researches, and creates community-based, educational programming around LGBTQ history in the Deep South. Invisible Histories believes archiving is resistance to oppression and history leads to liberation. In our work, we center joy and community while never erasing the painful and complicated experiences of our folks. We WILL save our stories, one box at a time. Who We Are: Invisible Histories is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Co-founders, Joshua Burford (Director of Outreach & Lead Archivist) and Maigen Sullivan (Director of Research & Development), began working on the concept in late 2015. 501(c)3 status was obtained in October 2016 and the project officially launched and began collecting in February 2018. Both Burford and Sullivan were working on the project full time by September 2018. In the first year of operations, Invisible Histories located 18 new LGBTQ collections in Alabama; identified 3 repository archive partners; helped develop 3 undergraduate courses at 2 state universities; organized and held the inaugural Queer History South Conference of 115 archivists, historians, students, faculty & staff; mentored 4 undergraduate and graduate interns/scholars; and received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to expand their work into Mississippi and Georgia. In addition to preserving the rich history of LGBTQ Southerners, the project’s goals are to:
What We Do: Invisible Histories focuses on four key elements related to advancing LGBTQ Southern History:
Invisible Histories acts as an intermediary between institutions, organizations, and everyday folks. We strive to break barriers between organizations and their local communities to ensure that preservation and research exist in a co-productive and relationship centered way. In addition to direct collection and preservation, Invisible Histories is invested in providing scholars with direct access to materials as well as creating a network of people conducting LGBTQ Southern archiving, preservation, education and research to make scholarship more accessible. We focus on providing education around the Queer South to those within and outside the region through speaking, exhibiting, online materials, and publications. Finally, Invisible Histories seeks to help develop a new generation of scholars working in the Queer South as well as work alongside other professionals in the field to develop best practices for this work. Read the 2023 End-Of-Year Recap: invisiblehistory.org/End-of-Year-Recap.pdf Website URL: https://invisiblehistory.org/
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