Queer Between Coasts is an ongoing archive documenting the lives of LGBT people in the midwest by collecting personal histories, art, and ephemera. on instagram @midwesternqueers
(in)visibility jacket project is inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s famous AIDS jacket. (in)visibility asks lgbt+ people to explore their feelings on visibility and what it means to be publicly out when your very existence is seen as a political statement, and being recognized can be dangerous. each participant creates a jacket with a statement or imagery that expresses what they want people to see when they look at them, as well as a statement about their feelings on visibility and identity.
"visibility was never an option for someone like me."
-e.l.
"...Visibility, then, is an entangled mesh of blessing and harm, crocus and wormwood. Longings fulfilled and dashed. The hurt and what comes after."
-Cass
"i don't want to be erased. i want people to look at me and know exactly what i am, and if that makes them uncomfortable then they can fuck off."
-c.w.
"In a time when being visibly LGBT is akin to a political statement...I want to scream it from the rooftops...I want to inspire others to do the same as we fight to drag the world into a better place."
-emily blake
"to me, it's being accepted in the queer community and the heterosexual community... as a pansexual i'm too straight for the queer community, too queer for the straight community."
-taylor
lgbtq? is an interview series documenting the personal histories of older LGBT+ people in the Midwest. Beyond interviewing the individuals themselves, I also ask family members of LGBT+ people who have since died about their stories and what they remember of their loved ones experiences. Just because they're unable to tell their story themselves doesn't mean it isn't important or should be ignored. The interviews are available as audio files, with the each one also transcribed as its own zine.
Catherine Crouch is a filmmaker who has lived and worked in the Midwest since the early 90's, in both Chicago and Indianapolis.
Anne Nevitt tells us about what she remembers about her uncle Mark Snyder, who died of AIDS in 1993 when he was 30 and Anne was 11.
