"So That We May Write and Be Heard:"
LGBTQ Journals at Brown, 1983-1998
Embedded Files
Welcome to the Website for "So That We May Write and Be Heard:" LGBTQ Journals at Brown, 1983-1998 Exhibit!
This website is a digital version of our in-person exhibit. This exhibit was curated by Anna Marti, Ellen Huggins and Anthony Boss in the 2023-2024 school year at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The in-person exhibit was opened in May 2024 at Stonewall House (the home of Brown University's LGBTQ Center) and the oral histories for this project were collected in collaboration with the Pembroke Center Oral History Project.
In this exhibit, you will find entries from a series of eight journals, collaboratively written by LGBTQ Brown University students from 1983-1998. In order to contextualize their content, the curators of this exhibit reached out to the original journal contributors, as well as other alumni who were involved in LGBTQ organizing at Brown in the 80s and 90s, to interview them about their memories of Brown, journaling as a queer archiving practice, personal identity, activism, and so much more.
View of the "Introduction" Section of the Exhibit from the Entrance
Table with Oral History Packets and Pins for Exhibit Visitors
This exhibit highlights just a small selection of the journal entries that resonated with us, along with excerpts from the transformative conversations we shared with alumni. We believe in the importance of these journals as a collective archive that captures the responses and thoughts of LGBTQ Brown students towards well-known moments of queer history through the 80s and 90s, as well as the everyday messy, joyous, and heartrending reality of their lives, told through the varied voices and perspectives of Brown students who were there.
Through this project, we as a curatorial team developed a multi-layered understanding of these alumni; first, through the written words of their younger selves, then through the spoken words we shared in our present day conversations. We are so lucky to have been able to get to know them by reading their words and hearing their stories, and we hope you also feel a sense of developing a human connection to the amazing people that make up this exhibit.
Journal Covers 1-8
In the Press
Maggie Spear at Brown University Communications interviewed us about the exhibit!
Spear, Maggie. "Student curated exhibition explores history of LGBTQ student experiences at Brown." News from Brown, June 21, 2024.
Excerpt:
"In a portion of the exhibit that’s nestled by a window that overlooks a serene green space, a big, open journal rests on a small table. In the spirit of their predecessors, everyone who visits is invited to sit down, pick up a pen and write.
“Your perspective and experiences — even if they seem imperfect or inconsequential in the moment — are important and worth preserving,” [Anthony] Boss said. “I’m so grateful that the people who wrote in the journals did that, and I just hope that this encourages people to think about the ways they value their current experiences and document them, both for others and their future selves.” (Spear, 2024)
You can read the full article here: https://www.brown.edu/news/2024-06-21/lgbtq-journals
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