Historical Fiction Writing Workshop: Gay Community News Photo Collections

Dive into the photographic archive of GCN from the 1970s-90s and write your way into local LGBTQ+ history with Jessica Taylor! Dive into the photographic archive of the Gay Community News from the 1970s-90s and write your way into local LGBTQ+ history with Jessica Taylor! In this intimate writing workshop, you'll come into the Queer History Boston archives and work directly with photographs from the Gay Community News, an essential weekly Boston newspaper in the 1970s and 80s. Queer history is so often erased, left out, or written around. That means queer storytelling asks something special of us: we have to imagine into the gaps. But in this workshop, you'll have real historical images in hand. What did the Lesbian Liberation conference look like? Who marched with El Comite Latino? The outfits, the hair, the parties, and the protests.... Writer and researcher Jessica Taylor will guide a group of just eight participants through hands-on time with the materials and structured prompts to get you writing. All levels welcome! We're excited about activating the archive and letting your imagination run wild with some fabulous primary sources. Jessica Taylor is a writer, researcher, and long-time volunteer in LGBTQ community archives. Her work has appeared in Public Books, Sapiens, and Arc Poetry, and she has taught at the University of Toronto and Harvard. She is currently writing a history of queer romance and a time-travel heist novel. Space is limited to just 8 participants — grab your spot! All ticket sales go directly to support the QHB archives!