Author: Juan Carlos Mezo-González

ONSTAGE/OFFSTAGE: A Conversation with Curator Jordan King

September 8, 2023
by Juan Carlos Mezo-González
Activist Histories / Public Exhibition / Public Humanities / Queer History / Trans History

An upcoming multi-media exhibition at the The ArQuives — Canada’s LGBTQ2+ archives — brings a new lens into the queer history of 20th century Canadian nightlife. Titled “ONSTAGE/OFFSTAGE,” the exhibition explores “the ways stage performance in nightclubs, cabarets, and drag venues offered opportunities for self-actualization for gender fluid, trans, and gender non-binary individuals in the second half of the 20th Century.” The curator, Jordan King, is a multi-disciplinary artist, performer, and writer who is currently […]

Beefcake: An Exhibition on Physique Photography at the University of Toronto

August 11, 2023
by Juan Carlos Mezo-González
Gay History / Photography / Public Humanities / Queer History

Daniel Laurin, a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto, recently launched an exhibition that offers a glimpse into a rich visual archive of mid-twentieth-century erotic photography. Titled Beefcake, the exhibition features 45 black and white photographs, 17 periodicals, and three photo albums that have one thing in common: the celebration of the male body. Most of these materials date from the mid-twentieth century, they were produced in the United States, and they circulated widely […]

A Conversation with Dr. Alex Ketchum about her Directory of LGBTQ+ Archives

July 21, 2023
by Juan Carlos Mezo-González
Archiving Oral History / Gay History / Lesbian History / Public Humanities / Trans History

Having a good sense of the LGBTQ+ archives and resources available in North America has been crucial in my scholarship. My doctoral project on the history of gay periodicals led me to a number of these repositories, which included both physical and online spaces. Yet the increasing number of queer archives and the occasional changes...

Dignified Lives: A Digital Archive for Preserving Trans Memory in Mexico

June 23, 2023
by Juan Carlos Mezo-González
Activist Histories / Collaboratory News / Digitization / Trans History

The Mexican trans community recently launched a digital archive that will play an important role in reconstructing, documenting, and preserving the memory of this community. Named Archivo Memoria Trans México (Trans Memory Archive Mexico), this digital platform and its related social media will also play a significant role in bringing the community together, engaging trans Mexican folks in the process of writing their history in their own terms. In this regard, Archivo Memoria Trans México […]