Interdisciplinary Methods: Virtual Exhibitions, Text Analysis, and Digital Mapping

 

The Honorable Kenneth E. Reeves (The HistoryMakers A2006.065), interviewed by Robert Hayden, April 6, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 10, The Honorable Kenneth E. Reeves talks about his sexual identity as a gay man

In this clip, he specifically speaks to the role that the arts played in protecting black queer bodies. He refers back to his time as an undergraduate and how lucky it was for him to have a gay roommate at an HBCU. He also discusses the unspoken but known truth that there were a great number of queer participants in the theater program which was the only place folx could essentially "hide in plain sight." 

Frankie Knuckles (The HistoryMakers A2013.235), interviewed by Anthony Poole, August 23, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 10, Frankie Knuckles talks about being gay in the New York club scene

In this clip, he speaks to his experience as a young man entering queer culture in New York. This would become the space where he encountered his first romantic and sexual experiences, received introduction to the art of drag, and existed in community of other queer folx.

Connected themes of mutual safety through secrecy and protection are expressed in both clips which I would love to explore further as it relates to "gatekeeping"