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Discover queer collections at LAPL and learn how to preserve your community with a DIY archiving zine-making activity. Engage with queer archival collections at the Los Angeles Public Library and learn how to start building your own archive for future generations. Browse photographs, ephemera, and letters from Special Collections and the Photo Collection documenting the lives of gay, lesbian, queer, and trans people through their life and work in the arts and as advocates for their communities. The workshop begins with a brief show & tell presentation of materials from the founding and active members of the Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), the first major Queer Latinx organization in the Los Angeles area, and Lesbianas Unidas. Materials from LAPL’s Photo Collection document the LA Punk scene in the 1970s, queer life throughout the city, and a private, deeply affectionate romance between puppeteers captured through letters. Afterwards, everyone is encouraged to reflect & continue the conversation on memory-keeping, storytelling, and the affective impact of preserving and connecting with queer history. While making zines! All materials will be provided. Participants will leave with a blueprint for starting their own collections, recorded in a DIY archiving zine guide. Photographs in banner (clockwise from left): Yale Puppeteers & Turnabout Theater Collection; David P. Gonzales Collection, and Laura Durán and Irene Martínez Collection. The Los Angeles Public Library offers this program as part of a month-long series centering personal archiving, presented by CommUnity Archives, an initiative supported by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and funded by the Mellon Foundation.

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