Queer Omaha Archives Material on Loan to Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
Material from the Queer Omaha Archives was loaned to the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Bemis Center) as part of the exhibition 'Cassils: Phantom Revenant.' The exhibition by the artist Cassils includes photographs, sculpture, video, and sound components.
The unique LGBTQ+ historical material on display from the Queer Omaha Archives includes a protest sign created by members of the UNO Queer and Trans Services Student Agency, an issue of The New Voice of Nebraska LGBT magazine, an issue of the Metropolitan Community Church of Omaha’s newsletter, and replica archival boxes and correspondence from the personal papers of UNO Professor Emeritus Meredith Bacon. Excerpts from oral history interviews of Carla Ruiz and Ashley Swartz conducted by students in Dr. Jay Irwin’s Introduction to LGBTQ Studies course are also part of the display. Dr. Irwin’s students interviewed fifteen people for the fall 2016 course specifically to be added to the Queer Omaha Archives.
The Bemis Center describes Cassils’ exhibition as speaking “to the double invisibility of LGBTQI+ people across the world and the ways this violence is archived in public consciousness. Cassils exposes this timely concern through three works that aggressively bring cyclical forms of oppression, disregarded histories, and haunting realities to the forefront.”
Cassils will give a talk at UNO in Criss Library on April 27th. The talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Art & Art History, the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, UNO Libraries, and Queer and Trans Services Student Agency.
The Queer Omaha Archives is part of UNO Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections and officially launched in 2016. The Queer Omaha Archives collects and preserves materials relevant to the LGBTQ+ community in the region. Archives & Special Collections' material is available for the university community and general public at both the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library and online.