WE HELP US: Sharing Stories of LGBTQIA Mutual Aid

Saturday, August 9th

3-5 p.m.

Quatrefoil Library Community Room

1220 E Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Minnesota’s LGBTQIA community has a rich history of mutual aid. Many of the organizations that now serve our community were started decades ago by small groups of people who took care of one another when no one else would, and mutual aid networks continue to be a lifeline for our community today. When systems fail and institutions ignore us, LGBTQIA people have each other’s backs.

Join us for an afternoon of story exchange, where attendees will share experiences of queer mutual aid (seeking it, offering it, or both). These stories of community care will be audio recorded for potential use in a narrative art project. Most will also be archived at the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at the University of Minnesota, which is the biggest LGBTQIA archive in the upper Midwest and one of the largest in the country.

Our hope is that collecting and sharing these stories will allow us to preserve important histories, offer examples for people seeking opportunities to get involved in mutual aid efforts, and challenge all of us to ask what more we can be doing for our friends and neighbors. Please join us on August 9th and share your stories for the benefit of our community!

Hosted by Good Judy Productions, a narrative podcast studio based in Minneapolis, and Quatrefoil Library, the second oldest circulating LGBTQIA library in the United States.

This project is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, both thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.