Queer history has undergone more than its fair share of erasure, including in Pittsburgh. Local bars, clubs, and other spaces that, over the decades, served as safe havens for the city’s LGBTQ populations have been torn down or repurposed. Important queer figures who, out of necessity, existed in relative obscurity have become lost to time.
For over a decade, Harrison Apple has worked to preserve the city’s queer past. This year, Apple continued their efforts as co-founder of the Pittsburgh Queer History Project (PQHP), contributing to the When the Lights Come On show at Brew House Arts and creating Calendar Girls at the House of Tilden, an exhibition now on view at Kelly Strayhorn Theater. The shows demonstrate how the PQHP turns a long-overdue spotlight on the drag queens, club owners, and other figures who once defined the city’s vibrant queer nightlife.
These art projects, presented as part of PQHP’s ongoing MS89 screening series, are especially crucial given the escalating political attacks against LGBTQ individuals. It also comes at a time when the city has failed to preserve queer landmarks, including the former Donny’s Place bar in Polish Hill.
But, as Apple explains to Pittsburgh City Paper, the project hardly exists in a vacuum. They cite local LGBTQ elders, such as drag performer LaDonna LaMoore, for providing “never-before or rarely seen archival materials.” Over the years, they have made PQHP’s work more accessible to the public through collaborations with numerous organizations, including the Black Unicorn Library & Archives, Andy Warhol Museum, Heinz History Center, Contemporary Craft, and Carnegie Mellon University, at which Apple serves as associate director of the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.
PQHP recently worked with the public radio station WYEP and Hellbender Vinyl to release a special-edition record.
“These partnerships help the public realize that queer history is not something apart from Pittsburgh history,” says Apple, adding, “[Every time] we can collaborate, it’s another chance to share history as a collaborative and social activity.”
In the coming year, Apple will work toward creating a “digital readiness toolkit” and funding PQHP’s first artist grant by hosting a series of workshops at the Carnegie Library in Oakland. “The plan is to be able to pay more artists in Pittsburgh for engaging with collections, much like they have in creating the prints, tapes, and artworks for the MS89 series,” says Apple. “I’d like to find people who will document their journey into and out of the collections through guides or maps of their own invention.”
This article appears in The Big Winter Issue: Winter Guide/People of the Year.
