In Fall 2024 a group of LaGuardia students and faculty began working on building an archive of under-represented/underfunded LGBTQ+ spaces in New York City.
What are the spaces where we - LGBTQ+ people - feel safe, inspired, free, and supported to thrive in the world?
Six of us (two faculty and four students) met each week on Thursday afternoons on the LaGuardia campus to work towards building our archive.
We began with informal conversations and community-building exercises in order to both define and create spaces where we, as LGBTQ+ students and faculty,
feel safe, seen, and free to be our full selves.
Side by side at a round table we made playlists, drew maps, shared stories, ate snacks, and talked about our favorite spaces in New York City.
We began mapping out spaces that have felt transformative in our own lives growing up both in and outside NYC ~ queer bookstores, beaches, and youth groups.
Then, we started to research about LGBTQ+ spaces that were “under the radar” in our own neighborhoods, searching for LGBTQ+ stories that exist “outside the frame” of mainstream “gay guides” to NYC, such as in BIPOC, Trans, immigrant, and houseless LGBTQ+ youth narratives.
Over the course of a school year we connected with these sacred spaces in our communities and formed relationships with the people who have built, sustained, and uplifted them.
For each pin on the map you will find a collection of photographs and oral histories/futures that help elucidate why each of these spaces is so important for our communities, and ultimately “worth fighting for” in a rapidly gentrifying New York City.