Today in Lansing: LGBTQIA Special Collections open house

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LGBTQIA Special Collections Open House

4 to 7 p.m.

MSU Libraries

366 W. Circle Dr., East Lansing

Click here for event page

TUESDAY, Oct. 16 — For LGBTQIA history month, Michigan State University Special Collections presents an open house of LGBTQIA portraits, limited edition books and materials.

“In Special Collections our goal is to collect individual voices as much as possible, rather than works that analyze a community through a scholarly or journalistic lens,” said Ruth Ann Jones, a Special Collections Education and Outreach librarian.

Special Collections’ LGBTQIA cache contains zines and newsletters from LGBTQIA organizations around the country. It also holds pulp fiction artifacts of LGBTQIA activism, such as posters, event flyers, buttons and t-shirts, LGBTQIA authored comics, photo collections, personal papers of LGBTQIA activists and organizational materials from LGBTQIA community groups.

Special Collections bibliographer Anne Tracy is to thank for most of the LGBTQIA materials, said curator Elisa Landaverde.

“She was the person who started this collection in the ‘70s. To collect material, she would go to protests and network with people. A lot of material is from the connections she made during that time.”

The newest work in the collection is “To Survive on This Shore,” a collection of portraits of elderly transgender people.

“A lot of the time trans people are not really visible to most people. For elderly people, they are even more invisible to society in general,” Landaverde said.

“In terms of inclusivity, you may not see everyone represented,” Landaverde said. “What is missing is something to note. I like to have people talk about this — is there a solution and could we do something to address that?”

Another part of the collection is the material produced by “Goldenrod Records,” a women’s record label in Lansing that ran from 1976 to 2011 and released approximately 700 tracks. As part of the second wave feminist movement, the label highlighted lesbian and feminist artists.

“There are many issues still relevant today,” Landaverde said. “Each is on a very different level and narrative within each of the communities. You can see rights and privileges that not all the members of the community have felt.”

Other events in Lansing:

Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop

6 to 8 p.m., $25 non member/$25 member, Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center, 119 N. Washington Sq., Ste. 101, Lansing

Renée Fleming

7:30 to 10:30 p.m., Wharton Center for Performing Arts, 750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing

Victorian Halloween at Turner-Dodge House

1 to 7 p.m., Turner-Dodge House, 100 E. North St., Lansing

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