Do Say Gay: Banned Books and LGBTQ+ Freedom
In Spring 2024 twenty-one DePaul students visited Gerber/Hart once per week as part of a course entitled, Do Say Gay: Banned Books and LGBTQ+ Freedoms. The course was an Experiential Learning course about contemporary book bans and their relationship to the democratic role of LGBTQ+ libraries and archives in the preservation, celebration, and continuation of intersectional queer lives. The course was co-taught by Dra. Heather Montes Ireland (Women’s & Gender Studies) and Prof. Barrie J Borich (English/LGBTQ Studies) and was a part of DePaul’s HumanitiesX Collaborative, a program aiming to reimagine Humanities education through experiential, hands-on learning and community engaged project work.
As part of the course, the students curated an exhibit and also created zines about their work at Gerber/Hart. The exhibit highlights four topics areas: Save Our Children, Silence=Death, Open Books, Open Minds, and We Have Always Been Banned. These Zines are Available to read digitally below. Physical copies have been added to Gerber/Hart’s zine collection.
Click on image to read full zine!
We Have Always Been Banned…But We’ve Always Been Here
Silence = Death: Bringing Life to Queer Voices During the AIDS Crisis
Save Our Children
Open Books Open Minds: Libraries as Catalysts for Political Action
