- Thursday, October 8, 7:00 p.m.
- Online Event
In this online event, Harrison Apple discusses the origins and revised mission of the Pittsburgh Queer History Project as a reflection of the precarious definition of community archives within the field of Library and Archival Science. By retracing the steps of the PQHP's mission from a custodial and exhibit-focused collecting project towards a decentralized mobile preservation service, this lecture argues that community archival practice is an important standpoint from which to critically reassess the capacity of institutional archives to create a more conscious and complete history through broader collecting. Specifically, this lecture considers how contemporary attention to the value of community records and community archives is frequently accompanied by a demand for them to confess precarity and eventual submission to institutional record keeping practices. Stemming from conflicts over the authority of professional archives to arrange and steward community knowledge, "I Can't Wait For You To Die" outlines the limitations of the archival apparatus to produce the conditions for social liberation through acquisition, and offers suggestions for how to operate otherwise in the interest of the community of records themselves.