Help us install a historic marker for KC's last Black gay bar! →
{B/qKC}'s semi-regular newsletter! | pub_8
> Hello_world!
We hope everyone is sliding into Spring okay. Sounds like a lot of people are getting hit hard by allergies this year–stock up on your meds if you can!
Thank you all for your overwhelming support of {B/qKC}’s website and archival database. Your support has meant so much more than you know. We’re excited for what we have in store for the rest of this year. Keep scrolling!
TABLE_OF_CONTENTS
Visit us at Open Studios!
Check out this awesome video TechSoup made about us! >
Sponsoring Soakie’s historical marker
Snippet from the archive
Support our work!
Our last year at Charlotte Street </3
Come visit us at Open Studios:
April 25th (tomorrow!) | 3-10 PM |
3333 Wyoming St
It’s with a bittersweet feeling I announce that my two-year studio residency at Charlotte Street is soon coming to an end, meaning the pseudo-hub for {B/qKC} will also be wrapping up.
The past two years here have seen incredible growth for the archive and myself as an artist, and I’m so grateful for Charlotte Street’s support through it.
Come check out materials from the archive in a special mini exhibition I’ll be doing in my studio tomorrow!
Learn more about Charlotte Street’s Open Studios >
Check out this awesome case study TechSoup made about us!
Following our participating in TechSoup, Gray Area, and Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web’s “Cultural Memory Lab,” {B/qKC} revamped its entire storage architecture to decrease its reliance on Big Tech, and creating more sovereignty and sustainability for its archival data.
TechSoup wrote up a case study and filmed a video of us documenting our steps to getting there, and what our tech stack looks like today.
Check out the case study on {B/qKC}! >
Will your organization help sponsor a historic marker for Soakie’s?
We’re 1/5th of the way to our goal!
In a historic feat, {B/qKC} is working with the City of Kansas City, MO to install a historic marker in commemoration of Soakie’s–KC’s first and only Black gay bar–in Downtown later this year.
While the marker, itself, will be funded by City funding,we hope to raise the funds needed to compensate the local designers, elders and organizers behind the marker.
Your sponsorship will help make this possible!
We’re hoping to raise $5,000–we’ve already raised $1,000, sponsor to be announced soon. ;)
Check out our sponsorship guide >
Snippet from the archive
garycoll003 || Treshawn Seymour, Miss Soakie’s 2002 – 2
Mr. and Miss Soakie’s was an annual pageant competition held at the bar for which it was named after. Here, Treshawn Seymour smiles as the victor for 2002. Almost a quarter century ago!
Support this work!
In order to keep these sexy updates coming, the money needs to flow as well!
We’re encouraging everyone to have their organizations sponsor the Soakie’s historic marker right now.
We just need a few more tiers to meet our sponsorship goal!
{B/qKC} is fiscally sponsored, which means all contributions are 100% tax-deductible and go directly to supporting the work I do as a Black queer artist and the sustainability of this project.
By supporting {B/qKC}, you’re investing in my work as an artist and memory worker and in the long-term preservation of Black queer Midwestern stories. Together, we can build a future where our histories are celebrated and never forgotten.
With love,
Nasir