Queer Newark Oral History Project
The Queer Newark Oral History Project is a community-based oral history for the LGBTQ+ community of Newark, New Jersey. LGBTQ+ Newark citizens share their diverse experiences through oral interviews, which are translated into historical archives that are accessible to the public. The purpose of this project is to highlight the individualistic experiences of many different LGBTQ+ Newark citizens, in order to make a place in history for LGBTQ+ people of color. The QNOHP oral histories describe ballroom culture, queer clubs, AIDS activism and awareness, poverty, and discrimination.
History and background
The Queer Newark Oral History Project was founded in 2011 by activist and writer Darnell Moore, Rutgers–Newark history professor Beryl Satter, and Rutgers–Newark administrator of the History and African-American and African Studies departments, Christina Strasburger. The QNOHP aids in research purposes, public programming, and the accessibility to oral interview recordings of Newark, New Jersey's LGBTQ+ community.Oral interviews have been, and are being conducted to produce and display the lives of queer Newark.
The QNOHP even began a second program in 2014, called the "Sanctuary: A History of Queer Club Spaces in Newark". This program created a safe haven for queer people of color, as it incorporated art, poetry readings, and a discussion facilitated by performers, participants of ballroom houses and queer bars and clubs dating from the 1960's to today's society.