Podcasting History

“Unboxing Queer History podcast.” Gerber/Hart Library and Archives. https://www.gerberhart.org/unboxing-queer-history/.

Reviewed by K.C. O.

The city of Chicago is an epicenter of Queer community. The city is home to notable LGBTQ activists like Bill Keley, who transcend movements and eras, and to people like Miss Tille, a notable Chicago Drag Queen who inspired the city with her compelling performances. In addition the city of Chicago acts as a bastion of Queer community of the greater Midwest’s home to exclusively Queer bookstore and Lesbian fishing Club. All of these fascinating stories are preserved in the Gerber Heart Archives, Chicago’s LGBTQ archive. “Unboxing Queer History” is an eight-episode podcast series released by the Gerber Hart Library and Archives in the spring of 2022. Each episode is around thirty minutes long and discusses a collection at the Gerber Heart Archives. The podcast was co-created by Gerber Hart’s operations director, Erin Bell, and Community Outreach Manager, Jen Dental. In collaboration with the experienced producer Ari Mejia, the podcast successfully uses archival collections to describe key moments, organizations, and people in Chicago’s LGBTQ history. In conjunction with powerful interviews, the team is able to tell stories unique to Chaigco and audiences around the world. For many, their knowledge of queer history fails to extend beyond San Francisco and New York, and often the contributions of Chicago’s LGBTQ activists go unnoticed in national conversations.^[1] Although other queer history podcasts exist,  most are not connected to an archive or museum and tend to look at broader topics. “Unboxing Queer History” works to share the vibrant Queer community of the Midwest with the world while demonstrating the purpose of archives in the Queer community.

Unboxing Queer History’s first episode, “The Dirty Old Lady: Chicago Drag History and the Mystery of Miss Tille,”  describes the career of notable Chicago drag queen Miss Tille, also known as “The Dirty Old Lady of Chicago.” In 2014, the Gerber Hart Archives received a collection of photo albums featuring pictures of Miss Tille. Using these photos and a short documentary made in 2001, they can tell us the story of Miss Tille’s drag career. Miss Tille arrived in Chicago in 1962 and continued to perform into the 1990s. From her first experiences with drag to being arrested in bar raids, the podcast illustrates the highs and lows of Miss Tillie’s Drag career. Despite the hardships Miss Tille endured as a drag performer, from the impact of the AIDS epidemic, bar raids, and the risks of performing in drag, the team is still able to end the podcast on a positive note. The team uses Miss Tillie’s story to analyze the challenges faced by drag performers in the 60s and 70s. In Chicago and other cities around the country, queens were criminalized and even arrested, the experiences of Miss Tillie described in the podcast illustrate how this policy negatively impacted the Queer community. However, the joy of Miss Tillie’s performance is evident through the archival pictures featured on the website. Despite the compelling story, it is clear from the first episode that the team could make technical improvements. During the first episode, the transition between different audio clips is jarring, and outside of the interview and theme music, the episode did not feature much sound design. However, over the season, the Gerber Hart team begins to perfect these details to combine an immersive audio experience and a good story to create an engaging and informative podcast.        

Episode four, “People Like Us – So Much More Than a Bookstore,” tells the story of Chicago’s only “exclusively” Gay and Lesbian Bookstore. Once again, the team uses a combination of archival pictures available to view on the website, along with interviews from bookstore co-founders Carrie Barnette and Brett Shingledecker, to tell the story of the bookstore. People Like Us bookstore opened in 1988 and was one of the few places in Chicago where people could purchase LGBTQ books. The co-founders highlight the fact that they chose to mix gay and lesbian fiction together; as an out gay and lesbian duo themselves, they wanted to bring two communities together in the bookstore. The creation of the bookstore demonstrates how the Gays and Lesbians of Chicago came together in the late 80s and 90s, partly as a response to the AIDS epidemic. For the first time, the Lebsain, Gay and Trans communities were creating spaces for everyone where they could foster community and organize. People Like Us is an example of this community-building approach. However, this trend was not unique to Chicago.^[2] Unfortunately, the bookstore closed in 1997, but its impact remained. Co-founder Carrie Barrnette remained an essential figure in Chicago’s LGBTQ space and went on to work with the Gerber Hart Archives. Once again, this episode makes a story unique to Chicago and the Gerber Heat archives accessible to listeners all over the world. Despite the closing of this bookstore, the episode continues the theme of queer joy, emphasizing the power of Gay and lesbian communities coming together in the bookstore. The audio quality in this episode has also greatly improved from the first; the episodes now have other engaging sound effects and stable volume throughout. In addition to telling an engaging story, the podcast also raises questions about the importance of exclusively queer spaces, giving the listener something to think about after the podcast concludes. 

The best qualities of the podcast come together in episode seven, “Bill Kelley – A Lifetime of Activism.” Bill Kelley was a Chicago-based LGBTQ rights activist whose work spanned decades. From helping to organize the first national Gay and Lesbain conference in 1966 to becoming a lawyer and advocating for LGBTQ people in the 80s and 90s, Bill Kelley was a key figure in Chicago LGBTQ activism. After his death in 2015, pamphlets, meeting notes, photographs, and more that he had saved throughout his life ended up at the Gerber Hart Archives. Using these materials, in combination with an interview with his longtime partner, Chen Ooi, the team works to paint a picture of his life and activism. Kelleys’ story is remarkable because it is one of a few examples of an activist who transcended eras. From pre-Stonewall activism, to Gay liberation movements, and AIDs activism, Kelley never stopped fighting. Using Kelley’s story, the team successfully illustrates the importance of an archive and holding onto important materials over the course of your life, as well as describing how LGBTQ activism has changed throughout Kelley’s life. This episode highlights the importance of institutions like the Gerber Heart archives in the preservation of queer history. This episode features professional audio and sound design, an engaging spirit that combines the best parts of the podcast, an insider look at the archives, and a moving interview.

Each episode of “Unboxing Queer History” allows the listener to step back in time and examine where the queer Chicago community once was and how far it has come. Over the course of the season, the sound quality and storytelling in each episode gradually improved; even though it took the team a bit to find their footing, the contributions of this podcast are immense. There are some ways the podcast could improve even further, like utilizing transcripts available on the website and highlighting the photos of archival material in the podcast itself. When listening on certain platforms like Spotify, it is hard to know that there is corresponding archival material available to view on the website; a quick mention of the material at the beginning of each episode would allow the listener to get more out of the episode.

Although other queer Archives exist and flourish around the country, few are able to make materials as accessible as Gerber Hart. Many of the stories told in these podcasts are exclusive to the archives, and through this podcast, the team works to make them available for everyone to hear. “Unboxing Queer History” builds on previous scholarship by providing information about real people who lived through various historical events. In addition, the podcast focuses on the important impacts of community organizing in the creation of Chicago’s queer Community. While other projects emphasize the contributions of a few key people and political organizations, Unboxing Queer History works to illustrate the contributions of LGBTQ Chicagoans whose stories may have been lost to time. This podcast lets people who might not otherwise visit the archives learn about Chicago’s rich LGBTQ history. The Unboxing Queer History podcast highlights the contributions of Midwesterners in the fight for liberation and makes these inspirational stories accessible to people around the globe.

^[1]1. Robert Ridinger, “Invisible Threads: Tracking Illinois LGBT History,” Illinois Library Association, June 3, 2024, https://www.ila.org/publications/ila-reporter/article/201/invisible-threads-tracking-illinois-lgbt-history.

^[2] Hanhardt, Christina B., Katherine Crawford-Lackey, and Megan E. Springate. “Making Community: The Places and Spaces of LGBTQ Collective Identity Formation.” In Communities and Place: A Thematic Approach to the Histories of LGBTQ Communities in the United States, 1st ed., 1–33. Berghahn Books, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1tbhr05.6.