For many LGBTQ people, books are the first place where we see pieces of ourselves and our identities come alive, making books critical to the process of identity formation. This fall Pop-Up Founding Director Hugh Ryan and award winning queer author Sassafras Lowrey are co-curating an exhibit at the New York Public Library Jefferson Market Branch sponsored by the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History and Lambda Literary Foundation highlighting the unique relationship between LGBTQ people and literature. Books can be lifelines for LGBTQ people isolated by geographic area or other life circumstances, and we seek to break down the divide between the author and reader, to create conversation through art exploring the role of the queer book within our community.
Responding to an international call for participation, LGBTQ artists from the United States, Canada, and South Africa are creating dioramas depicting books that contributed to their formation of understanding themselves as LGBTQ people. This is a community project bringing together diverse artists across age and experience. Through the Queer Diorama Show we seek to increase conversation about the important role books play in one’s queer coming of age. We will be exploring queer readings of mainstream titles, as well as the pull of explicitly queer texts.
Learn more at QueerBookDiorama.tumbr
Roundup of media coverage of the Queer Book Diorama Show including lots of pictures!!!!
The Daily Beast- The Power Of Queer Books
The Advocate – LOOK: Your Favorite Queer Books Come to Life in 3-D
The Rumpus- A Book of One’s Own
Curve- LGBT Books Come to Life
Time Out New York CRITIC’S PICK- Queer Book Diorama Show