The Adela C. Licona Zine Collection has been a life-long collecting practice of Professor Licona’s as her early research centered on zines, especially zines produced by QTPOC and BIPOC communities. Her book Zines in Third Space: Radical Cooperation and Borderlands Rhetorics (SUNY, 2012) interrogated the role that zines and zinesters played in their home communities. This collection continues to grow through Licona’s connections in the zine world. After she acquired The Fly Away Zine Mobile Collection for the AQA, she has consulted on ways to support ongoing collecting and preserving of zines. Housing zine collections continues to be a great honor.
The Fly Away Zine Mobile Collection was acquired by Professor Adela C. Licona through her contacts in the zine world and Debbie. Consider reading through the blog about the Fly Away Zine Mobile here to learn more about the collection process and where the zine mobile has traveled and conducted workshops on zine production.
Primarily regarding Transgender Awareness Weeks 2006 and 2007. Additional information partially covers Transgender Awareness Week 2010, Transgender Day of Remembrance 2005, and early 2000s accomplishments. These include event brochures, advertisements, schedules, planning documents, first drafts, speaker lineups, attendee surveys, informational/educational material, programming aids (such as worksheets for during events).
The P. Carl Transitional Eyewear Collection consists of 28 pairs of eyeglasses spanning over three decades of transitioning through sexual and gender identities. P. Carl is a nonfiction writer, playwright, dramaturg and a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston. He is also a writer and lecturer on theater, gender, inclusive practices, and innovative models for building community and organizations. P. Carl lives on the east coast and is the author of Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition. You can hear him speak more about this memoir here.
Arizona LGBTQ Storytelling Project was the first identified LGBTQ archives in the state of Arizona. As an oral history digital archival project, the Storytelling Project engaged the principles of social justice media to not only collect everyday stories of LGBTQ individuals but also offered hands-on video production training so that communities had the skills, expertise, and access to digital technologies to collect their everyday stories on their own. The Storytelling Project and its commitment to social justice media, and as a gesture of solidarity with non-dominant communities, continues to be foundation for the Arizona Queer Archives.
Wingspan, Southern Arizona’s LGBT Community Center
From 1984 to 2013, Wingspan united LGBTQIA people through community outreach and public-service programs in Southern Arizona. In 2013 Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild hosted a reception at his home celebrating the 25th anniversary of Wingspan and proclaim it Wingspan Day. The Wingspan Collection is the first physical collection of the AQA that will be transferred into the University of Arizona Special Collections. Stay tuned for updates and see the digital collections below. You can also view the finding aid here.
Jay Kyle Petersen shares his stories as part of the Arizona LGBTQ Storytelling Project. Jay tells of his being born intersexed and his family’s process of selecting his sex. He traces his struggles as he moves through his own understanding of not being a girl but, in fact, being a boy. He shares his childhood, relationships, and work with doctors and therapists throughout the process. He shares his artwork that captures his internal processes.
