The LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana has suffered a tremendous loss with the untimely passing of Frank Perez, our co-founder and executive director. Our board of directors understands the grief that many of you in our community are experiencing; we are grieving with you.
To read Bobby Fieseler’s beautiful eulogy for Frank, CLICK HERE.
To read an article from Ambush Magazine about the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana’s past, present, and future, CLICK HERE.
To order a copy of Café Lafitte In Exile: Queer New Orleans and the Story of America’s Oldest Gay Bar, Frank’s last major publication (published earlier this year by LSU Press), CLICK HERE.
This Thursday, October 1, will be the first day of LGBTQ History Month. On that day at noon, the New Orleans City Council will be honoring Frank with a special presentation and resolution. Friends, loved ones, fans and anyone from the general public are invited to attend and celebrate him. You can also view the council meeting on live television on Cox Channel 6.
The LGBT+ Archives Project honors the lives of Glen Kahrman and Glenn Reames, both of whom recently passed away. Both of these men were integral parts of the New Orleans LGBTQ+ community, and provided decades of services to local organizations. To view the obituary of Glen Kahrman, CLICK HERE. To view the obituary of Glenn Reams, CLICK HERE.
Preserving the Party: The Legacy of Halloween New Orleans
🗓️ Wednesday, October 14
⏰ 6–8 p.m.
📍 Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street
🎟️ Free admission, registration required
Learn more and register: https://ow.ly/hPw850ZQjuf
On October 14, join the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) and the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana for an evening celebrating 40 years of the Halloween New Orleans costume party. HNOC recently acquired video footage from these legendary parties and digitized them, making them available to the public on our online catalog. These recordings first documented the annual event during an extraordinary period in New Orleans’s LGBT+ history, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Halloween New Orleans has always been a place where community resilience and creativity flourished in the face of unimaginable loss.
The program will feature clips from the video archive followed by a conversation with longtime former event chair Arthur Roger, LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana’s board chair Guy LaMothe, and Ian Bicko, executive director of Project Lazarus. Attendees are invited to a brief reception following the event. Halloween costumes are encouraged!
