Providence Public Library announces RI LGBTQ+ Community Archive

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – The Providence Public Library announced its new LGBTQ+ Community Archive on Wednesday.

The Archive is described as “the first public community archives initiative to collect and provide access to the stories, and social, cultural and political history of LGBTQ+ people in Rhode Island.”

The project has been guided by a Community Advisory Board, including members of the Rhode Island LGBTQ+ community.

The archives feature oral interviews, full volumes of Options Magazine from 1982, and collections donated by the AIDS Project Rhode Island Archives and the Kim Deacon Collection.

“Facilitating the creation of this community archive project has been a joyful experience,” said Kate Wells, Curator of Rhode Island Collections at PPL. “We were aware of the gap in materials documenting Rhode Island’s queer history in libraries and archives and we realized that as a special collection in a public library we have a unique set of skills and resources to offer to the community to help tell their own stories.”

The community is encouraged to donate materials to grow the collection.