“What has been omitted from the history we learned? The stubble was plowed under, sometimes burned.” – Ed Madden
When entering Richland Library Main from the Park Street lot, you may have noticed this text stenciled on the base of the stairs. The excerpt, from a poem by former Poet Laureate of Columbia Ed Madden, asks the reader to consider what stories in history have been accidentally or purposely obscured and how we might access that omitted history. Writing in the Queer Archive, a recent collaboration between Historic Columbia, the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library, the South Caroliniana Library, and a group of LGBT writers in Columbia, SC led by Ed Madden, seeks to address those gaps in public history.
On Saturday, August 28, Ed Madden led Writing in the Queer Archive, a workshop on writing in response to historic materials now on display as part of a new collaborative exhibit To tell the secret of my nights and days: LGBTQ+ History in South Carolina and Beyond at the Hollings Special Collections Library. These materials help map the queer history of Columbia, South Carolina, and the writers who attended Saturday’s workshop will, through poetry, prose, monologue, and invented forms, bring this history to public attention.
LGBTQIA+ history, especially in South Carolina, has long been ignored, obfuscated, and erased. Public memory depends on the archive to make tangible the stories that are otherwise ephemeral conjecture. An archive is defined not only by what is selectively included— what voices are valued, preserved, and highlighted— but also by what the collection lacks—silences, distortions, and censorships. What remains are archival slivers representative of the whole, artifacts, photographs, and documents that provide a glimpse into the lived experiences of queer South Carolinians.
Examples of this history include the legacy of ACT UP Columbia, which organized the first major demonstration outside of a metropolitan city, Queer Nation Columbia, who organized a sit-in at a local Cracker Barrel to protest their discriminatory hiring practices, Harriet Hancock’s influence in developing the first Pride March and the local chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and trans women like Rachel Watson, arrested in the 1920s for female impersonation, and Shirley Sanez, a Black trans woman famous for performing drag.
The exhibit also shares materials from LGBT children’s authors, including Maurice Sendak, whose 46-foot-tall mural is on display at Richland Library Main.
Writing in the Queer Archive asked writers to examine these artifacts of Columbia’s queer past and create work that might breathe life into these unique, local stories. A chapbook of the collected works from Writing in the Queer Archive attendees will be published and distributed by Historic Columbia at this year’s Famously Hot Pride on Saturday, October 21.
Those interested in learning more about South Carolina’s LGBT history may explore the LGBTQ Columbia History Initiative from Historic Columbia, which includes oral histories with more than 35 of Columbia’s LGBTQIA+ community members, the South Carolina Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection at South Caroliniana Library, and the We’re Here! StoryMap, which identifies more than 250 events, organizations, and businesses in Columbia, SC. One may also find photos from the early years of the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride March in The Walker Local and Family History Center Digital Collections.