Happy Pride! KC's first and only Black gay bar is on display ~

> “Hello_world!

I hope, like me, your inner Hot Girl is activating and you’re getting ready for summer. We will be tearing up the streets: by being sexy and tearing down fascism.

I recently opened {B/qKC} and I’s first gallery exhibition, and have details for how to come see it. We also just hired a new Fellow for the archive, and still looking for lovely donors and sponsors to continue this much needed work.

Keep reading!

TABLE_OF_CONTENTS

• SOAKIE’S WAS HOME: Gallery Show in The West Bottoms

• Welcome our new Fellow: Sunday

• {B/qKC} being taught at Johns Hopkins & Pomona College

• We were on TV!

• Snippet from the archive: Kansas City’s Black Gay Pride Booklet

• Still time to pre-order some merchandise

• Support our work!

Thank you everyone who came out to view my solo gallery show, SOAKIE’S WAS HOME, at the top of this month. It’s received such a huge response (more below teehee), and I am so grateful to continue sharing this history in new, beautiful ways.

If you haven’t come out to see it yet, I’ll be having an Artist Talk and Public Viewing Hour on June 5th at 6pm CT. Address is 1106 Santa Fe Street, Kansas City, MO 64101.

Check out photos from the exhibit on Instagram! >

Earlier this year, {B/qKC} partnered with University of Kansas for their Applied Humanities Summer Fellows Program. This program provides supports PhD or MA students who would like to explore ways they can apply the research skills they have acquired as graduate students to projects that collaborate with community organizations and/or career paths other than academic research or teaching.

It is with immense gratitude that I announce Sunday as {B/qKC}’s Digitization Fellow as part of this program. Sunday will be helping move {B/qKC}’s materials from Google Drive to the Interplanetary File System (in the spirit of being anti-institution), as well as helping develop {B/qKC}’s website.

Here’s some more from Sunday:

• Pronouns: He/Him

• Current Degree: PhD Student in Rhetoric & Composition, University of Kansas

• Bio/Statement:I’m a PhD student committed to the public role of the humanities in storytelling, justice, and repair. My work explores disability, digital archives, and memory practices across African and Afro-diasporic communities. I see this fellowship as an opportunity to contribute thoughtfully and respectfully to community-led preservation work that challenges extractive models of knowledge.

• Favorite material so far: The Tisha Taylor collection stood out to me, particularly the portraits, which convey a boldness and grace that resonate with the dignity of memory work.

Yes gawd! It’s giving scholar. Stoked to show that {B/qKC}’s archival science is being taught at the institutional-level. The Midwest is capable of being at the forefront of these matters; honored to be able to show that through the lens of our Black queer elders.

Read about what these syllabi are referencing >

tishacoll002 | Kansas City’s Black Gay Pride Booklet, 1999

Because it’s Pride, only fitting I feature something from KC’s Black Gay Pride, founded in 1999 by Tisha Taylor and Jerry Colston.

Still don’t know who designed this cover, but it’s just so gorgeous.

KC'S FIRST BLACK GAY PRIDE: Risograph 💛
Each print is made with semi-metallic-gold ink on 11”x14” paper by the French Paper Co

• Our Risograph print repurposes the original graphics and motto from Kansas City's first Black Gay Pride in 1999, founded in part by local legendary Black drag queen, Tisha Taylor (and dually whose collection is credited on the print).

{B/qKC} + SOAKIE'S: Bandana 💗
Bandanas are silkscreen printed on 21” x 21” USA Made cotton.

• Our bandana, on the other hand, uses various visual motifs to tell the story of Soakie's: a sandwich shop in Downtown Kansas City that, through an unlikely partnership between the Italian mob and two Black gay men, would become a booming Black gay nightclub from 1993 - 2004.

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✈️ Nationwide shipping + in-store pickup available!
All proceeds go towards development of {B/qKC}.

Order NEOOWWWWW >

As you can see, we’ve already been up to so much this year! And I’d love y’alls support to keep it going.

At the end of last year, I launched a crowfunding campaign for {B/qKC} and we only reached 30% of our goal.

{B/qKC} is fiscally sponsored, which means all contributions are 100% tax-deductible and go directly to supporting the work I do as a Black queer artist and the sustainability of this project.

By supporting {B/qKC}, you’re investing in my work as an artist and memory worker and in the long-term preservation of Black queer Midwestern stories. Together, we can build a future where our histories are celebrated and never forgotten.

Give a tax-deductible donation

With love,

Nasir