ODU Special Collections Blog

How LGBTQ+ Folks Spent Summer Vacations in the 1990s

By Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Assistant

This is a continuation of my blog posts referencing Our Own Community Press, a Virginia LGBTQ+ community newspaper which ran from 1976 to 1998.

With the Fall semester starting, I thought about the timeless “What I did on my summer vacation” essay that so many of us were asked to write upon returning to school. With so many summer activities and vacations cancelled this summer due to the current pandemic, I thought I would highlight what LGBT folks did for summer vacations in the 1990s. While many LGBT folks did the same things as everyone else – such as visiting the beach, going on cruises, or enjoying theme parks – there are LGBT specific things that are mentioned or advertised in Our Own Community Press so I thought I would highlight some of these.

One did not need to travel far to find summer activities such as sports, recreational clubs, conferences and gatherings, festivals, or other events catering to the LGBT community. Local LGBT sports teams, clubs, and activities included the Lambda Wheelers, an LGBT bicycling group; the Mid-Atlantic Amateur Softball Association; volleyball tournaments at Stockley Gardens and Northside Park in Norfolk; and the Mid-Atlantic Bowling League. Other recreational activities included canoeing, hiking, rollerblading, women’s golf, and even skydiving.

Local summer benefits included pool parties sponsored by the Tidewater AIDS Crisis Taskforce (TACT) and the AIDSCARE Sunset Sprint Music Festival held at Ocean View Beach Park in June 1997. Some LGBT folks attended the biannual Stockley Gardens Art Festival held each May.

Local cruises on the Elizabeth River were popular. The Mandamus Society, an LGBT social group, held an annual cruise on the Carrie-B during the 90s. At least one year, there was an LGBT cruise on the Spirit of Norfolk too. While “Gay Days” at Busch Gardens had not yet become a thing, the first “Gay Days” at King’s Dominion was held in July 1997. “Gay Days” at Disney World in Florida began in the summer of 1991.

Beach vacations were also quite popular. Virginia Beach had its very own “Gay Beach Resort.” The Coral Sand Motel located on Pacific Avenue catered to LGBT clientele. The Outer Banks provided nearby beach getaways for LGBT folks. Rehoboth Beach in Delaware was also a popular choice. The Mandamus Society and Dignity, an LGBT Catholic group, both planned trips there in the 1990s. Our Own contains advertisements for Rehoboth Beach Resorts.

LGBT conferences and gatherings ranged from the serious to the fun. Many catered to diverse populations within the LGBT community. Serious conferences included the annual Lesbian and Gay Health Conference and AIDS Forum; the Southeast Lesbian / Gay Conference in July 1991; the International Lesbian & Gay Conference in Acapulco in 1991; and a Lesbian Writer’s conference in 1992.

Fun favorites included many women’s festivals and gatherings such as the Richmond Women’s Festival in 1990; the Roanoke Valley Women’s Festival in 1991, an annual East Coast Lesbian Festival; and WomenFest in Key West, FL in 1997. Regular women’s festivals were held at Twin Oaks campground in Luisa, Virginia and the INTOUCH women’s campground in Kent’s Store, Virginia. Music festivals were especially popular among Lesbians. These festivals included the Northeast Women’s Musical Retreat; the annual Virginia Women’s Music Festival held at INTOUCH; and the annual Rhythm Fest Women’s Music, Art, and Politics Festival held at Lookout Mountain in Georgia. Some men held camping gatherings too. These include the annual Gay Spirit Visions Conference in Highlands, NC and a men’s gathering held at Twin Oaks in 1993. Women’s and men’s gatherings sometimes highlighted LGBT-affirming alternative spiritual beliefs including New Age, Pagan, and Earth-based spirituality.

Film festivals were also popular among LGBT folks. Among these were the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival the summer of 1997 and Outfest, an annual gay and lesbian film festival held in Los Angeles.

Many conferences highlighted the diversity among LGBT folks – the Golden Threads Lesbian Celebration for Lesbians over age 50 in 1990; the National Gay Young Adults Conference also in 1990; a 1990 gathering of North and South American Native American LGBT folks; a 1996 conference and AIDS institute for gay men of color; and an annual “Women Celebrating Our Diversity” Gathering at Twin Oaks Campground. Gay geeks weren’t left out as the Gaylaxicon science fiction convention, which was founded in 1988, continued throughout the 1990s and beyond.

Other big events of the 1990s included the Gay Games, an Olympic style event for LGBT athletes. The Gay Games started in 1982 and continues to this day. In the 1990s, the event was held in 1990, 1994, and 1998. Many LGBT folks also attended the 1996 International Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA. The Atlantic States Gay Rodeo is mentioned in Our Own articles for 1996 and 1997. Many LGBT folks attended the GALA performing arts festival held in Tampa, FL in 1996. Maya Angelou was a keynote speaker at the event.

The 1990s were a great time for LGBT vacation packages. In the 1990s the travel industry took note of a perceived “disposable income” within the LGBT community. The idea is that many LGBT professional couples have extra income that isn’t going toward raising children that they can spend on leisure instead. While this myth persists even today, and there are many affluent people in the LGBT community, there are also many LGBT folks who aren’t especially wealthy or have dependents – LGBT parents (notably Lesbian mothers), LGBT folks from low income communities, and LGBT folks who have met with job discrimination. During the 1990s the LGBT travel industry flourished. Companies such as Toto Tours and Alyson Adventures offered tours, cruises, and destinations specifically for LGBT travelers. Sometimes there were separate women’s and men’s vacations, and other times the events were mixed. Local travel agencies such as Moore Travel (Norfolk), UNIGLOBE ITA Travel (Norfolk), and Four Seasons Travel (Williamsburg) arranged LGBT vacation packages. Bed and breakfasts and private resorts catering to LGBT folks offered options for those looking for smaller, low-key vacations.

LGBT travel magazines and guides promoted the LGBT travel industry. Such publications included magazines like Our World and Out and About; global guides such as Damron’s many guides, Ferrari’s Places of Interest: Worldwide Gay & Lesbian Guide, and Women Going Places 1993/94: A Women’s Complete Guide to International Travel; and city specific guides like Betty & Pansy’s Severe Queer Review of San Francisco and Washington, D.C.: An Alternative Guide For Those Who Don’t Necessarily Travel the Straight and Narrow.

So, while most of us are hoping that 2021 will be a better time than 2020 for joining in recreational activities or going on vacations, we can always look back at what folks did for fun in the 1990s. Perhaps looking through the articles, advertisements, and event listings in Our Own will provide you with nostalgia for the days when we could go out without masks and social distancing. Better yet, it might give you an idea for something to do when this pandemic is over.

Archived issues of Our Own Community Press are available digitally at: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown

Plastic clips: Friend or Foe?

by Lara Canner, Allan Blank Curator of Music Special Collections

Last year, my brilliant co-worker created animal sculptures made from binder clips.

Plastiklips_Image_1 — Meet the clip art dogs! One day we will open a clip art zoo!

The binder clips used in the sculpture were originally part of an already processed acquisition. After reviewing the collection, the clips were found to be causing harm. Once a helpful tool to separate paperwork in folder, now the binder clips needed to be removed due to tearing, creasing and potential for rust stains. That got me thinking about archival best practices, how processing has changed over time and how even good intentions can harm collections in the long run. I absolutely hate paperclips. Paperclips rust to paper causing staining and can create tears when removed. Ugh

Yet, the archival alternative, clips made of plastic, can cause damage too, if not used properly.

Archival grade plastic clips will not rust, tear paper and come in an assortment of fun colors…they are the superheroes of the paperclip world! However, problems occur when archival processors rely on too much on the clips for separation. Okay…what does that mean?

So, the very basic definition of a paper clip is to both keep paperwork connected and also keep that paperwork separated from other materials. This reasoning becomes tremendously important in the archival theory of original order. At the same time, the processor wants to keep the collection formulated the way the contributor first had the papers organized, but in a way accessible for researchers. Thus, plastic clips become a way to at once keep original order yet maintain separation for general clarity.

An example of this is found in the Allan Blank collection. In my most recent processing, I discovered sketches for a Trio (Clarinet, Flugelhorn and Piano) all in the same box, but separated by other sketches, scores and reference materials. I could keep all of these sketches separate based upon the original order, but it would be much easy on a researcher if the sketches were altogether. However, if I were to use plastic clips, I could maintain original order and still have ease of access. Great! Problem solved! Yeah…not really. Okay…why are plastic clips bad if too many are utilized?

Plastiklips_Image_3 — Notice how the clips bow the folder? When pressure from additional folders is added, this will cause the materials to bend. (Don’t worry, this is just an example. No artifacts were harmed during the taking of these photos!)

Now, in archival ancient times, it would have been fine to put a bunch of paperclips on the materials and call it good, but best practices have changed. Lots of plastic clips separating paperwork while a seemingly innocent way to keep order, can actually cause harm.

I prefer the method of clear organization within series and sub-series. Researchers can easily access materials using a clear finding aid, while the papers maintain original order within the folders. Over the course of processing, I have used approximately two plastic clips. Adhering an envelope to letter and for keeping a small note to a score.

In the end, archival processing theory is an evolving process. New products are introduced that help keep records safe, but archivists still need to be careful when protecting documents. Plastic clips are definitely an archivist’s friend!

Wiki Wiki What?

By University Archivist, Steve Bookman

While Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) is offering limited appointments for the ODU community only, we are still open virtually to answer any reference questions you may have about our collections! One of the ways you can find out information from our archives remotely is through our Special Collections and University Archives Wiki page. Here you can find frequently asked questions and quick facts about ODU’s history. You can browse by popular topics such as athletics, buildings and grounds, events, and student life, or you can use the search bar at the top of the page. Although not a complete history of ODU, entries are added on an ongoing basis, so please check back periodically as new information is added.

SCUAWiki-BigBlue-2020-06-18 — Find out all about the history of Big Blue on our Wiki!

In the past, archival repositories have answered reference questions, and once they have been answered, unless it is written down, the information is lost. To reduce the need to answer the same questions repeatedly, we created the Special Collections and University Archives wiki as a knowledge base to store answers to those questions. As a result, more information is shared with researchers and our archivists do not spend as much time on reference questions as in the past.

The wiki was produced using a WordPress theme called WikiWP as well as the Posts in Page and Table of Contents Plus plugins. These plugins and them make the WordPress page look and feel more like a Wikipedia page. With these helpful tools, anyone can create a similar wiki website to store useful and helpful information.

Yay for fall! The students are back, and so is our blog!

I know it’s been hard living without our blog for the past few weeks, but we decided it needed a summer vacation. Luckily, after a couple of months relaxing on the beach, the blog is back and ready for fall! So grab yourself a maple vanilla latte, put on a comfy sweater and light that one pumpkin scented candle you always bring out in September and enjoy!

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Carolyn Rhodes, Pioneer and Inspiration

By ODU Student Assistant Caroline Vanderlinder

After transcribing some documents in the Carolyn Rhodes digital archive collection-https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/crhodes-I was shocked to find out how extraordinary she was. Rhodes was one of the founders of the Old Dominion University’s women’s caucus, friends of women studies, as well as the trust for feminist education program. Rhodes made a huge contribution to the advancement of the status of women at the University. She went through all the ranks of assistant professor, associate professor, and then became an English professor in a time when advancement for women at ODU was slim.

During the 1970s, male professors received quicker promotions and tenure than female faculty members. The research conducted by the caucus showed males were granted a 57% chance of tenure while females were granted a 33% chance. The information gathered by the caucus was collected from public information, and through every rank they found female employees earned $1000 less than males. If that was the information they found in the public records, I can’t imagine what they would have found if they were given access to the private records. In 1974, the president of ODU never refuted or attempted to disprove the information. It was only after the department of labor opened an investigation that the salary inequities were looked into, however the gap wasn’t closed fully.

Carolyn Rhodes’ shared her personal experiences during an oral history interview conducted in 2009: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/oralhistory/id/667/rec/2

After reading Professor Rhodes’ syllabus, I could see she was an intense professor who expected nothing but the best work from her students. At the time, Women’s studies was just beginning, and failure would not have been acceptable. Although she was a tough professor, her students and peers believed she was an inspiration. Her experiences and the knowledge she had to offer was irreplaceable. Apart from teaching at Old Dominion and the University of Kentucky, her teachings were also respected overseas at Peking University, China, and Babes-Bolyai University, Romania where she was a Fulbright lecturer in American Literature.

I am done transcribing the Carolyn Rhodes collection but I know I have so much more to learn about her. Learning about Carolyn Rhodes and what she has done for us women at ODU has made me proud.

Everyone in the Special Collections and University Archives program has thoroughly enjoyed working with Caroline, and we are so glad she stayed on with us to transcribe the Carolyn Rhodes digital collection during the COVID-19 closure. We wish her the best with her studies this fall! -Jessica Ritchie, Head of Special Collections & University Archives

The Humble Beginnings of Hampton Roads PrideFest

by Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Assistant

article-july1996 — Image from *Our Own Community Press Digital* Collection courtesy of ODU Libraries: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

Like many events this summer, the Hampton Roads LGBT PrideFest has been postponed due to the coronavirus. The event has been held for the last decade at Town Point Park in Norfolk with crowd sizes reaching upwards of 25,000 people. This includes LGBT folks along with their family, friends, and allies. Well known headliners in recent years have included the Village People, Martha Wash of the Weather Girls, Jussie Smollet, and JoJo. There have been additional entertainers, as well as food and beer tents, vendors, and organization booths. Related events include a boat parade along the Elizabeth River, a block party at the Norfolk Scope, and a week’s worth of Pride events and activities. These events are hosted by Hampton Roads Pride and their partners, but additional events are held by other groups and organizations throughout the month of June which is LGBT Pride Month.

While there have been Pride month events held in Norfolk since at least 1986, the first event officially connected with the Hampton Roads PrideFest was a small picnic held at Shelter #1 of Northside Community Park in Norfolk on July 15, 1989 by a Gay and Lesbian social group known as the Mandamus Society. Approximately 200 people attended this first event. The picnic was a potluck, and no alcohol was allowed in the city park. Leaders of local LGBT organizations made short speeches. Activities of the day included volleyball, kickball, frisbee, kite flying, and people watching. For many attending, this was their first time spent among a large diverse group of LGBT folks.

The 2^nd Annual “Out in the Park” picnic was held again at Northside Park on June 24, 1990. This time over 1,000 people attended. The event was hosted and organized by the newly formed Hampton Roads Pride Committee – later renamed the Hampton Roads Lesbian and Gay Pride Coalition and eventually Hampton Roads Pride. The event included food, entertainment, games, and guest speakers. Larger name speakers were included this year including Robert Bray, director of public information at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Sam Garrison, a gay activist and former commonwealth’s attorney and a former aide to Vice President Spiro Agnew.

For most of the early 1990s, crowd sizes averaged around 1,000 attendees at the picnic jumping up to 2,000 and even 2,500 people in the later 1990s. In 1991, the picnic moved to Mt. Trashmore in Virginia Beach. It was co-hosted by the ODU Gay and Lesbian Student Union and held on the lawn in front of Webb Center at Old Dominion University in 1992. In 1991 and 1992, there were related marches on the Norfolk Naval Base in support of Gay and Lesbian folks serving in the military and against the ban on gays in the military. From 1993 to 1996, “Out in the Park” returned annually to Mount Trashmore. The event moved back to Norfolk in 1997 to a new location at Lakewood Park. Many folks expressed appreciation for the abundant shade at Lakewood Park which was severely lacking at Mt. Trashmore.

For many years throughout the 1990s, food such as hamburgers, hot dogs, and baked beans were provided by the Hershee Lounge, a Norfolk Lesbian bar. Free sodas were also available. Some years, there was even a dessert contest. Later on, the event moved toward a food vendor format offering more variety, but cost out of pocket for picnic goers.

Entertainment during those years was mostly local though sometimes artists were brought in from other places. Musicians and bands included Pamela Stanley; Julie Clark, Sandy Law, Melissa Reeves and Strange Brew; Mermaids in the Basement; Romanovsky & Phillips; Tom Weinberg and the Ten Percent Review; Martin Swinger; The Hampton Roads Men’s Chorus; and a variety of other acoustic, alternative rock, and dance performers. Larger name entertainers became more common in later years when sponsors helped bring in these acts. Sometimes these larger performances were held as special concerts outside the main picnic for fundraising purposes. Admission to the Pride picnic and the later PrideFest has always been free. In addition to musicians, comedians and dance troupes were sometimes brought in. Drag Queens frequently emceed the picnic and took part in the entertainment.

During the 1990s, most speakers were local, but some years featured headline speakers. These included Miriam Ben-Shalom, national chair of the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Veterans of America; and Perry Watkins, Sgt. First Class, U.S. Army retired. Given Hampton Roads close association with the military, speakers often spoke out against the military ban on gay service members.

Picnic activities during the 1990s included volleyball, drag races where folks would race in high heels and wigs, and local community awards. One year, picnic goers formed a huge human rainbow triangle on the face of Mt. Trashmore. For many years, a wine and cheese fundraiser preceded the picnic to help cover picnic costs.

How the Pride picnic evolved and grew into the annual PrideFest beyond 1990s is largely beyond the scope of this article as primary research comes from Our Own Community Press which shut down in 1998. I can tell you that the annual Pride Picnic moved to Chesapeake City Park for most of the 2000s. The PrideFest as we currently know it came to Town Point Park in Norfolk in 2011. It is currently the second largest event held in Norfolk with HarborFest being the largest.

To learn more about the history of Pride in Hampton Roads, visit Our Own Community Press Digital Collection: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

Images are from the Our Own Community Press Digital Collection, courtesy of ODU Libraries: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

What in the World is a Trinome?

by Maddie Dietrich, Music Special Collections and Research Specialist

F. Ludwig Diehn, composer, benefactor, and the man whose name is born by ODU’s Diehn School of Music, donated his personal collection of letters, scores and artifacts to ODU Special Collections and University Archives in the late 1990s. Among the items contained in the collection is a remarkable piece of apparatus known as the Billotti Trinome. It is a metronome, but it’s much more.

A simple metronome produces a click sound at regular intervals at a rate set by the user who can then self-monitor their own sense of pulse against that of the machine. The rate of speed the clicks occur is measured in beats per minute, so a metronome can be set to, say, 72 bpm, or 120 bpm, and so on. Nowadays metronomes, like clocks, are partially or fully electronic, often relying on quartz movement for establishing regularity, but older metronomes were mechanical and operated via a simple clockwork mechanism and, like mechanical clocks, were driven by a rewindable mainspring. Later metronomes would feature a small electric motor to drive the mechanism. A slightly more complex version of the mechanical metronome included a small internal bell which could be set to ring once every two, three or four clicks as desired, on the downbeat of each grouping of beats. The Billotti Trinome took this concept a step further by adding a second, independent click pitched slightly lower than the first. Combined with the bell sound the Trinome is capable of playing three separate beats simultaneously at one tempo, effectively producing what musicians call polyrhythms.

Patented by Paul Billotti in the early 1960s, a product review appearing in a 1963 issue of Music Educators Journal offers the following description. “THE BILLOTTI TRINOME, a new device billed as “the rhythm metronome,” produces beats with three different sounds—a bell, a tick, and a tock—each sound beating a different rate of speed and combining in various ways to form rhythmical patterns which can be varied by adjusting the rate of speed of each beat sound to the desired proportion relative to the speed rate of the other two beat sounds.” As a composer of 20^th century music Diehn undoubtedly found the device useful when conceiving of multiple complex melodies and rhythms played against one another.

A Stillness that Better Suits this Machine by Casey Cangelosi, 2003

Of course the advent of electronic and computer-based metronomes and drum machines rendered a device like the Billotti Trinome obsolete, though surviving specimens occasionally surface on sites like eBay and Reverb.com and when they do they command a hefty price tag. The machine even has a cult following, so much so that the company Grover Pro Percussion commissioned a work for solo percussion which calls for the Trinome along with a set of woodblocks, bell, and triangles. A performance of the work, entitled A Stillness that Better Suits this Machine by Casey Cangelosi (2013), can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY-b188mihM (above). The video offers a fine view of the Trinome’s internal workings. A more basic demonstration of the Trinome may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1XnnzCX5XA.

And the beat goes on.

COVID-19 and Beyond: How ODU Has Stepped Up to Meet Crises Throughout Its History

By Steven Bookman, University Archivist

WomenWorkingonPlane-1940s — Women students in the war-training program work on an airplane

As Virginia, the United States, and the World are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Old Dominion University is rising to meet the challenge. For the health and safety of its students, staff, and faculty, the University closed its facilities, moved all its courses online, and will hold a virtual Monarch Grad Week to celebrate students graduating in May 2020. The entire Monarch community has come together to help slow down the Coronavirus by making masks for their fellow Monarchs, providing meals for the community, and volunteering for the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps.

However, this isn’t the first time ODU has faced adversity in the face of a crisis. International wars, the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the H1N1 pandemic have cause the University to respond in a variety of ways.

World War II

WWIIAlumniMemorial — Sally Avery holding her nephew, George Shipp, Jr., points out her uncle Robert Turner whose name is on the Alumni War Memorial plaque.

Well before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Norfolk Division of William & Mary, as Old Dominion was known from 1930 to 1960, was already heavily involved in the war effort. An Aircraft Instruments Institute was established at the division in 1938 to train students to operate and repair aircraft instruments. The following year, a war training program was established on campus, allowing students to take courses related to aircraft mechanics and welding, radar, and topographical mapping, among others. At a time when colleges were losing enrollment with male students leaving to fight the war, the enrollment at the division remained steady and even grew during the war. Under the direction of Lewis W. Webb, Jr., the war training program offered free classes for women such as aircraft repair, drafting, and other war-related topics. Officers from Naval Station Norfolk, including several African American sailors, took classes at the division. By the end of World War II, approximately 5,000 people enrolled in the war training program, the largest on the East Coast.

September 11, 2001

The morning of September 11, 2001 began like any other Tuesday morning on campus. Students went to their classes as usual, but when highjacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania Field, word spread rapidly. The ODU community, as it always has, reacted quickly to help with those in need. Shuttle service was organized for students, faculty, and staff to give blood at the Norfolk Scope, the History Honor Society collected bottle water and socks to give to first responders in New York and Washington, D.C., and a room in Webb Center was reserved for Monarchs to pray, remember, and reflect. Three students and an alumnus lost their lives during the attacks: Army Lieutenant Colonel Karen Wagner, Army Specialist Craig Amundson, Navy Lieutenant Commander Robert Elseth, and alumnus Robert Schlegel, ’92.

September11Memorial-2002 — ODU students attend a 9/11 vigil

H1N1, 2009

In April 2009, the first human infected with H1N1, a flu-like virus similar to the current Coronavirus, was reported in the U.S. Unlike the Coronavirus, H1N1 mostly infected children and young adults. ODU Student Health Services was quick to send out recommendations by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to combat the virus. By July, Human Resources encouraged offices and departments to come up with plans for teleworking in preparation for an outbreak in the fall. A vaccine was developed in September and H1N1 flu clinics were held on campus beginning in November. By the time the CDC declared the pandemic over in August 2010, only a small number of Monarchs were infected.

April Flashback to 1988! When “Youth Out United” Formed

By Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Assistant

April 10, 1988 marks the founding and first official meeting of the Gay and Lesbian youth group, Youth Out United (Y.O.U.), at the Unitarian Church of Norfolk, Virginia. I had the privilege of belonging to this group when I was in college, so this blog post is not only historical, but personal.

Y.O.U. was a group for gay and lesbian teens and young adults up to the age of 25. The group was originally founded as simply the “Gay / Lesbian Youth Group” in April 1988. By summer, the group had an official name U.G.L.Y (United Gay and Lesbian Youth) and had moved to what was known as the Pritchard Building at the corner of Olney and Granby Street in Norfolk. I discovered the group in January or February 1989 – my second semester of college at ODU. Not long after I arrived, members decided to change the name of the group to Youth Out United and meetings moved back to the Unitarian Church where they would remain for several years.

The name change was brought on by a concern that “U.G.L.Y.” sent the wrong message to youth who may already have issues with their self-esteem for being gay. Moving to the Unitarian Church gave the group more legitimacy and visibility, especially since the office of Our Own Community Press was just next door to our meeting room. The youth group itself had no official connection to the Unitarian Church other than meeting there.

One of the things that always impressed me about the group, even to this day, was that this group was self-run by the youth themselves. When visiting other cities, LGBTQ youth groups were almost always run by institutions such as LGBTQ community centers. Here in Norfolk, the youth group was self-run and self-organized. A slogan for the group was “For YOU, by YOU.” It was the youth themselves who created the organization, came up with a constitution and by-laws, set up officers, and even created a board of advisors from the local LGBTQ community. In a lot of ways, we felt we were on our own to do this. Times were different than they are today, and many “adults” in the community were concerned about helping out youth – both due to stigma and possible legal issues. This was long before gay-straight alliances began appearing in high schools.

Meetings were on Sunday afternoons and often there was a topic of discussion. Sometimes we brought in guests to speak and other times we talked as a group about specific topics of interest. After the meetings, we usually had dinner at the College Cue Club, a gay club adjacent to the ODU campus. Y.O.U. was much more than the weekly meetings and dinners though. Members actually got involved in the local community and local activism. Some members took part in the March on Washington for gay rights. Some members went on a local talk show. To build community (and to raise funds), we had spaghetti dinner fundraisers at the Unitarian Church and we also had roller skating parties at a local skating rink. One of our members made the news by taking his boyfriend to his high school prom.

Those days were filled with mostly happy memories. Eventually, I passed the age of 25 and had to move on. Many of the people from the group I still count fondly as friends, even if I don’t see them as much anymore. As for the group, it eventually became an outreach program under the Tidewater AIDS Crisis Taskforce (TACT) in the late 1990s or early 2000s. TACT became Access AIDS Care which eventually birthed the LGBT Life Center of Hampton Roads. As of last year, the LGBTQ youth group still met at the LGBT Life Center as Y.O.U. As of this post, the group is listed on their website as YOUth Matter.

You can find out more about Youth Out United, the College Cue Club, Tidewater AIDS Crisis Taskforce, and many other topics listed in this post by browsing the Our Own Community Press digital collection at:

https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

ODU Special Collections and University archives also has related materials in the following collections:

Unitarian Universalist Church of Norfolk — http://www.lib.odu.edu/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=360
Charles H. Ford Papers — http://www.lib.odu.edu/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=57
ODU Gay and Lesbian Student Union — http://www.lib.odu.edu/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=184

Please note these other collections are not available digitally and are not available during the current COVID-19 shutdown, so please schedule a visit when we eventually reopen.

Making Our Collections More Accessible Online with ArchivesSpace

by Steven Bookman, University Archivist

Although I worked from home every Friday for a semester while working at William & Mary, it has been several years, and it was hard to get back into the rhythm. Working from home does have its advantages: you can be more productive, can work at your own pace, and it does force you to take breaks every now and then! Like those in the software field, I am finding telework to be a great advantage for doing database cleanup. This year, Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) will be migrating its Special Collections Database of finding aids into a new collection management system called ArchivesSpace. One of the tasks that I will be working on from home is cleaning up the current database to make sure it is ready to be migrated to ArchivesSpace.

ASpace-BlogScreenCap-2020-03-27 — Sneak Peek of ArchivesSpace Interface

I spent most of this week getting re-acclimated into the telework mindset: scheduling my day, setting up my home office, and viewing a LinkedIn Learning course on telework. Before having our own test instance of ArchivesSpace up, I wanted to see what our current finding aids might look like in the new system. The hosted test instance of ArchivesSpace provides a place for institutions to upload versions of their finding aids, accessions, and digital objects for testing. In this way, if anything goes wrong, it will not affect their current, live instance. Admittedly, after spending over 12 years working with Archon, the new interface requires some time getting used to.

After creating a sample repository for SCUA, I uploaded two finding aids (manuscript and university archives) to the system. The new interface takes advantage of a lot of graphics and icons (collections, accessions, creators, digital collections, etc..), so I wanted to see if I could put at least one item in each icon. Unlike our current system, Archon, users can search both across all the repositories in the collection as well as narrow down your search to just one repository. This gives the researcher the flexibility of getting a lot of relevant hits as well as focusing their search to just one institution. After adding in record groups, accessions, and digital materials, SCUA staff can see what the current finding aids will look like in the new system. Although it may look a bit daunting to get used to at first, I believe the new collection management system will be an improvement over the current one.

Stay tuned for future updates about the status of SCUA’s Special Collections Database migration.