OUR CGI COMMITMENT TO ACTION
The Past Is Always Present: Illuminating LGBTQ History is a multi-year project to create and share stories that have been overlooked or erased from the historical record, reaching 2,000,000+ lives directly and exponentially more indirectly!
Funding from the Library of Congress Launched Our Commitment to Action (press release)
In collaboration with Houses on the Moon Theater Company, we are using digital primary sources from the Library of Congress and state and local archives to create an original play dramatizing the hidden histories of LGBTQ Americans for high school stage productions. Complementing educational products include fully produced videos that bring primary sources to life and case studies for various learning contexts. Our Commitment to Action was highlighted on the Leaders Stage at CGI's Annual Meeting in September 2024.
MEET THE TEAM!
Jeffrey Solomon
Playwright
Emily Joy Weiner
Artistic Director
Robb Leigh Davis
Artist & Educator
Kathleen Barker
Program Director
Jocardo Ralston
Content Developer
Mor Erlich
Video & Animation
Tyler Albertario
Archival Researcher
J. Eric Fisher
Content Developer
Jayson Caluag
Graphic Designer
Dinah Mack
Creative Advisor
Janaya Little
Creative Advisor
Danny Roberts
Project Manager
BACKGROUND
New and emerging efforts are underway to digitize LGBTQ primary sources alongside both the growing number of states mandating the teaching of LGBTQ-inclusive history and the exponentially greater number of states enacting laws and policies restricting LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. This Commitment to Action, in collaboration with Houses on the Moon Theater Company, will reach communities that currently cannot partner with us, elevate state and local LGBTQ history, and connect those stories to a broader and more accurate reflection of America.
Dozens of committed distribution partners (listed below) will be sharing "The Past Is Always Present" with educators and constituencies in their networks nationwide, and in turn, those recipients will then share "The Past Is Always Present" within their educational contexts — directly serving nearly 2,000,000 lives and exponentially more lives indirectly!
Each year, as "The Past Is Always Present" educational products are developed into new editions to expand the representation of state and local archives, our ongoing efforts to secure more distribution supporters will grow the number of lives directly and indirectly served.
Additional funding is needed to expand our Commitment to Action and create additional editions of the script, videos, and instructional resources that reflect a greater variety of state and local LGBTQ history.
We hope YOU will join our Commitment to Action and help us build a movement!
COMMITTED DISTRIBUTION PARTNERS
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Library of Congress
National Council for the Social Studies
New-York Historical Society
Out Youth Texas
Colorado LGBTQ History Project
Invisible Histories Project
International Schools
Scholarly Editing
Equality Pennsylvania
Maryland Center for History and Culture
Teach Plus
University of Texas Austin
American University
Waynesburg University
University of Massachusetts
Fordham University
Sonoma State University
Central Connecticut State University
Middlesex Community College
University of Michigan
Augusta University
University of Southern Maine
University of California Los Angeles
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Astrea Foundation
Alliance for a Healthier Generation
Highline Heritage Museum
Stonewall Columbus
Kaleidoscope Youth Center Ohio
OutWords
Queer Humboldt
Tranz Central Coast
Humboldt Pride
New York Public Library
SERENDIPITY
Our video content creator, Mor Erlich, discovered the following primary source when creating the intro video for our case study about James Baldwin, shortly before our Commitment to Action was spotlighted on the Leader's Stage at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.
James Baldwin's handwritten notes on Sheraton Tacoma Hotel notepad [circa 1963]
Malcolm X's Question... to Be a Citizen of The nation? The world? The race?
A. to confront Religion / Race / Power
B. The question of Identity
C. Involving History
D. Identity of History being synonymous: being the Present
E. Attempting to make the Past / History