“The 1987 Project” is an effort to honor and reflect upon the collective memory of southern queer communities during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

The series features re-worked images created from enlarged Kodak archival pigment prints of a Halloween house party in Atlanta, Georgia. The photographs, taken by my mother in October 1987, include stills of a group of friends that frequented The Pharr Library - a literary discotheque that evolved into a beloved gay bar in the late 80’s. There are memories of my childhood hands flipping through this collection of images - sparking curiosity, interest, and unintentionally forming space in my family’s history where bias and stigma do not exist in relation to queer and trans lifestyles. Growing up in the Bible Belt of the South, the notion of traditional family values often covered daily life like an invisible type of kudzu.

A cultural time capsule - the images capture an evening of love, community, and self-expression during a period of history marked by collective fear and judgement. As quoted by author and activist Dan Savage during the height of the AIDS epidemic, “We buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced at night”.