Introduction
In 2011, Beryl Satter, Darnell Moore, and Christina Strasburger founded the Queer Newark Oral History Project to document the histories of queer communities in Newark, New Jersey. As the title of Queer Newark’s introduction emphasizes, these histories previously were hidden in plain sight. The book helps to unearth a dozen untold stories of queer history, culture, and life, drawing on the project’s oral histories along with a wealth of other sources, ranging from a policeman’s logbook to observational fieldwork. This exhibit highlights those sources to show that a queer history of Newark has always been there, waiting to be discovered.
The book also includes several oral history excerpts to ground the book in community voices. These excerpts, from interviews with John, Yvonne Hernandez, June Dowell-Burton, and Alicia Heath-Toby, are available on the Queer Newark website, along with all other interviews conducted by the project and other resources, including a podcast, archival collections, and a bibliography of Queer Newark research. Additionally, an overview of Newark’s queer history, which introduces many of the topics covered in depth in the book, can be found in the 2014 OutHistory exhibit Queer Newark, 1885-present, by Timothy Stewart-Winter and Whitney Strub.