Gerber Hart Library and Archives

Join Ge**er/Hart’s Play Reading Club this Saturday, June 13th, from 1 PM - 3 PM for a read-along to The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel.

We’ll divvy up the roles, read aloud, and have a short discussion after. A few copies of the script will be available for use, but please bring a phone, laptop, or other device to read the online .pdf if you can! The elevator is located at the end of the hallway (past the Howard Brown front desk), and the Community Room is just outside the elevator doors through the hallway on your right. Hope to see you there!

When: Saturday, June 13th, from 1 PM - 3 PM
Where: Ge**er/Hart’s Community Room
6500 N Clark Street, 2nd floor

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: After Anna is diagnosed with the fatal disease, ATD or Acquired Toilet Disease, she departs on a vacation overseas with her brother Carl and his stuffed rabbit. They are quickly drawn into an absurd Third Man-esque caper across Europe in search of a cure, pleasure, and acceptance. Written by renowned q***r playwright Paula Vogel after her brother Carl died from complications of AIDS, this play is about the worlds we invent to outrun grief.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: death, illness, medical issues in explicit detail, and heterosexual sexuality. ***rcinema ***rchicago

Today, June 4th is – the national day of giving for LGBTQ+ nonprofits.

Ge**er/Hart IS a nonprofit organization, and your support is needed more than ever to keep us an independent, safe, and welcoming resource for the LGBTQ+ communities in Chicago and the Midwest. Now through June 30, total donations of up to $5,000 will be matched by one of our long-time supporters.

Please give your tax-deductible gift on June 4th -- or anytime in June! -- at gerberhart.org/donatenow (link in the comments!) YOU can help us raise $20,000 for PRIDE!

Every Thursday in June, we’ll spotlight one of the amazing resources at Ge**er/Hart that your donations support. Pictured is the mouth from Carol's Speakeasy in one of our temperature-controlled archive rooms. Mother Carol (born Richard Farnham) managed Mother Carol’s Speakeasy when it opened in 1978. Carol, “the mother of all drag queens,” first performed in Chicago in drag at the closing night of Ruthie’s bar. She took over a straight bar at 2519 N Halsted Street in 1972, renaming it Coming Out Pub and eventually renaming it to Carol’s Pub and becoming Mother Carol. Carol’s Speakeasy opened in 1978, and Farnham managed it as Mother Carol until his death in 1979. For nearly a decade, Carol’s Speakeasy was one of the most popular gay bars in the city, staying open until 1992. Ge**er Hart acquired the large tongue that hung inside the bar.

Three days away!

Stock your shelves at the Ge**er/Hart Book sale! Saturday, June 6th, from 10 AM - 3:30 PM we will have a wide selection of erotica, rare books, periodicals, VHS tapes, mystery books, book bundles, awesome comics, DVDs, and magazines, all individually priced!

Our pals from Poems While You Wait will be tabling again from 11 - 2 PM, drafting bespoke poems while folks wait in line to get in. Invite your bookish friends (or enemies!) to the sale and find some reads for your summer explorations! We’ll see you on June 6th! ***rbooks ***rarchives ***rchicago