On May 1st, 2024 BMC donated its nearly 50-year archive to the Tretter Collection for GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota Libraries. With our archive now in the care of queer and trans community-driven archivists, we shared this announcement with our BMC community on June 28th (Stonewall Day!) and celebrated with two special events on July 24!
“Behind the Scenes at the Archives" offers an inside-look at the Tretter Collection, in a webinar hosted by LGBTQ Religious Archives Network archivist Doris Malkmus and Tretter curator Aiden Bettine. BMC's archives are featured! View the recording here.
Immediately following the webinar, we gathered with our BMC community for a virtual talk-back entitled “Queering Our Anabaptist Archive" (recording above). BMC Executive Director Annabeth Roeschley and Board Chair Xaris A. Martínez shared details and photos from abut BMC's archival process, talked with Aiden Bettine about exciting ways to engage our living archive, and discussed how queer and trans archival work is a crucial part of activism today.
Queer archival work is liberatory work. It is about reclamation, power-building, and connection with ancestors past & future. We're honored to be on this journey.
