1 10 4 https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/files/original/36370d8e6f2b2daa539a611190222950.jpg f09428fc40a9e7ab424d7e04587ff4ff Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alexander: Pride Collection Description An account of the resource Documents contribute by Nathan Alexander featuring events and issues related to Pride Celebrations in Urbana-Champaign Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Pride Fest Special Event Permit Description An account of the resource A permit for the CU Pride Festival and parade in downtown Champaign. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource City of Champaign Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-09-14 2018-09-15 Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Gay pride celebrations LGBTQ events Licenses Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nathan Alexander History Harvest 2019 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Champaign, Illinois CU Pride Fest pride Uniting Pride UP center https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/files/original/26c9257d1e14ae7603613365e374e82c.wav 038bb517569d534fbbb33189c2b0af8c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource History Harvest 2019-2020 Oral Histories Description An account of the resource Oral histories gathered at and after the 2019 History Harvest event. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-10-26 2020-11-20 Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Ross Brown Makayla Dorsey Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Nathan Alexander Location The location of the interview MTD City View, Champaign, Illinois Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound ROSS D. BROWN: What item did you bring in today? NATHAN ALEXANDER: Today, I brought in aspects from my drag career, local and in-town and my volunteer work with the UP Center of Champaign County, including certificates, special event permits, a few event flyers and booklets, as well as some Southern Illinois Pride Fest materials from Carbondale. ROSS: How long have you done drag events? NATHAN: I’ve performed in drag events since 2011, but mostly on the west coast. I moved here in 2017, and the drag community was one of the first communities that I engaged in here, particularly at (Chester Street Bar) where we did talent nights for newer drag queens, and then we also did fundraisers for organizations like the Greater Community AIDS Project. Once C-Street closed, the drag scene tended to move toward 51 Main. Currently, the drag scene doesn’t have a very regular venue and they’ve rebranded themselves “C-U Fabulous Entertainment” to find performance venues that can be cohesively branded. ROSS: How many events do they have right now and what venues have they been at? NATHAN: The drag shows are very sporadic at this point. It’s not very consistent. I did several of the drag shows for this past Pride where we worked with Seven Saints. We used their outdoor patio to do a drag show, and it started raining at the very last moment, but luckily it was the last number and the drag queen enjoyed being wet, so it worked out well. Aside from that, we also do Drag Brunch as part of Pride at CityView at the MTD terminal, and that went well as well. Aside from that, there have been drag shows at Neil Street Blues, 51 Main still does some at their new location. There have been shows at Blackbird in Urbana, at The Red Herring on campus. Hillel on campus does a perim show every year as a benefit to the UP Center, generally. I wasinvolved in the first one but not the second. Hillel had hired a new rabbi named Ari, who was trying to increase LGBTQ visibility and acceptance and programming among Jewish students. My involvement in the first one was pretty much: 1) I identified the performers and the DJ and kind of developed the concept of doing drag as storytelling where each section of the story would have a drag counterpart to exhibit that general feeling. This was back when 51 (Main) was still doing drag shows and doing open talentnights. It was kind of an opportunity for a lot of the queens who were still doing open talent nights without regular bookings to kind of participate in drag, and then DJ Silky was the one who did sound. The local drag events tend to be rather house-based, or smaller events, like the Red Herring had three to four drag performers for it. ROSS: Can you talk a little bit about your involvement in the UP Center here in Champaign and kind of your involvement in it, and what they’re working on right now? NATHAN: I started volunteering for the UP Center in the fall of 2017 after Pride. I had performed in the Friday night drag show for that and became friends with the now-president William Blanchard. My involvement was that I primarily worked off of grants and did bookkeeping. That was one of the deficits they were facing at the time. The UP Center got down to two board members at one time. My involvement was kind of the rebuilding of the board and the internal structure. I recently resigned from the UP Center. We got a 90 percent raise in grants from the Champaign County Mental Health Board. We’ve brought continuing credits in education for professionals in treating (transgender) and gender non-conforming clients in mental health, and I’m still involved in that for medical treatment. We did a homeless youth drive and visited Project Oz in Bloomington-Normal to kind of identify the needs that street youth would have. We do weekly youth groups for ages 13-18, kind of high school-aged. If they don’t have resources or support networks, we try to foster and build those. One of the things with the UP Center is we work as a community center for the LGBTQ people in town, and so there’s a little bit of everything that we do. We also do Pride. I guess one of the ways I was specifically involved was I worked at improving record-keeping and I also was able to get back in contact with the founder of the UP Center and get a lot of institutional knowledge on how it was founded. A lot of documents that were necessary for us to continue. I redid our insurance policies. MAKAYLA DORSEY: Have changes in funding or changes in venues for the drag community--has that affected the cohesiveness of the drag community or larger community in Champaign-Urbana? NATHAN: I think one of the things that the UP Center has kind of struggled with is involvement. As more businesses, more bars, more areas become more accepting, there's less pressure to be a unified force. With the drag community, in particular, there’s kind of a lack of resources because there’s not one venue that’s consistent and there’s not a venue that’s worked with drag performers before. It’s sometimes a unique dynamic because you need changing rooms, sound systems...drag can be expensive. If you’re making your own outfits, doing your own makeup, doing your own hair and buying your own shoes, it’s not breaking even. It’s turned into how are we going to promote each other’s events and make sure we are telling all of our social networks that these events are happening to make sure these events stay alive within the community Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:06:58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nathan Alexander Oral History Description An account of the resource Nathan Alexander describes the drag community in Urbana-Champaign, the Southern Illinois Pride Parade, and Uniting Pride (formerly UP Center). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nathan Alexander Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-10-26 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Avi Miller Ross Brown Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived History Harvest 2019 Nathan Alexander Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Champaign, Illinois Urbana, Illinois Subject The topic of the resource Drag Drag Community Drag Queens Drag Bars Community Centers (LGBTQ) Mental Health Care for LGBTQ People LGBTQ Homeless Youth C Street Drag Drag Community LGBTQ+ pride Uniting Pride UP center https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/files/original/fc5019b29d3fd0c06314817e201918a1.jpg b9e260c996cea5aff60b5d9d1deb9bc9 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Flyer Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Queering Faith Flyer Description An account of the resource Flyer for Queering Faith, an event about LGBTQ+ identity and religion at the United Church of Christ. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nathan Alexander History Harvest 2019 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-02-24 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Maiella Carroll Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .jpg Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Urbana, Illinois Champaign, Illinois Illini Hillel LGBTQ+ religion United Church of Christ Uniting Pride University YMCA UP center https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/files/original/ecd87f1432d2e230c21f8bc9f2e94a06.jpg 9b7b4e6ecf6f02c3f536638c92b92250 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alexander: UP Center Collection Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nathan Alexander Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Cotton T-shirt Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hand-made UP Center T-shirt Description An account of the resource A hand made t-shirt featuring the UP Center (now Uniting Pride) logo. This t-shirt was created to wear while doing promotions for Uniting Pride services during drag shows at 51 Main, a local bar that began hosting drag shows after C-Street closed. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Anna Rataj Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Subject The topic of the resource Community centers (LGBTQ) Drag Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nathan Alexander History Harvest 2019 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .jpg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Champaign, Illinois Urbana, Illinois 51 Main outreach Uniting Pride UP center