Bringing together a community of archivists, artists, and filmmakers, “Let’s piece our knowing together” is a panel discussion that explores queer archives and what it means for unauthorized and DIY behavior to intersect with, or be excluded by, various institutional or historical accounts. The panel is organized on the occasion of Wynne Greenwood: “Kelly,” an exhibition and a six-month residency in which Greenwood will premiere the complete, recently re-performed and newly mastered archive of Tracy + the Plastics’ performances. Greenwood’s work itself questions what constitutes an archive and how performance-based video might be treated within this framework. The panel will examine the role of archives—within alternative and mainstream culture—in order to posit new ways of considering them not only as historical repositories, but also as spaces for reconceiving or revising existing narratives.

Panelists will include Lisa Darms, Senior Archivist at the Fales Library & Special Collections at NYU, Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel, writers and directors of Happy Birthday, Marsha!, a film about transgender artist and activist Marsha P. Johnson, and Wynne Greenwood, moderated by exhibition curators Johanna Burton and Stephanie Snyder.