Queer Archives of T&T
The Queer Archives of Trinidad and Tobago provides an exciting glimpse of Trinidad and Tobago’s queer history from the 1960s to the present.
These archives currently include two significant collections:
- The Cyrus Sylvester Digital Collection
The original collection includes a mixture of approximately 5,000 photographs, videos, posters, magazines, and other media collected from the 1980s to the present by queer elder and leader Cyrus Sylvester, who has provided safe space for generations of LGBTQI+ people in Trinidad and Tobago. The majority of the archive is private and restricted with a selected group of 200 items available for public engagement. The public items will be featured and available through the Caribbean IRN digital archives hosted on the Digital Library of the Caribbean (DLoC).
- Timeline of LGBTQI+ T&T History (Westory)
This is an interactive timeline of significant events and moments in Trinidad & Tobago from the 1960s to the present, which has been curated by the project team with contributions from many LGBTQI+ elders, leaders, and community members from Trinidad and Tobago and around the world.
These archives are blossoming into a dynamic repository that celebrates the complexity of queer experiences in T&T.
Project Team:
- Nikoli A. Attai, Ph.D. – Project Lead, Cyrus Sylvester Digital Archive
Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University - Angelique V. Nixon, Ph.D. – Research Coordinator, Queer Archives of T&T
CAISO Director | Senior Lecturer, Institute for Gender and Development Studies, UWI - Alessandra Hereman – Research Assistant, Cyrus Sylvester Digital Archive
CAISO Director | MPhil Candidate, Institute for Gender and Development Studies, UWI - Catherine Shepherd, Archivist Consultant, Queer Archives of T&T
CAISO Director - Keith E. McNeal, Ph.D. – Lead Curator, Timeline of LGBTQI T&T History
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Houston
Funders:
- Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective
- Caribbean Institute in Gender and Development, UWI Cavehill
- Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
Project Partner
Caribbean IRN (International Resource Network) connects academic and community-based researchers, artists, and activists around the Caribbean and its diasporic communities in areas related to diverse sexualities and genders.
Caribbean IRN and Caribbean Sexualities Portal
Caribbean Sexualities Portal is a resource and project archive developed through “A Sexual Culture of Justice Project” – a human rights, activity-based project in Trinidad and Tobago working to end GBV and LGBTI discrimination. The portal features the Project outputs and builds upon Caribbean IRN resources and archives, all focused on sharing knowledge of diverse genders & sexualities in the Caribbean.