What is Queer History For? SPQP Lecture

Members of various minorities share a common heritage of major historical events, yet their collective identity is shaped by personalities and events that never made it into history textbooks. Awareness of community history matters because it shows that non-heterosexual people have always been here, and sites of community memory remind us they were everywhere. Efforts to ignore, suppress, or even erase their experiences, however, are also part of this history.

The lecture will present several stories from the past of gay men, lesbians, and transgender figures and how these stories became woven into Prague's topography. We'll discuss Jiří Karásk ze Lvovic, Jan Zrzavý, Toyen, drag performer Otto Tasinato, athlete Zdeněk Koubek, and painter Toni Ebel, as well as isolated monuments and meeting places.

Admission is free. The event takes place as part of Open Meetings for Queer People 30+.

Speaker: PhDr. Ladislav Jackson, Ph.D. – art and architecture historian, chair of the board of the Society for Queer Memory. He works as a research assistant at the Faculty of Fine Arts at VUT Brno. He specializes in queer art and spatiality; in 2024 he published the edited volume Images of Other Desire: Queer Art and Visuality in the Czech Lands. He contributed to the books Homosexuality in the History of Czech Culture and Warm Prague, and is the author of numerous exhibitions and publications devoted to queer history, including the series Queer Heritage Walk – guided walks through Prague's queer history.