Queer Newark: Stories of Resistance, Love, and Community

In Newark, a city just a few miles from New York, the queer histories of working-class people of color have been neglected, but Queer Newark charts a history of joy, resistance, love, and desire despite violence, poverty, and homophobia. The collection of rare archives offers fresh perspectives on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, community relations with police, Latinx immigration, and gentrification, and rewrites the history of LGBTQ life in America.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 16 February 2024
Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Histories of gay and lesbian urban life often concentrate on prominent metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York, which are appealing destinations for LGBTQ migrants from all over the country. However, there are numerous other queer communities in economically struggling cities with majority Black and Hispanic populations that receive far less attention. Despite being just a few miles from New York, Newark is one of these cities, and its queer histories have been overlooked until now.

Queer Newark charts a history in which working-class people of color are the central actors, and in which violence, poverty, and homophobia could never suppress joy, resistance, love, and desire. Drawing from rare archives that range from oral histories to vice squad reports, the collection's authors uncover the sites and people of Newark's queer past in bars, discos, ballrooms, and churches. Exploring the intersections of class, race, gender, and sexuality, they offer fresh perspectives on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, community relations with police, Latinx immigration, and gentrification, while considering how to best tell the rich and complex stories of queer urban life.

Queer Newark reveals a new side of New Jersey's largest city while rewriting the history of LGBTQ life in America.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 235 x 156 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781978829213