Welcome to The Queerest Year, an experiment we’re embarking on over the course of 2023, in which we purposefully intake ONLY queer art, media, and voices to see how it changes us and alters how we relate to and understand the world.
We will be curating what we consume, only* intaking cultural products created, made, produced, directed, written, concepted, executed, acted, sung, and otherwise generated by any and all LGBTQ+ people. *there are some provisos noted below
THE ART, MEDIA & VOICES
The following includes the list of what we will be filtering for queer makers:
— Art*, including fine and craft arts
*museum and gallery attendance only for exhibits or shows of queer artists or by queer curators
— Books*, literature, essays, stories, comics, etc.
*exception for nonfiction essential for professional/money-making endeavor, although all attempts will be made to find and use queer sources
— Articles*, magazines, journals, and zines
*exception for research essential for professional/money-making endeavors or healthcare, although all attempts will be made to find and use queer sources
— Film, movies, shorts (must have main queer storyline/theme or character[s] and/or a major contributor behind or in front of the camera, such as producer, director, writer, actor)
— Shows, including streaming, TV, web content (including YT, IG*, etc.)
*cute animal videos are always allowed and encouraged because we all know animals are so queer
— Plays, musicals, comedy & all live performance, including dance (not that we are going to a Broadway show anytime soon, sadly, but still)
— Music*, including live concerts
*if a band, at least one member must be queer; songs can be listened to if written by a queer songwriter but sung by a cishet person
— Social media, all accounts followed, including family, friends, and “influencers,” will be queer in authorship or regular queer contributors or content.
— News* and blogs
*we will allow ourselves to scan headlines in mainstream publications, such as NYT, but only read articles or watch segments by queer journalists. We anticipate this will be the most work to find queer sources. Sources for basic research are excluded for basic fact and info gathering, including weather, historical details, or media databases.
— Podcasts
— Cookbooks and recipes*
*we may use recipes that we have cooked or baked ourselves that may have originated from a non-queer person, but that we have adapted and written into our personal recipe book, thus making it queer
