SAY IT LOUD!

Queer Poets Respond to History

A history exhibition gave birth to new art.

Inside the galleries of Badge Of Pride: From Silence…To Celebration!, fourteen queer poets stood among the artifacts of our past—and created something entirely new.

What emerged were poems of protest, tenderness, and truth. The past became present, alive in every line.

Watch and listen. This is how history moves forward.

THE PROJECT

Say It Loud! was a landmark live performance that brought fourteen queer poets from across North Texas into direct conversation with LGBTQ+ history. Each poet immersed themselves in artifacts from Badge Of Pride: From Silence…To Celebration!, our exhibition showcasing generations of queer resistance and expression.

The result was an afternoon of fierce, moving, and deeply personal performances—new works born from the echoes of artifacts that were witness to history and that have long shaped our community’s story.

The performance became something larger—a live conversation with the past, a collective act of creative resistance. Queer history came off the walls and into the room, alive in the words and voices of those who carry it forward.

A limited-edition printed anthology zine, Say It Loud! — An Anthology of Queer Poetics, Protest, and Power, was created to accompany the performance. You can explore the digital version here.

The project will soon expand into a radio broadcast documentary, bringing these voices—and the histories that inspired them—to listeners everywhere.

Say It Loud! was developed in partnership with The Writer’s Garret, Dallas’s longest-running literary nonprofit, and hosted by the Irving Archives & Museum, home of Badge Of Pride: From Silence…To Celebration!.