This program showcases the collaborative research between the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP). The program will feature student presentations of their speculative methods for reclaiming former gay bars in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee, in conversation with Michail Takach, the Board Chair of the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, and Adam Thibodeaux, Community Advisor for the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project and Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at UWM SARUP.

Queer freedom has always been spatial—inscribed in the corners of bars, back rooms, stoops, and sidewalks. The work of the collaboration between SARUP and the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project centers the architectural memory of queer gathering spaces that have been erased from the urban landscape. By resurrecting these spaces through methods that learn from the existing spatial practices of the populations they once housed, the projects frame reclamation as both an act of design and resistance. Reclaiming freedom, in this context, means reclaiming our right to be remembered, and to define our spaces on our own terms—even after the spaces themselves are gone.

This program is organized by Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Planning as part of Circa: Queer Histories Festival 2025, presented by One Institute.