International Visitors Programme
In October 2023, writer and activist Sarah Schulman was invited to the Netherlands to contribute to the Strategies for Tactical Archives conference at the Nieuwe Instituut. At the start of her visit, Schulman was given a tour of the WORM Pirate Bay archive by programmer James Parnell. As part of the International Visitors programme, she also visited the IHLIA LGBTI Heritage office in Amsterdam and met with Danny Halim and Wilfred van Buuren (Head of Collections).
At IHLIA, Schulman was given an extensive tour of their exhibition at the OBA Oosterdok and their collection, which consists of material relating to LGBTI emancipation and development, mainly in Central, Eastern and South-East Europe. Schulman also had the opportunity to visit the Feminist Design Strategies project on display at the Nieuwe Instituut and meet with some of the designers and contributors to the space.
In her keynote address, Sarah Schulman shared insights into her work on LGBTQI+ rights and AIDS advocacy. She discussed the context in which ACTUP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed in the late 1980s, and how the group successfully campaigned against the silencing of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Her visit concluded with a dinner organised in collaboration with the Rotterdam-based artists’ cooking collective Eathouse at Buitenplaats Brienenoord. Bringing together speakers from the Strategies for Tactical Archives conference and Netherlands-based queer activists who are engaged with archiving practices, the closing dinner stimulated many inspiring exchanges and conversations.
Sarah Schulman is an American writer and activist known for her influential contributions to LGBTQ+ rights and AIDS advocacy. With a prolific literary career spanning multiple genres, she tackles social justice issues and shines a light on the challenges faced by marginalised communities. Her book Let the Record Show provides an invaluable historical perspective on the influential work of ACT UP and highlights the importance of collective activism in times of crisis. Sarah Schulman is the author of more than 20 works of fiction, non-fiction and theatre, and the producer and screenwriter of several feature films. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, and many other publications.