EP23 – Art Smith – GayBarchives
This week on the Gay P H X Podcast, Bily Foster sits down with Art Smith, founder of GayBarchives, a worldwide project dedicated to preserving the stories, photos, memorabilia, and history of LGBTQ+ bars before they’re lost forever.
From hidden speakeasies and community gathering places to fundraising hubs, activist headquarters, and chosen-family living rooms, gay bars have played a critical role in shaping queer life for generations. Art shares how GayBarchives grew from a passion project into a global community with tens of thousands of members helping preserve the spaces that helped build our community.
We talk about:
- Why preserving LGBTQ+ history matters
- How gay bars helped build modern queer communities
- The role bars played during the AIDS crisis
- Phoenix’s surprising LGBTQ+ history
- What younger generations can learn from queer spaces of the past
- Why today’s stories are tomorrow’s history
Plus:
🚂 We remind you about the community screening of Stop! That! Train! hosted by Barbra Seville at Harkins Christown on June 16th.
☀️ We kick off our new Summer of Solutions collaboration with Lookout News, bringing more conversations focused on local solutions, community action, and the people working to make Arizona better.
Because preserving our history isn’t about living in the past—it’s about making sure future generations know how we got here.