In April, our community spotlight focused on The Carter/Johnson Library & Collection, a collective history of various communities who have chosen to live and love differently. The Library is chartered to bring this history to the communities that it serves. Its mission is to create an interactive relationship with the stories from the past and the present, linking them to future generations.  The Library’s origins are in Oklahoma, where Mama Vi Johnson and Jill Carter began keeping things people usually throw away – magazines, programs, books, photos – adding to those already accumulated from their own journey.  They found people asking to see them and realized these things were the resources for the next generation to learn about their history.

2 buildings and 2 moves later, The Library’s collection fills 2 buildings in Evansville, Indiana, in addition to 7 annexes in 6 US cities and 2 countries.  Fundraisers, swag, and being the beneficiary of various events through the years have made it possible for The Library to provide scholarships for visiting scholars.

The Library’s collection includes thousands of leather, fetish, S/M, kink and alternate sexuality books, magazines, posters, art, newspapers, ephemera and memorabilia dating back to the 1700’s. It is designed to put people in touch with their history by allowing them to hold it, read it, smell it and know it.

Tentative – 8/14/21 – “Voices Seldom Heard” Virtual Conference by CJLC