This image from the Bj Bud Memorial Archives has been selected to start our visual theme series titled “Moments of Joy” for the Community-Driven Archives (CDA) blog. Titled “Costume Dance Party” taken at a Sons of Apollo (SOA) Motorcycle Club gathering of their members event on June 4, 1986. SOA was composed of a group of men that were motorcycle enthusiasts from both Phoenix and Tucson. They believed in promoting motorcycling and brotherhood among other motorcyclists and their membership. (You can read more about SOA from a 1980 newsletter for their membership here.) The reason this image caught my attention was the pure joy on the faces of these people, plus if you look to the left of the image you can clearly see the person in the white- and black-striped costume is either very tall or that room was extremely small! And as you can tell from the photo, whatever the scenario was they MADE.IT.WORK!
I also appreciate that a safe space was provided for something like this to happen in 1986. In Arizona and around the country, most safe spaces at this time for LBGTQ+ people were gay bars and clubs, which is where this SOA event took place. For me, this image represents so many things, including joy, inclusion and kinship, and to have the ability to have a snapshot of a moment of safety for this group brings me to why this project the CDA team is working on is of critical importance.
This series will be a collaborative effort between the entire team here at CDA as we bring to light images that not only speak to the importance of diverse community stories but also images that we absolutely enjoy and want to share. I am delighted to kick off this series with what brought me a moment of joy or, as we like to call it in the office, #archivesglow. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we do and take the time to share a story with others in your life.
Contact me, Jessica Salow, with feedback at Jessica.Salow@asu.edu, as I would love to hear from you your thoughts regarding the work we here at ASU are doing in community archiving around Arizona. We also want your feedback on what you would like to see from us in future blog posts. See you next week!