Queer Switchboard

selections from Light Impressions (2025)
full set [here]

Queer Switchboard is a hub for work co-created with—and centering the lived experiences of—currently and formerly incarcerated queer, trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people. Collaborating with a community group of LGBTQIA2S+ people incarcerated in Washington State, incarcerated participants shape and direct our work through creative workshops and oral history-based storytelling sessions. Recognizing and building upon the critical insights and theoretical frameworks developed by queer and trans scholars, activists, and creatives impacted by the justice system, we rely on incarcerated queer and trans people's experiential knowledge as a vital form of knowing that builds upon and extends academic and creative work on carceral systems, gender self-determination, and mutual aid networks. Drawing on the legacy of telephone switchboards in trans/queer activism and mutual aid, our interactions with justice impacted people intend to create, develop, and sustain networks of understanding and support while reaching audiences and viewers unfamiliar with these experiences.