The night has always been a time for those outside the mainstream to communicate themselves more freely. After all, it was by the cover of night that provided many queers the opportunity to mingle, explore their sexuality and reveal their truest selves.

This will be the first archival exhibition to be installed in The ArQuives’s new home, and it focuses on the moments of tension between what has been defined as obscene and the right to offend or the right to free speech. 

The National Portrait Collection (NPC) is a central part of our archival holdings at the Canadian Lesbian + Gay Archives (The ArQuives).