This October, Our Story opened at Emerge Gallery as a regional exhibition featuring 24 oral history interviews collected over the past year and a half. The exhibition centers LGBTQ voices from Eastern North Carolina and aims to expand how regional histories are documented, shared, and experienced.
Our Story project began as an oral history project rooted in community engagement. Through an open call, LGBTQ people across the region were invited to share their stories through recorded interviews. See also: Gathering LGBTQ Oral Histories of Eastern North Carolina: An Open Call to Share Stories and Shape History
The exhibition reflects a wide range of experiences, from coming out and navigating family dynamics to building chosen families and creating safe spaces. It surfaces regional LGBTQ histories shaped by rural life, faith, race, and identity, and reflects on moments of both struggle and celebration. Spanning the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the present day, the stories speak to resilience, care, and the ongoing pursuit of visibility, inclusion, and justice. Together, they reveal a layered and evolving regional history told through personal memory and lived experience.
Exhibition Opening
The exhibition opened on Friday, October 3, at Emerge Gallery with a strong community turnout. Friends, family members, participants, students, and local residents gathered to experience the work, reconnect, and spend time listening together.
The opening reflected the spirit of the project, rooted in community, conversation, and shared presence, and underscored the importance of creating spaces where LGBTQ stories in Eastern North Carolina can be seen, heard, and valued. Coverage of the opening was provided by Beyonca Mewborn for the Daily Reflector.
Images of the Opening Reception of Our Story, Friday, October 3 at Emerge Gallery, Greenville, NC.
Visualizing Stories
The exhibition component of Our Story explores how oral histories can be visualized through interactive and spatial design. Rather than summarizing or abstracting participant stories, the exhibition works directly with raw narrative material, including full video interviews and selected excerpts. This approach keeps participant voices central and allows visitors to engage with stories at their own pace.
Visitors move through the exhibition non-linearly, encountering narratives that resonate with their own experiences, questions, or curiosities. By creating space for many voices to coexist, the exhibition resists a single narrative and instead reflects the diversity and complexity of LGBTQ life in Eastern North Carolina.
A Living Archive
Our Story is not a finished product, but a living and evolving archive. The exhibition represents one moment in an ongoing process of listening, sharing, and preservation. All interviews are intended for inclusion in the ECU Joyner Library Special Collections Digital Archive, ensuring long-term access and care.
Future iterations of Our Story may take new forms, reach new audiences, and continue to grow as additional stories are collected. At its core, the project remains committed to honoring lived experience and expanding how regional histories are remembered and made visible.
If you are interested in participating in the project or wish to learn more, contact me directly or reach out to ourstoryenc@ecu.edu
