THE CULTURAL ROADMAP FOR CITY GIRLS EVERYWHERE

THE CULTURAL ROADMAP FOR CITY GIRLS EVERYWHERE

The Rise Of The Black Lesbian Archives

January 30, 2025

Krü Maekdo opens up to GO about creating the first digital database of Black Lesbian Herstory in the U.S.

“Nothing. Beats. Being. A lesbian,” Krü Maekdo, the enigmatic mother of the Black Lesbian Archives enunciated at a panel discussion in New York last summer. Dressed in a yellow mumu she stitched herself, Krü swooped in like a big sister when a young Black audience member who’d just come out stood up during the Q&A to ask if it gets better. It was a palpably momentous moment for the young queer person; a smile ripened across her face and the whole audience roared with applause.

For the past seven years, Krü, 32 years old and originally from Texas, has been traveling the length and breadth of the U.S., accumulating stories and paraphernalia from Black lesbian elders. The Archives contain newspaper articles, posters, flyers, mixtapes, videos, photos, and oral stories that soothe the soul and break the heart in equal measure, and hone in on grassroots stories of love, activism, and community from the 1970s to 1990s. 

Krü Maekdo
Krü Maekdo, founder of Black Lesbian Archives. Photo Courtesy of BLA.

For lack of a more permanent physical base—a phenomenon lesbian bar culture knows all too well—the Archives are currently boxed up in storage units, garages, and closets around the States. Meanwhile, Krü, who’s been based in Mexico’s Yucatan Province for the last year, has embarked on the crucial process of digitizing this invaluable resource

“I don’t mind living from my backpack,” Krü said over a video call from her plant-adorned living room a month after the panel in New York. “But the stage I’m at in my life right now, the universe was like, we need you to chill for a second,” shared Krü, who just emerged from her Saturn return. “It’s from around 27 to 31 [years old],” she said, “it’s about breaking down and breaking off… and it threw me sideways.” These days she’s enjoying the stability of being rooted in one place, and the space that creates to focus on her two great passions: archiving and astrology, alongside mothering the troupe of “cat companions” she’s adopted since she moved to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Krü has created the first digital database of Black Lesbian Herstory in the U.S. “She’s definitely a big baby,” said Krü modestly, “spiritually and emotionally it’s a lot, to talk and share these stories to go through this material, it’s overwhelming honestly, but in the best way… it’s a very rich memory to uncover and recover.”

Black Lesbian Archives
Display of materials from the Black Lesbian Archives. Photo Courtesy of BLA.

The Archives were conceived in 2017 when Krü was visiting her aunt in Williamsburg, Virginia. “It’s a very conservative town, full of older reserved white folks,” said Krü in her smooth Texan lilt, “so I had a lot of time in my own energy.” In her introspective state, Krü started to explore what it is to be a Black lesbian. “What does that mean for me, what does that look like for me?” she pondered while beginning to look for inspiration and stories from others. 

 “I needed more context,” she told GO, noting that she wanted a deeper comprehension of what it is to be a Black lesbian—past, present, and future. She started scouring online, “and then digging for real” and found no dedicated resource on the lives of Black lesbian elders on or off-line. Krü knew this space needed to exist. She claimed the @blacklesbianarchives handles across social media platforms, and “any information I pulled up, I would share,” she said. Her followers soon swelled, and her inbox started to receive outpourings of excitement, gratitude, offers to help, and invitations for Krü to visit. Within a couple of years, Krü was hosting exhibitions, talks, and panel discussions. Slowly and in real-time, she’s been creating a wider narrative of who she is, by meeting the shoulders on which she proudly stands. 

“I soon realized that we might not necessarily go through the same things,” she said, noting that she’s listened to stories of Black lesbian butches being forced to wear dresses, getting groped in bars, being pushed to the back of Pride protests, and living with the perpetual threat of losing their jobs if outed. “But I’m still seeing patterns play out over and over again,” she shared, “twenty, thirty, fifty years past and really, that made me accept who I am more.” 

Krü’s most salient message is one of community and the disconnection that’s arisen alongside our heightened online connectivity. “The prior generations were so connected to each other,” she said. “People would drive down from Virginia to New York, to Florida, to Texas because they’re looking for community, they built it themselves.” Membership in a community was a lot more pragmatic then; examples spill from Krü’s lips like the Archives have been unlocked. 

“They’d break off and do a newsletter, break off to do activism. Some did martial arts, others were out there building houses for each other… someone’s doing childcare, another’s helping with medical care,” she said, without pause. “There was this real initiative, not just to meet in the club… but the community was there to take care of our needs. And I just don’t see that today, like we’re searching for it, but we haven’t gotten there quite yet,” she continued. “We’re getting very stuck on very trivial stuff.” 

In the process of birthing the Archives, Krü has become a thread that weaves connections between Black lesbians across state lines and generations. From her new base in the Gulf of Mexico, the Black Lesbian Archives continue to take shape, and continue to shine a vital light on the parts of Krü, and her community, that have been left in the shadows for too long. 


Check out Black Lesbian Archives here & support the Digital Memory Project here. Follow @krumaekdo 

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