About

The VHS Activism Archive holds information and resources connected to 184 tapes first accumulated and used for teaching and research by one media scholar and video artist: The Alexandra Juhasz VHS Collection. It reflects her queer feminist media praxis with particular attention to activist and experimental media concerning AIDS, anti-racism and the art and expression of people of color, queers of many stripes, lesbians, femmes, and women, as well as documentary and video.

A small number of the tapes have been digitized with their makers' permission. In other cases we provide access to their current homes online. We have built in some information and context for all the tapes, but always seek more.

The Archive also holds graduate student work generated by re-engaging and activating 12 of the tapes in the collection with a particular focus on AIDS, sexuality, women and people of color.

We are eager to engage the tapes' makers and communities, as well as to encourage new uses and users. Please feel free to contact us about more resources and information, as well as documentation of your own activation of the collection. In these ways, the dead tapes can stay alive, be useful, while the collection grows to take the shape of a larger community of practice.