GALA - Queer Archive

04/09/2026

HAPPENING TOMMOROW!

Acts of Care is an immersive exhibition exploring the archives of the Township AIDS Project (TAP) and the people, stories and communities behind them- most of which are housed in GALA's Simon Nkoli Collection.

The Township of AIDS Project was brought together by so many individuals who gave their time, energy and care to the movement. Today, we’re highlighting just some of the important figures whose work helped shape TAP and its legacy.

These are only a few of the people who made this history possible.

Come remember them with us.

RSVP here: https://tr.ee/VSN9Jos4I_

***rhistory

02/09/2026

The journey towards Few Empowerment Few's 22nd Annual Soweto Pride – Our Heritage has begun, and we’re excited to co-host a special screening of Black Burns Fast alongside our partners at and HOLAAfrica as part of the build-up activities. Black Burns Fast is a powerful coming-of-age story exploring identity, belonging, and self-discovery.

The screening will be followed by an engaging panel discussion featuring the filmmaker, actors and activists, creating space for meaningful conversations around the themes explored in the film and the lived experiences that shape our communities.

Please note that this is a closed event.

01/09/2026

IMPORTANT NOTICE: TEMPORARY OFFICE CLOSURE

The GALA Q***r Archive offices will be closed on Friday, 4 September as the team attends to an off-site visit. Our offices will reopen on the 7th of September 2026.

24/08/2026

We’re so excited to finally share the official poster for Acts of Care - and we’re just two weeks away from opening night.

An immersive exhibition transforming decades-old archival material into a living, participatory experience, Acts of Care invites audiences to look back at the communities who came together in the early 1990s to create care, education, and advocacy during the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Drawing from the Township AIDS Project (TAP) archives held by GALA Q***r Archive, the exhibition brings these stories into the present through virtual reality, augmented reality, and an interactive creative space - connecting histories of q***r community care with the people and communities who continue them today.

Acts of Care is presented by Two Name Games, in close collaboration with GALA Q***r Archive, and developed under Future_Past: Amplifying Memory with Immersive Technologies, an initiative of the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), in partnership with Electric South and funded by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

📅 Opening Night: 5 September 2026
📍 Latitudes Centre for the Arts, Shepstone Gardens, Johannesburg
🗓️ Exhibition: 8 September – 1 December 2026
🔞 Age recommendation: 16+

24/08/2026

Upcoming show at LCA | Acts of Care: Immersive Exhibition Brings Township AIDS Project Archive to Life.

A new immersive exhibition is set to transform decades-old archival material into a living, participatory experience, inviting audiences to witness, recognise, and actively continue a legacy of q***r community care that began in Soweto, Johannesburg, more than three decades ago.

Acts of Care is an Extended Reality (XR) exhibition drawing on archival material from the Township AIDS Project (TAP), held by the GALA Q***r Archive. Using virtual reality, augmented reality, and an interactive creative public space, the exhibition explores how communities in early 1990s Johannesburg and Soweto organised care, education, and advocacy in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, at a time when the disease was poorly understood, deeply stigmatised, and often framed as a moral or political threat.

Find out more and RSVP for the opening: https://latitudes.online/blogs/art-news/acts-of-care-immersive-exhibition-brings-township-aids-project-archive-to-life

Saturday, 5 Sep 2026, 10am -1pm
12 Hope Rd, Mountain View, Johannesburg
Latitudes Centre for the Arts

21/08/2026

Join us for our upcoming career guidance session where we will be discussing career planning and how to prepare to enter the workforce after graduation.

See you on the 28th of August!

20/08/2026

Acts of Care is an immersive exhibition drawing on archival material from the Township AIDS Project (TAP), held by the GALA Q***r Archive.

Before the exhibition opens, we’re inviting you to look closer - at the people, communities, and acts of care that shaped a crucial moment in South African history. A time when HIV/AIDS was met with fear, stigma, and misunderstanding.

This is more than an archive. It is a story of people who cared for one another when they had to.

Opening day: 5 September 2026
Venue: Latitudes Centre for the Arts
Age Recommendation: 16+
RSVP here: https://tr.ee/uBzPqU8iUb

Can't make it to the opening? The exhibition will run from 8 September to 1 December 2026. Check out the website for more information: https://twonamegames.com/actsofcare/

Acts of Care is presented by Two Name Games, in close collaboration with GALA Q***r Archive, and developed under Future_Past: Amplifying Memory with Immersive Technologies, an initiative of the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), implemented in partnership with Electric South and funded by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

18/08/2026

In this episode of Fab Heb’s YouTube series, they delve into the history of gay short films, focusing on the silent films of Ernest Thorp dating back to the late 1940s/early 1950s. These form part of the Oral History Project Collection, held by GALA Q***r Archive.

Whilst Thorp was a world-renowned botanist, he was also a filmmaker documenting life as a gay man in Durban’s vibrant q***r scene.

Watch it here:

Thanks to GALA Q***r Archive and its co-ordinator Linda Chernis for...

09/08/2026

This Womxn’s Day, we honour and remember the collective action of South African womxn, who on 9 August 1956 boldly marched to Union building, which housed the apartheid government, in protest against the extension of pass laws to womxn.

For q***r womxn the battle continues, and we pay tribute to the collective actions of the Coalition of African Le****ns (CAL), which pioneered regional activism from 2003 until 2022. GALA is honoured to hold the CAL collection, which will be available to in-person researchers from 2027. In the interim, CAL’s q***r, Black, feminist legacy lives on, on GALA’s office walls.

*Archival note: these posters were not produced by CAL but were donated along with their records. Their journey began on CAL’s walls, but they now adorn GALA’s.

28/07/2026

ARCHIVE SPOTLIGHT: SALLY GROSS

Gross wore many hats in her extraordinary life—including student activist, Catholic priest, and scholar—but she is best remembered for fighting for intersex rights and awareness. The memorial pamphlet shown here forms part of Gross’ important collection at GALA, which includes photographs, correspondence, and her personal writings.

The cover of the memorial flyer features a portrait of Gross done by her friend and artist, Gabriel Le Roux. Created collaboratively in 2013—a year before Gross's death—the piece belongs to Le Roux’s portrait series of gender-diverse African activists. Rather than acting as mere subjects, the participants actively shaped the artwork by adding their own handwritten words. On her portrait, Gross wrote: “I am an unmutilated, WHOLE Intersex PERSON”.

At the time of Gross’ passing in February 2014, her portrait was on display at the Wits Art Museum (WAM) – in the very building GALA calls home. The artwork was part of Q***r & Trans (Art)iculations, a joint exhibition featuring the work of Zanele Muholi and Gabrielle Le Roux. On 28 March 2014, the day before the exhibition closed, WAM hosted a memorial for Gross. Appropriately, Le Roux’s portrait served as the cover for the pamphlets handed out to the mourners.