The history of San Francisco's Polk Gulch neighborhood is dynamic, joyous, heartbreaking, and wholly unique. It's a history that is also almost completely unexplored and, during a time of rapid neighborhood change, at risk of being lost. As part of a sponsored project of San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society, we seek people's stories of Polk Gulch, from the 1960s to 2000s.

Martin Meeker, an academic specialist at UC Berkeley's Regional Oral History Office, is advising the project. Joey Plaster, an independent oral historian and journalist, will be leading the project and recording people's stories with audio (no video) equipment. If you are interested in lending your voice, please contact him at polkstories@gmail.com.

We welcome stories from all walks of life on the street, of all genders and sexual orientations, including merchants, sex workers and clients, the formerly and currently homeless, social workers, bar regulars, and others. Interviews may be anonymous if you wish.

The project will culminate in an exhibit, a series of radio documentaries, a website, and a number of roundtable discussions at the GLBT Historical Society. All recordings will be archived at the Historical Society for future generations.

We hope that this project will create an enduring snapshot of the neighborhood, help diversify representations of GLBT people, dramatize issues important to the city and the nation as a whole, and help promote understanding in an area that is experiencing rapid change and tension.

More about this project:

San Francisco's Polk Gulch neighborhood shaped the city's gay political landscape in the 1960s and early 1970s, birthing several early political and social organizations such as the Tavern Guild and the Imperial Court System. In later decades, the area was a vital home for some of San Francisco's most underrepresented residents, of all sexual orientations, including homeless youth, working class and poor transgendered women, people of color, immigrants, sex workers, and seniors.

The neighborhood has changed dramatically in the past few years, as its gay bars close, property values increase, and mid-income businesses and residents move in. This rapid change in character underscores the urgency of recording Polk's stories and illuminating a complex and storied history.

The project will dramatize issues important to the city and nation as a whole, including the disproportionate rate of homelessness among LGBT youth, affordable housing and neighborhood change, the evolution of transgender communities, the creation and evaporation of gay neighborhoods, the changing role of sex work in LGBT communities, drug use and mental illness, and the impact of AIDS on poor and working class populations.

It should also diversify representations of LGBT people. Mainstream representations increasingly look like characters in a Will and Grace show: white, affluent, and gender normative. But it has been the most down-and-out segments of the LGBT population - people of color, the poor and working class, transgendered, and youth - who have often been our boldest and most innovative actors. This project, the first oral history of Polk Gulch, will pay tribute to these actors.

Stories from Polk Gulch regulars also have the potential to increase understanding between different users of the street during a time of tension and change. The project will illuminate the complexity of the street and the shared humanity of the people who use it, and provide historical context for the current state and future of the area.

Please contact Joey Plaster, at polkstories@gmail.com, with questions or interest.