Zachary Blair

Anthropologist, Researcher, and Writer

Fieldwork Flashbacks

Fieldwork Flashbacks

As Treasure Island closes its stores and union workers sue the grocery store chain, I began to reflect of all of the changes that have occurred in Boystown since my fieldwork from 2006-2011; the stores that have gone out of business, buildings that have been bulldozed, and other transformations in material space. Here is a photo I took of the Treasure Island grocery store located on N. Broadway between Cornelia Avenue and Stratford Avenue: I used to love walking through Elain

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Gay Life's Featured Bars from the mid-1970s

Gay Life's Featured Bars from the mid-1970s

Below are some clippings from Chicago's Gay Life, chronicling some of the gay neighborhood's most prominent gay bars in and around New Town—the neighborhood that would become known as Boystown. These "featurettes" cover Little Jim's located at 3501 N. Halsted (which remains at this location today and has long been considered the first gay bar on the Halsted Strip), Virgo Out at 2546 N. Clark Street (then considered the center of gay life in Chicago), and Augie's at 3729 N. Ha

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Research Media Coverage

Research Media Coverage

I was organizing the newspaper articles I clipped during my fieldwork and came across one of my study of Boystown. It was published in the now defunct Chicago Free Press on March 4, 2010. The cover page read, "Weathering the Storm: How GLBT non-profits are coping with new economic realities," a story on the economic recession's effect on local non-profits. It was also ironically next to a story about a hate crime attack on the Red Line, when Daniel Hauff defended "gay youth"

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In the archives

In the archives

I spent this week doing a lot of revisions and going back to the archives, page by page, flipping through resources like Chicago Gay News, Gay Chicago Magazine, Blazing Star, Gay Crusader, Lavender Woman, and Windy City Times. Here are some of my favorites, which you will not see as part of my dissertation. My favorite pieces of gay art work published in the 1970s: Berlin was always, and will always be, my favorite nightclub in Chicago. This is a sampling of their advertiseme

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East Lakeview Arts Festival

East Lakeview Arts Festival

For the next few months, I will be writing short pieces here about key moments documented through my fieldwork in Chicago's Boystown that will not be making it to the final manuscript of my dissertation. This moment was one of my favorites. I've also included some amazing (shaky) camera-work from the field. Walking down Broadway through the East Lakeview Arts Festival in the Fall of 2009, Dev turned to me and said, “This is so much different than Gay Pride or Market Days. Eve

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Starbucks and The Problem with Commercial "Safe Space"

Starbucks and The Problem with Commercial "Safe Space"

In the days after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, acts of racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and misogyny that invoke the president-elect have made headlines. These events, along with a generalized fear and anxiety about and the future of the country, have sparked numerous movements around the creation of safe space. The donning of the safety pin has become a widespread and contested movement, critiqued for its racial politics and slacktivism (alternat

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The LGBTQ+ People and Festivals of Boystown, Chicago

On Writing Ethnography (for the first time)

On Writing Ethnography (for the first time)

Writing has never been a problem for me. I have always loved writing. But writing an ethnography has been such a huge challenge. There are no rules to writing an ethnography, so you are never taught "how to write an ethnography" - at least I never was. Journalistic writing - pretty clear. There is a structure, a style, guidelines, and an established norm. Creative writing - fun. Essay writing - beginning, middle, and end. Writing ethnography, unlike anything else I have ever

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