Pauline Park Papers
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Abstract
The Pauline Park Papers contains material from 1986-2015 documenting the advocacy, activism, and writing of Pauline Park, a transgender activist, speaker, writer, and educator. A large portion of the collection contains material from the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) and Queens Pride House (QPH) two organizations that Park helped co-found, in 1998 and 1997, respectively, and lead. Park campaigned for the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, and in 2005 became the first openly transgender grand marshal of the New York City Pride March. Park has been the keynote speaker at many LGBT and Asian American conferences and events held in the United States. She has written extensively about arts and culture, music, spirituality, politics, theatre, race, and LGBT health and rights. Her writing has been published in journals, newspapers, and newsletters. This collection contains materials on subjects such as transgender health, identity, community, and public policy, and includes correspondence, board meeting minutes, photographs, VHS tapes, conference name badges, certificates, audio recordings, original poetry and creative writing, notes, speeches, flyers and programs for events and conferences related to QPH and NYAGRA, press featuring Park, and letters to politicians and allied organizations advocating the passage of LGTBQ inclusion and non-discrimination legislation.
Historical/Biographical Note
Pauline Park (1960- ) is a transgender activist based in New York City who received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Illinois. Park was born in Korea, and was adoped and raised by European American parents. As of 2019, she is the President of the Board of Directors and Acting Executive Director of Queens Pride House (QPH) and Chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA). Park led the campaign for the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, and in 2005 became the first openly transgender grand marshal of the New York City Pride March. Pauline has written widely on LGBTQ issues and has conducted transgender sensitivity training sessions for a wide range of organizations. She was the subject of the 2008 documentary Envisioning Justice: The Journey of a Transgendered Woman. Park was named to Huffington Post's list of "The Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons" and to a list of "50 Transgender Icons" on the Transgender Day of Remembrance in 2012.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into four series. The collection is arranged into groupings by subject matter that reflect the original order in which the collection was donated to the Tamiment Library. The arrangement is as follows:
I. Organizations, 1986-2015, undated
II. Writings, Publications, and Other Related Creative Projects, 1989-2015, undated
III. Events, 1990-2014, undated
IV. Personal, 1994-2015, undated
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains materials related to the advocacy, activism, and writing of Pauline Park from 1986 to 2015. The bulk of the material in this collection comes from the early 1990s to the mid 2010s, and documents Park's work as co-founder and co-leader of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, the first New York statewide transgender advocacy organization, and Queens Pride House, the LGBT community center of Queens, New York. The collection contains some of Park's published and unpublished writing which addresses topics of transgender health, identity, community, and public policy as well as race, national identity, philosophy, spirituality, and the arts. Materials in the collection include correspondence, programs, digital images, photographs, VHS and audio cassette tapes, conference name badges, certificates, audio recordings, original poetry and creative writing, flyers for events and conferences related to Queens Pride House (QPH) and the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) and other organizations. There are a number of press clippings and magazine articles featuring Park as well as letters to politicians, and allied organizations advocating the passage of LGTBQ non-discrimination legislation. The collection also contains a number of documentaries about or featuring Park and a sound recording of Park preforming classical piano music. Park donated the proceeds of the sound recording to NYAGRA and QPH.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Pauline Park Papers; TAM 663; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition Note
Donated by Pauline Park in 2015. The accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2015.004, 2015.055, and 2015.059.
Custodial History
These materials were solicited by Laura Chen Schulz Deputy Director of New York University's Asian/Pacific/American Institute and Tim Naftali, Tamiment Director and shipped direct to Tamiment by Pauline Park. Initially, five boxes were donated to Tamiment on January 25, 2015 which comprised the 2015.004 accession. The rest of the boxes were received from Pauline Park on unknown dates in 2015.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to some audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact special.collections@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Electronic Records Policies and Procedures
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.
About this Guide
Processing Information Note
At the time of accessioning, materials were rehoused into new acid-free folders and boxes, with original folder titles transcribed. The original order of the collection as maintained by Pauline Park has been retained, with the exception of audiovisual and oversize items which were removed and rehoused in appropriate size boxes. Box-level descriptions were created by an archivist based on the contents of each box.
At the time of processing, all materials in six record cartons were rehoused into manuscript boxes due to overfilling and box tearing. Rehousing materials from the six record cartons caused the number of boxes to expand from 8 to 18. During processing folders were scored and marked with the collection call number, box number, and folder number; most of the original folder titles were retained, although there were some descriptive enhancements. A number of newspaper clippings intermixed within all of the series which were photocopied onto preservation paper for conservation purposes.
Born-digital material was imaged and labeled. One optical disc was processed using Forensic Toolkit, and an audio disc was imaged and uploaded to permanent storage. One floppy disc was imaged and the file was uploaded to permanent storage.
New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.
