The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational
Dialogue Project

The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project

What We Do

This project connects two populations – LGBTQ+ youth and LGBTQ+ elders – who rarely have the chance to interact. A partnership between The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Center on Addison at Center on Halsted, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, we bring together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ college students and older adults (60+) for year-long series of bi-weekly themed dialogues, creative work, and shared dinners.

We believe that the fostering of long-term, meaningful intergenerational interactions can significantly strengthen the LGBTQ+ community. Our diversity provides an opportunity to put theories of intersectionality into purposeful action addressing the lived realities of LGBTQ+ people

We've been featured in...
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A video created by Dialogue participant Chase Kaiser with some of the current seniors involved in the Dialogue project.


We connect LGBTQ+ Seniors and Youth for sustained dialogues

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, participants in the Intergenerational LGBTQ+ Dialogue Project met in person at the Center on Addison at Center on Halsted every other week to share stories, perspectives on topics we find important to LGBTQ+ culture and history, and hopes for the future. Each meeting concluded with a shared “family dinner.” We continue to meet over Zoom, work on group and individual projects inspired by our meetings, and are transitioning back in to in-person get-togethers.

I have enjoyed most everyone’s willingness to express themselves and share their feelings and experiences. I especially appreciate the intensity and depth of the dialogues we’ve had...Wouldn’t it be great if other groups tried to replicate our experience?

Lucy Elam, participant

Our Recent Projects

Served With Love
This semester Arden, Mack, Jordan, and Edna, through our bi-weekly discussions, found that we all shared...
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The Unending Transition
A collaboratively-written and performed poem Our group started conversation with a want to focus on poetry...
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Disrupting Invisibility: The Disorientation of Invisibility
Why the group decided to do what they did:     We worked at our individual homes/studios as we didn’t...
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Between and Beyond: Where Queer Paths Cross
In order to culminate our work together within the LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, we decided...
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Learn more by getting in contact with us today.