- A fundraising party for the Midwest Rave Culture Archive, led by founder Aria Pedraza, is set for July 5th.
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A new effort to digitize Midwest rave ephemera is taking shape in Chicago.
Spearheaded by lifelong dance music aficionado Aria Pedraza, the Midwest Rave Culture Archive aims to preserve audio, visual, and print artifacts. This includes (but is not limited to) flyers, tickets, cassette tapes, photos and video recordings.
To develop the project, Pedraza collaborated closely with mentors including DJ Lady D and Viva Acid founder Luis Baro, also taking inspiration from archivists working with the National Public Housing Museum and Maxwell Street Foundation. As she told the Chicago Reader earlier this week, she envisions the archive as a collectively-run entity.
“This project is really about mass participatory efforts,” she said. “It’s not from one perspective, and that’s something that’s different for this subculture.”
A launch party and fundraiser for the archive, Hometown Heroes, is set to take place on Saturday, July 5th, in Chinatown’s Ping Tom Park. The lineup features Teklife affiliates DJ Phil and DJ Manny, drum & bass artist RP Smack and more. All proceeds from the event will go towards supporting and maintaining the archive—a GoFundMe with a goal of $5,500 is also currently accepting donations.
“Let’s give some proper care to subcultural artifacts—our prized memories,” a description for the fundraiser reads. “Everyone deserves a long-term preservation plan.”
Browse the Instagram for more information.
