Diet Popstitute (Michael Collins) - Obituary, Tributes, Memorial Events, 1995

Manuscripts, ephemera, photographs, posters, clippings, and other materials documenting the queer punk, performance and club scenes in San Francisco from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, at a time when AIDS was devastating the city's gay population and when the activist groups ACT UP and Queer Nation emerged in response to the epidemic. The papers focus on the Popstitutes and the many other initiatives by Collins and other group members and associates in the following decade, including Playstitute and Klubstitute. The personal collection of manuscripts, ephemera, posters, photographs and other materials documenting the groundbreaking queer punk, performance and club scenes in San Francisco from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, at a time when AIDS was devastating the city's gay population and when the activist groups ACT UP and Queer Nation emerged in response to the epidemic. With more than 425 leaves of typescripts and manuscripts and more than 900 items of ephemera and related materials, the collection offers rich primary sources for research in cultural studies, gender studies, queer studies, contemporary history, theater history, art history and related disciplines. The papers focus on The Popstitutes - a seminal San Francisco queer performance group and punk band founded in 1986 by Michael Collins ("Diet Popstitute," 1958-1995); Brad Kellogg ("Bad Popstitute"); and Alvin Orloff ("Remix von Popstitute")-and on the dizzying array of activities spawned by Collins and the other members and associates of the group in the decade that followed.