Houses On The Moon And History UnErased Partner For THE PAST IS ALWAYS PRESENT

History UnErased, a leader in bringing LGBTQ-inclusive history into K-12 classrooms, is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with the NYC-based Houses on the Moon Theater Company for their new project The Past is Always Present. This collaboration is made possible by a prestigious grant from the Library of Congress Teaching under the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program. 

The grant, awarded by the Library's Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives Office under the Center for Learning Literacy and Engagement, will support The Past Is Always Present project, a collaboration with Houses on the Moon Theater Company, to develop a new play paired with a dynamic method of creating and presenting educational content that reaches students, educators, and the community at large with US LGBTQ history that would otherwise be missed or misunderstood.

The Past is Always Present will be disseminated by September 2025 via dozens of distribution partners dedicated to history, civics, and social studies education, colleges of education, theater organizations, and more. This Open Educational Resource includes a unique play script that dramatizes the hidden histories of LGBTQ Americans, drawing upon primary source materials from the Library of Congress's vast archives and state and local archives; animated videos that bring the primary sources to life; and case studies for use in secondary and post-secondary contexts. For more information, please visit https://unerased.org/resource/the-past-is-always-present. 

Passionate about the impact of this collaboration, Emily Joy Weiner, Artistic Director and Founder of Houses on the Moon, explains “The Past is Always Present aligns perfectly with our mission to use theater as a tool for social justice. Through storytelling, we are able to shine a light on history that has been neglected for far too long. This project gives a voice to the LGBTQ Americans who have shaped our country but whose contributions have been overlooked. We are thrilled to collaborate with History UnErased to ensure these stories are told in a way that connects with students, educators, and communities alike.”

Debra Fowler, Co-Founder and Executive Director of History UnErased, emphasized the significance of this project: “This grant represents a significant milestone for History UnErased and our mission. We believe that when students learn the full scope of our nation's history, including LGBTQ stories, it improves civic participation and strengthens the foundation of our democracy.”

Since 2006, Congress has appropriated funds to the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program to establish and fund a consortium of organizations working to incorporate “the digital collections of the Library of Congress into educational curricula.” Each year, members of the TPS Consortium support tens of thousands of learners to build knowledge, engagement and critical thinking skills with items from the Library's collections. The Library of Congress awarded a total of 42 TPS grants in September 2024 to organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The grants, which offer one year of funding with the possibility of two additional years contingent upon successful project delivery, will allow recipients to develop educational projects based on the Library's digitized materials. These projects cover a wide range of disciplines, including civics, economics, disability history, and law, with History UnErased's The Past is Always Present specifically focusing on using history to enhance civic engagement and understanding through the arts.