SAGE Shares – An Archival Initiative Celebrating a Decade of SAGE Metro-Detroit

Summer 2020

SAGE is an organization advocating for and serving the older adult LGBT community.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus paused all in-person community events, creating a greater-than-normal sense of isolation among SAGE’s members.  These key services that SAGE provides build social frameworks for older adults. Our team curated prototypes of new spatial alternatives for the organization’s ‘Porch Talks’ program – a means to facilitate interactions between the older LGBT community and youth volunteers.

The aim of these Porch Talks is to celebrate SAGE’s ten year anniversary by celebrating the various stories of some of their key members and contributors. This work was intended to be shown at their annual summit, as a general tribute to the organization’s founders and to celebrate the decade of work SAGE has done so far. The pandemic forced this summit to move onto a virtual platform, creating the need for some kind of video documentation of SAGE board members’ experiences and lives.

Using Zoom as a tool to record video interviews of the different candidates, we have developed a mini-series comprising chapters of the individual stories and opinions of the SAGE members. Using B-roll footage of the interviewees in their domestic settings, we captured the essence of their identities and dug deep into their life experiences and associations with SAGE as a key part of their lives.

These videos are being used by SAGE as a medium for fundraising and achieving the organization’s motto - ‘We refuse to be invisible’

Community Partners
SAGE Metro Detroit
Angie Perone
Cornelius Wilson
Jim Sechelski
Judy Lewis
Ron Doe

Student Team
Anisha Naik
Max Coolidge
Vama Garrimella
Areeba Bawani
Prescott Trudeau 

Faculty Mentor
Irene Hwang

For more information about SAGE Metro-Detroit, visit this link.