Meet the Curators Then and Now: To Love and Live Free at Durham County Main Library
As part of the Museum of Durham History’s Museum Beyond Walls initiative, which brings Durham history into community spaces beyond the Museum’s home at 500 W. Main Street, join us for a special opening event on Wednesday, July 1, 2026 celebrating the library extension of To Love and Live Free: The 1986 Mayoral Recall Fight and the Origins of Durham Pride.
Installed outside the North Carolina Collection on the third floor of the Durham County Main Library (201 N. Roxboro St.), this exhibit explores the key role that the library and its staff played during the controversies of 1986. At the heart of the exhibit are artifact cases recreating the original 1986 Pride Month exhibit that sparked public debate and became part of a defining moment in Durham’s history, featuring many of the same books, media, and materials that appeared four decades ago.
This special “Meet the Curators Then and Now” program offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience the exhibit through the eyes of two people directly connected to it. Joanne Abel (shown above), one of the librarians (along with Nancy Blood) who helped create the original 1986 display, and Andrew Nurkin, curator of To Love and Live Free, will be on hand to provide an intimate guided walkthrough, sharing personal perspectives, historical context, and behind-the-scenes insights into how this story has been preserved and interpreted over the years.
In addition to the installations at the Main Library and the Museum, a forthcoming traveling version of the exhibit will be available for libraries, schools, faith communities, and other community spaces interested in hosting this important chapter of Durham’s history.
The event is free and open to the public and is part of a larger series of programs accompanying To Love and Live Free through early October, culminating with Durham Pride. Other upcoming events include:
“Another Family Against the Amendment” on June 27th at 3pm at the Main Library, presented by The People’s Alliance, The People’s Alliance Fund, The Museum of Durham History, The North Carolina Collection, and Durham County Library. In 2012 the NC State Legislature proposed Amendment One, a change to the NC Constitution and prohibited the state from recognizing or performing same-sex marriages, civil unions or civil union equivalents by defining male–female marriage as “the only domestic legal union” considered valid or recognized in the state. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the People’s Alliance, this program welcomes a panel of organizers and elected officials as they tell the history of the local reaction to Amendment One.