In January 2023, around 40 queer men gathered in Berkshire County for the launch of Q-Mob, or Queer Men of the Berkshires.
“Q-Mob is a nonprofit organization that’s empowering queer men all over the greater Berkshire region, which includes parts of four states, to find, create, and support activities, classes, and resources that build community wellness and fun among queer men," Interim Executive Director Bart Church told WAMC.
He says the group is a response to the paucity of events or spaces to congregate.
“No potlucks, no gatherings of any kind, even though for 150 years, this has been an important creative and artistic and queer center," said Church. "We were founded because there was so little regular community activities that people felt isolated and alone, and a lot of younger people were leaving the Berkshires because there just wasn't any, other than going to the big arts institutions for performances, there wasn't any community where you could meet people, get to know them, feel that camaraderie and friendship.”
What began with a few dozen participants for a handful of potlucks and hikes has now expanded to around a 700-strong community with a bevy of programming options.
“So, it grew from just six activities that first month in February, to now 24 activities per month, and from a fairly small geographical area in South Berkshires to now four states,” said Church.
While Church is chuffed with the growth over Q-Mob’s first year, its success comes with new challenges.
“We have a huge opportunity to kind of organize a larger leadership team that can lead regular activities in all five of the sub-regions of the Berkshires, and so that we can spread the work out to a larger group of leadership," he told WAMC. "Doing 24 activities a month, and they're so geographically diverse, it's really important that we have good leaders that can plan and support all kinds of volunteers to sustain that level of programming in such a big area.”
He also wants to bring on full-time staff members.
“We have more than 50 volunteers every month, and so, to make it really easy for a volunteer to host a potluck or a hike or an arts and culture activity, we need a couple of key staffers who make that really simple so that we can continue to sustain regular activities," said Church. "Because we really believe that regularity of contact is what builds friendships, and that level of network that supports you when you have a really great vision, or you have a really hard transition in your life, like you get cancer or you lose your job or you have to move really quick because your landlord raises your rent.”
Church says Q-Mob is seeking out grants to continue expansion of the group’s capabilities.
“We want to do a queer history project to videotape the personal histories of a lot of people who are in their 70s and 80s and aren't going to be with us much longer to kind of preserve the important history of the queer community in the Berkshires," he said. "And that's going to take video equipment and an archiving system. That's going to take grants.”
On the fourth Sundays of February, March, and April, Q-Mob is holding a series of Berkshire Queer Creative Housing Solutions Forums to provide a community response to the region’s strained housing market at Hot Plate Brewing in Pittsfield.
