Reno’s Our Center

Welcome to Our Center. This will be the first in a series of posts about the Biggest Little LGBTQ Community Center in Reno, which has an active Facebook presence. My hope is that this blog will show me as a human person walking around and observing in the LGBTQ world of Reno, while Our Center is the hub from which most of my adventures will eventually connect. Our Center is the Kevin Bacon of the Reno LGBTQ scene.

Our Center is located at 1745 S. Wells in Reno.

The space is a walk-up storefront taking up about half of the building and approximately 3,000 square feet of space with a lot of nooks and crannies within. Parking is available on the street out front or in a lot on the south side of the building.

Upon walking in the door, you find yourself in the lobby where they kindly ask visitors to sign in via ipad.

To the left is a bulletin board that takes up a full nook and 1/3 of the storefront window. There you can find listings for events and groups within Our Center and in the community.

To the right is the reception desk and LGBTQ merch displays. The racks have t-shirts, beer coozies, pride flags of all sorts, bumper stickers, rainbow jewelry, and other came-to-slay-bought-some-gay merch.

Walking back into the bowels of the Center, there is a very tight boardroom to the left.

As you keep walking back, you pass a small office, a small open work room and a tiny corner kitchen space.

On the right is a brightly-colored open space with a work table and cabinets that have scissors, yarn (for the bi-monthly knitting group), markers, glue, and everything your 3rd grade art teacher could have supplied to you. A bulletin board showcases its artists.

Beyond the art nook is a library nook packed floor to ceiling with LGBTQ literature for the reading and borrowing. There are a few comfy chairs in that nook. I kick myself for not taking a pic of it.

The back of the Our Center space opens up into a large conference space that wraps around into a colorful medium-sized annex. The large room has a coffee bar, large flat-screen television, piano, tables, chairs, and a comfy leather sitting area.

The colorful annex sports shelves of board games and another little work space and couches. The annex then leads around into a supply room which appears to lead back to the main hallway.

I may have missed a room or two. Like I said, there a lot of little nooks to hide out and work or relax and chit-chat. Subscribe to my blog at the bottom of this page to read more about Our Center in the next few weeks.