Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
One of the great pleasures of working at Lawrence is getting to see someone like Michael Mizrahi play on a regular basis: different music, different groups, different stages, but all of it thoughtful, moving, and beautiful.
& He makes me miss my town with this clip, too.
He published Ginsberg, Beckett, DH Lawrence, and Henry Miller – whose Tropic of Cancer which attracted 60 legal cases and attempted bans in 21 states. Naked Lunch. The Story of O. Waiting for Godot. He made Beckett’s film Film – starring Buster Keaton – possible. His offices at Grove were bombed after he published Che Guevara.
Mr. Rosset liked to tell the story of how he had responded to a Chicago prosecutor who suggested that he had published “Tropic of Cancer” only for the money. He whipped out a paper he had written on Miller while at Swarthmore (the grade was a B-) to demonstrate his long interest in that author. He won the case.“I remember leaving the courtroom and somehow getting lost going home,” he told The Times in 2008. “It was snowing. But I was so happy that I thought, ‘If I fall down and die right here, it will be fine.’ ”
Au revoir, Mr. Gosset. Thanks for blowing the lid off the thing for the rest of us and giving the US some kind of chance at being culturally literate.
From the Empire State Pride Agenda:
Action Alert: Community Ambassador Trainings
Dear Supporter,
Do you care about transgender equality and justice? Want to gain the skills and knowledge needed to be a proactive leader in your community? Become an Empire State Pride Agenda Community Ambassador! Learn about current legislation to protect transgender New Yorkers from discrimination, the messaging that helps open hearts and minds, and how you can play a significant role in our campaign.
Community Ambassador webinar trainings begin on February 16. Please sign up for one today so that together we can create a better New York for tomorrow.
Webinar Dates and Times:
Tuesday, February 21 at 6 p.m.
Monday, February 27 at 7 p.m.
Thursday, March 1 at 6 p.m.RSVP Required. Please contact me at kmcdonough@prideagenda.org or (917) 522-3411 to find out how to join.
We cannot say that we are truly equal until all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender New Yorkers have the rights and protections they need.
Do you have what it takes to be a leader? Sign up today!
Onward!
Kate McDonough
Lead Organizer
Today is my mom’s 82nd birthday.
This is her when she was 19. She’s in Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, on a date with my dad, wearing trousers because Katharine Hepburn did.
This is the first birthday in 60 years she’ll spend without my dad. I can’t even begin to imagine how that could be, but I love her, and I love that she is getting stronger and living (mostly) on her own. She told me recently that she’s met with some of the other widows in her little community, and that she thinks she can do it.
Which goes to show, for the billionth time, that people will, and do, surprise you in ways you never expected.
This one is me and her when we visited her in Florida in December last year.
Happy Birthday, Mom!
The NYPD has a bad record with its treatment of trans people, so one woman – who was arrested for an illegal subway swipe – is suing them.
A trans woman named was killed in DC this week, and the DC Trans Coalition reports other violence as well.
I am never going to understand this kind of violence.
One of my favorite blogs – especially now that I live in Wisconsin – is Humans of New York, which is a project that’s a little bit like a photographic census. Not only does it consist of great photos of people in New York, but there’s an interactive map for where they were taken, too.
This is one of my favorites. It’s called “bike.”
I expect some of our Appleton peeps will read this & we will make a lot more sense. Maybe. Anyway, it’s great.
Bagel.
And yes, for your snarky types who think there is no life outside of the coasts, I do miss Appleton: I love the Lawrence campus, because it’s beautiful and peaceful; I miss the big skies and stars and the clear, clear air on cold winter nights; I miss the bunnies and raccoons and geese and cormorants and songbirds that are a daily sight. I miss teaching, and I miss the students when I’m not teaching too, and I miss living in a community of intellectual community engagement.
I am also in awe of anyone who grew up outside of a city like New York and who has found a way NOT to conform in a small city like Appleton; I find maintaining my independence and artsiness really, really challenging there. I have had to change so much, and only now, back in New York, am I aware of the daily small compromises: no good bagels, no gas stoves, no good cheap Italian food or inexpensive salons for manicures, pedicures, or waxing; no radiator heat. It is often a struggle to explain that “tea” does not mean chamomile to a coffee culture. Add to that not liking beer, being professionally queer and a vegetarian, and having a conscientious objector relationship with football — let’s just say it hasn’t been a tidy landing for me, and I’m sure I’ve complained plenty. This trip home has given me at least some perspective on what kinds of ways I might try to adjust going forward, and in the meanwhile, I am more thankful for the progressive politicians, artistic friends and other displaced coasties than anyone might imagine, but especially to those who have expressed empathy while they watched me try to fit this square peg into the round hole that is Appleton.
So as much as it’s been one of the most difficult experiences of my life, I still find life in Appleton lovely in ways I could have never imagined as a lifelong New Yorker and alt urbanite.
Tonight we’re going to see The Schmekels at Southpaw here in Brooklyn for an evening of “Hanuka Rock”. The Schmekels are “100% Trans Jews” and although what they play isn’t really klezmer, they certainly seem to have a sense of humor — “schmekel” means “small penis” in Yiddish.
So if you’re around & this is your kind of thing, feel free to say hi if you see us there.
After 10 days in Florida with my mom, which was amazing, we came up to Brooklyn to stay with my sister and brother in law, and in our old ‘hood, and WOW: it’s such a pleasure to be back. New Yorkers, do leave once in a while so you realize that you live in the goddamned promised land. Being back in a culture of eccentricity, creativity and non-conformity is absolutely amazing, whether that means seeing an older woman with graying braids and cropped pants and striped socks, or finding a bar on Second Avenue described thusly:
Named, designed, and destined for Downtown’s creative cognoscenti, Lit was conceived as an environment by and for everyone who does not fit in to the current all-American quality of life agenda.
Promoting de-gentrification and un-sterilized anti-chic, with comfort and class, Lit is about drinking and socializing with like-minded individuals.
The assumption that there IS a creative cognoscenti is a luxury I can’t ever take for granted again.
So today, off to see the new Almodovar and to revel in the bustling bustlingness of my amazing hometown. It does a body good.
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