I was a bit disappointed in the turnout for Saturday's Stonewall Reading at the downtown branch of the Atlanta Library. Even some of the performers didn't bother to show up. Bad form. Still, it was great to hear some of my favorite poets read, including Jessica Hand, Robin Kemp and Megan Volpert, who debuted a piece of her new "Andy Warhol project." It was 96 degrees on Saturday with the heat index at 100, so maybe that kept a few folks indoors.
Yesterday, I got my shit together and submitted poems (yes, I'm still a poet despite all this fiction blather) to two literary magazines. I've got work coming out in another lit mag later this year, the introduction to an anthology in the UK and, fingers crossed, a couple of poems in another anthology coming in 2010.
I think I mentioned on the blog before that work on the sequel to Conquering Venushas been at a standstill. On Saturday, another piece of the plot fell into place that had been eluding me for months. I have a beginning and end, it's just finding the connective tissue between the two that has been difficult. Conquering Venus takes place in 1995, the sequel two years later, beginning the day that Princess Diana dies in Paris. I'm 99.9 percent sure the third book in the trilogy will take place in 2005 -- a full 10 years after the events of Conquering Venus. I digress. You all still need to read the first book before you hear about the other two. I have a four-day weekend coming up, and I plan to use most of that to work on the sequel.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was probably dancing through the halls of the govenor's mansion belting the Evita soundtrack all weekend, since the untimely deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson knocked him almost completely out of the news cycle. The cartoon above sumes it up. Thanks to Joe.My.God. -- my favorite LGBT blog -- for the image.
Just in time for Pride, YouTube has posted the entire documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. Today is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the catalyst for the gay civil rights movement in America we are still fighting today.
The Atlanta Queer Literary Festival and the Special Collections Department of the Atlanta-Fulton County Library team up to present a day of readings to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which ushered in the gay rights movement in America. Readings will take place on Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Central Library in Downtown. I'll be hosting and performing in the afternoon.
Performers include: Malika, Patrique Vosges, Larry Corse, Alice Teeter, Elliott Mackle, Robin Kemp, Cleo Creech, Karen G, Dustin Brookshire, Bob Strain, Antron Rechaud, Stanley Fong, Lakara Foster, Megan Volpert, Collin Kelley, Guerin Asante, Queen Sheba, Lisa Allender, Deb/ra Hiers, Jessica Hand, Theresa Davis, Yolo Akili, KenJ Martin, Reginald Jackson, Sincere, Kristyl Dawn Tift and Franklin Abbott.
The library is located at 1 Margaret Mitchell Square in Downtown Atlanta. We strongly encourage visitors to take Marta to the Peachtree Center station. There is an entrance/exit directly across from the library's front door. Here's the full line-up:
First Section (10 a.m. - noon)
Franklin Abbott (host) Patrique Vosges Bob Strain Sincere Guerin Asante Larry Corse Lakara Foster Alice Teeter Deb/ra Hiers
Second Section (noon - 2 p.m.)
Collin Kelley (host) Megan Volpert Theresa Davis Yolo Akili Lisa Allender Elliott Mackle Kristyl Dawn Tift Dustin Brookshire Antron-Rechaud
Third Section (2 - 4:30 p.m.)
Reginald Jackson (host) Malika Donovan Brown Karen G Jessica Hand Stanley Fong Robin Kemp Cleo Creech KenJ Martin Queen Sheba
No matter what you thought of Michael Jackson, he changed music forever. I still have my vinyl copy of Thriller. I'll always remember him from that glorious era. It's absolutely tragic that he and Farrah died on the same day. Rest in peace.
There's been such a flurry of activity at my desk, I realized this morning that I'd left a number of loose ends. Let's roll back the clock to last Thursday and the premiere of Poetry Atlanta's DVD anthology, Trouble and Hope. There were around 60 people in attendance at the Decatur Library for a screening of the film, which includes Jon Goode, Natasha Trethewey, Alice Lovelace, Beth Gylys, Sharan Strange, Opal Moore, Mike Dockins and many more. Hats off to Bill Starr and Joe Davich at Georgia Center for the Book for being Poetry Atlanta's partner in this event. You can now purchase the DVD for $15 (+ $2 shipping) at Poetry Atlanta. If you're in Atlanta you can purchase a copy at Decatur CD, Charis Books & More in Little Five Points and Java Monkey Coffee House in Decatur. More retail outlets will be added soon. If you're on Twitter, you can also follow Poetry Atlanta at www.twitter.com/PoetryAtlanta.
I have more than 1,000 followers on Twitter now, and I'm trying to be more pro-active by tweeting on a daily basis. I decided it was time to embed my Twitter posts on Modern Confessional, so you can see them in the sidebar. Speaking of Twitter, my print edition of OCHO #24 featuring Twitter Poets (which I guest edited with Didi Menendez) arrived in the mail today from Amazon. It's a very cool, perfect bound paperback, and at only $9.99, it's a bargain. You can order your copy at this link.
Also in the mail today: the Criterion editions of The Seventh Seal and Last Year at Marienbad. Two of my all-time favorite films in glorious new DVD sets. I'll have mini-reviews up at the weekend.
This afternoon, I had a "ladies who lunch" date at the Universal Joint in Decatur with the fab Laurel Snyder, Megan Volpert, Jessica Hand and her wife, Jeana. Lots of chips, salsa and big, juicy burgers were consumed, while Laurel regaled us with the story of her father being struck by lightning in a church and Jessica almost falling out of an airplane while skydiving. Laurel has a new young adult novel out from Random House called Any Which Wall. It's about a group of kids who find a magic wall that can take them anywhere in time. Great for all ages.
Just got in from the media launch for the 2009 Decatur Book Festival at Eddie's Attic. They've got some really big names coming this year including a keynote address by Sir Harold Evans, Lee Child, Kathy Reichs, Robert Olen Butler, Douglas Blackmon, Edward Hirsch, Natasha Trethewey, Felice Picano, C. Dale Young, Kathryn Stockett, Patricia Smith, Thomas Lux, Rick Bragg and many more, including me. What amazing company to be in.
There were stacks and stacks of free books given away, and the Conquering Venus chapbook was picked up by a few folks and I shamelessly shoved it into the hands of others. They haven't announced a day or time for my reading, but I'll post it as soon as I get it.
Along with all the writers, there's going to be some other interesting events including a musical tribute to Eudora Welty featuring Mary Chapin Carpenter, Caroline Herring, Kate Campbell and Claire Holley. There will also be plenty of food, writing workshops, a poetry slam at Java Monkey Speaks and much, much more.
Along with promoting Conquering Venus, I'll be hosting part of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival stage and an hour of poets at the Java Monkey Poetry Stage, which is being sponsored by Poetry Atlanta. It's going to be a hectic, but exciting weekend of literature.
The controversial documentary, Outrage, finally opened in Atlanta (nearly two months later than the rest of the country) and I went to the matinee this afternoon with fellow bloggers Cleo Creech and Lisa Allender. Directed by Kirby Dick (best known for This Film is Not Yet Rated), the doc outs conservative politicians (and their outspoken supporters and sycophants) who vote against GLBT rights, but are secretly gay themselves: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Louisiana Rep. Jim McCrery, California Rep. David Dreier, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.
I do not support outing. It's a personal matter men and women should come to terms with in their own way and time. However, when closeted gays rise to power and use that power to repress the rights of their own community, I firmly believe they should be publicly outed and removed from office. Outrage offers a compelling case against all the politicians profiled, with solid evidence and reporting from noted journalists, including CNN's Hilary Rosen, Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff (who was hit on by Shepard Smith in a bar!) Andrew Sullivan and Michelangelo Signorile. Writers Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner weigh in, as well as current and former politicians like Barney Frank, former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevy and former Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe, both of whom outed themselves.
The lightning rod of the piece is blogger Michael Rogers (Blogactive.com), who began a campaign of outing closeted politicians with former Virginia Rep. Ed Schrock, who dropped his campaign for re-election in 2004 when the news broke. Schrock, like the rest of the politicians profiled, actively voted against an array of issues affecting the GLBT community including gay marriage, expanding hate crime laws, allowing gays and lesbians to adopt and even funding for HIV/AIDS. Dick and those interviewed make it clear that all these politicians are self-loathing gay men, drunk on power and raised in an era where they were forced to suppress their sexuality. Larry Kramer levels the charge that Ed Koch ignored the growing AIDS crisis in New York in the '80s because Koch was afraid that addressing it would lend credence to the rumors that he was gay. Randy Shilts made the same charge in the classic non-fiction account of the AIDS epidemic, And the Band Played On.
Perhaps the most disturbing profile is that of current Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who has talked about running for Congress next year and has been talked up as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012. Outrage offers a believable series of interviews and evidence that Crist is gay and has dated women (notably during his election campaigns) as a cover. One of the women he dated would not go on camera, but told Dick "to call me in ten years and I'll tell you a story." As governor, Crist signed discrimination into the Florida constitution by banning gay marriage, endorsed a ban on gays and lesbians adopting children and appointed some of the most conservative right-wingers to the state supreme court. Equally disturbing is the media's refusal to report on these closet cases, with CNN censoring Bill Maher outing former Bush campaign manager Ken Melhman on Larry King Live and NPR refusing to mention Crist and Craig in its coverage of Outrage.
I'll be turning 40 in September, and over the last 20 years or so, I've had relationships with men who have renounced their sexuality and gone on to marry women and have children. One of those men said he was raised in a strict Christian home and his family would ostracize him if he came out. Another didn't believe he was really gay, but liked to occasionally have sex with men. I really pity his wife, especially when she eventually finds him in bed with another man, because she will. I won't out them, but I hope neither of them have political aspirations.
If the politicians in Outrage want to stay in the closet, screw their chiefs of staff and pick up tricks in airport bathrooms, that's fine with me. It's their own lives to ruin, but when they go to Washington or attain high office and use that office to suppress civil rights, then it's open season as far as I'm concerned. As openly gay D.C. councilman David Catania says in the film: "They've been chasing us for years -- we're going to chase back."
Dedication and acknowledgement pages for Conquering Venus have gone to Vanilla Heart, a final galley is coming in July and then it goes to the press. The book will officially launch at the Decatur Book Festival over Labor Day weekend. I'll be at the DBF press launch on Monday night at Eddie's Attic to say a few words about the book and about the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival hosting a stage at this year's event. More new soon!
Poetry Atlanta Presents... Trouble and Hope, a DVD anthology of poets in performance and conversation, will have its premiere tomorrow night at a special screening in conjunction with Georgia Center for the Book. The film will screen at 7:15 p.m. at the Decatur Library, 215 Sycamore St. There is no admission charge and DVDs will be for sale for $15. This film has been more than two years in the making and features some of Atlanta's finest poets and spoken word artists. My contribution is "Wonder Woman" and I'm also interviewed about Atlanta's poetry and spoken word scene.
Performers include: Amena Brown, Mr. Boom, Chris Chandler, Theresa Davis, Travis Denton, Mike Dockins, Rupert Fike, Karen G., Jon Goode, Beth Gylys, Lady Hardin, Kodac Harrison, Karen Head, Collin Kelley, BasiKnowledge, Alice Lovelace, Opal Moore, Bryan Pattillo, Randy Prunty, Tania Rochelle, Tavares Stephens, Sharan Strange, Natasha Trethewey, Dan Veach, Megan Volpert, Karen Wurl, Gypsee Yo and a special tribute to the late Shannon Leigh.
Filmed at locations around Atlanta, including Java Monkey Coffee House, Composition Gallery and the Decatur Book Festival, the DVD will be for sale at shops in Atlanta and online at www.PoetryAtlanta.com beginning this weekend. For directions to the library and more info, visit Georgia Center for the Book.
An editorial in yesterday's Daytona Beach News-Journal asked the best question: Can we stop asking what Twitter is for, now? In the wake of the corrupt election in Iran, the massive protests and deaths, it became obvious that American media totally dropped the ball on coverage of what was happening over the weekend and continues today, most notably CNN. Where was the place to find news happening moment by moment? Twitter, of course. While cable news continues to play catch-up – and many news organizations have been banned by the government from gathering and reporting information – Twitter is still the place to find the latest news. Go to Twitter and follow the trending topic #iranelection. Photos, live reports and much more. This is what Twitter is for. Now.
Photo courtesy of Boston.com, which has provided some arresting images of the protests.
The GLBT community is divided over whether there should be a march on Washington this October, but Cleve Jones – friend of Harvey Milk, founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt – is moving full steam ahead with organizing the event. The disappointment in Obama continues to grow, especially last week after his administration made a motion to dismiss a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act. Obama, who famously called himself a "fierce advocate" of the gay community, made plenty of promises last year and none of them have come to fruition. Cleve Jones said the state by state, community by community push for equal rights (in reference to the states approving gay marriage) is not enough and there needs to be national attention and action by the federal government.
There is momentum because of Proposition 8, the six states approving gay marriage and a national dialogue about GLBT issues not seen since the '90s, so maybe a new march on Washington might bring it all to a head. What would calm fears, nerves and frustration is if Obama would do one thing – end "don't ask, don't tell," get rid of DOMA, and push harder for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the hate crimes bill to get through Congress. Or, maybe if he'd just say anything about anything regarding GLBT issues of substance. If he doesn't make a move soon, his "fierce advocate" line is going to haunt him for the rest of his presidency.
I'm a nominee for Southern Voice's Best of Gay Atlanta in the poet/author category. I usually don't shill for votes like this, but I would appreciate your vote and support. You can vote at this link.
Cleo Creech, Megan Volpert, Julie Blomeke, Karen Head and myself met for our third poets' dinner at Top Flr restaurant in Midtown Atlanta. Delicious food and company!
It's videos like this that really make YouTube a gift. Here's Anne Sexton reading "Wanting to Die" followed by a montage set to Radiohead's "I Will." There's a second clip of her reading "Menstruation at Forty" and talking about poetry, pills and mental institutions at this link.
Just last week I wrote about the dangers of the right-wing Christian fringe in this country after the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Today, a white-supremacist, Christian whackjob walked into the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. with a rifle and killed a security guard before he was shot by other guards.
Meanwhile, you've got Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck and Hannity doing their usual fearmongering and egging on the right wing with their virulent hate speech on radio and television. From O'Reilly's "baby killer" crusade against Tiller on Fox to a bunch of losers on KRXQ radio station in Sacramento advocating for beating children who might identify as transgender, the right-wing in this country scares me much more than a radical Islamic terrorist. Eric Boehlert has an excellent article about O'Reilly and his ilk inciting the right-wing to violence at Media Matters.
I suppose the only good news today is that Carrie Prejean was fired as Miss California because she was too busy gay-bashing over at Fox rather than making appearances required by her winning of the state pageant.
American Idol season 8 runner up Adam Lambert states the obvious in the new issue of Rolling Stone out this week. A few other confessions: had the hots for winner Kris Allen, likes pot and ecstasy, gets in a catty swipe at Clay Aiken for being a closet case, wants to be a singer not a civil rights leader. There, I just saved you a couple of bucks. Oh, and you can read part of it and see a video from the cover shoot (color me not impressed...meow!) at this link. I'm sure tween girls everywhere are crying into their juice boxes and 40-year-old IT guys are jizzing their pants. You know who you are.
For BFF Kathy, who wanted to know what I hadn't posted anything about it. :-)
I can't remember how many years ago the fabulous poet Cecilia Woloch told me she wanted to create a small press for chapbooks. I think we were driving back from a reading in Asheville, NC, so it must have been 2004. Fast forward to 2009 and raise a glass to the founding of Fortunate Daughter Press!
The new press is an imprint of the Southern California literary nonprofit Tebot Bach with the support of the organization's director, Mifanwy Kaiser, and poet Carmen Palmer. The Fortunate Daughter mission is to publish, annually, one simple and beautifully made chapbook by an exceptional poet who has not yet published a book or chapbook.
Fortunate Daughter's first title, An Urgent Request, by Sarah Luczaj, is available for online purchase via Tebot Bach's "Publications" page at this link. You can also visit the Fortunate Daughter website for a Q&A with Sarah and keep up to date with Fortunate Daughter news and events. The press is also on Twitter. I just received my copy of An Urgent Request and will post a mini-review soon.
Congrats, Cecilia, for making your dream come true!
I've spent most of my Saturday working on the introduction for an anthology that will be out later this year. I'm not at liberty to give the title or subject matter at the moment, but I was honored to be asked. I just finished a rough draft and sent it to BFF Kathy for a once over. Kathy has been a saviour the last couple of months by helping me with final edits on Conquering Venus. Maybe because of the day job, various blogs and social networking sites, I feel my writing has become less -- for lack of a better word -- precise. I've found myself making sloppy mistakes and word choices, not to mention forgetting all the rules of punctuation. With the impending publication of the novel, the release of the Poetry Atlanta DVD and planning for the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival, time suckage is at an all time high. I'm trying to figure out how to lighten the load this summer. I'll let you know how that works out.
My evening task is to finally clean out my bedroom closet and the six boxes of old magazines and newspaper I have stored there. They are going to recycling this week. I need more storage space and why I've been hoarding them (and moving them from apartment to apartment) all these years is beyond me. I've started feeling like Little Edie from Grey Gardens. Pretty soon I'll be wearing my pantyhose over my pants under a short skirt. Or using the skirt as a cape.
Tonight -- against my better judgement -- I plan to succumb to the Twilight craze. The movie came yesterday from Netflix. I gave up on vampires after the first three Anne Rice books (they all sucked after that...sorry, Anne) but everyone is Twilight crazy these days, so it's time to see what the fuss is all about.
The Twitter Poets edition of OCHO I guest edited with Didi Menendez is now available in print from Amazon for just $9.99. Buy two! More info at these posts: Poets On Twitter and Twitter issue of OCHO now online. You can still read the issue online, but please support the press and purchase a copy.
The delovely and delicious Karen Head has a brand-spanking-new collection of poetry out called Sassing from WordTech Editions. I had the honor of reading this collection a couple of years ago while it was still in the submission process, and I can tell you this one is most definitely worth your money, attention and time. It will have an extra kick if you're a southerner and a music fan of the 70s. Many of the poems take their titles from songs and Karen goes deep into the pop culture, myth and darkness of what it means to be a native southerner. You can find out more and find links to order Sassing at Karen's WordTech site or check out her blog.
Robin Kemp evokes her hometown of New Orleans both pre- and post-Katrina in her new collection, This Pagan Heaven, which is forthcoming in August from Pecan Grove Press (the press of St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX). Robin and I have performed together a zillion times over the last five or six years and her work is political, deft and full of unexpected imagery. Her poems about Katrina are right up there with Patricia Smith for capturing the heartbreak and spirit of NOLA.
Robert E. Wood and I now share a press, with his new chapbook Gorizia Notebook now on pre-order from Finishing Line Press. It's only $12 and you can order using PayPal at the Finishing Line site. New books are listed alphabetically by author, so scroll down until you see Robert's link. Robert writes elegant, insightful poems, so make sure you pick up a copy and watch for him on the reading circuit this fall.
Florence and the Machine have been releasing singles and EPs in Europe (and there's one on American iTunes), but the debut album Lungs drops later this month. "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)" is one of the most gorgeous songs (and videos) I've heard in ages.
Pogo
Australian producer and filmmaker Pogo's blissed out, techno cut up of Mary Poppins called "Expialidocious" is getting a cult following on the web. He's also cut up Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter. So incredibly cool.
Basement Jaxx
No proper video for Basement Jaxx's long-awaited new single, "Raindrops," but if this doesn't put in a summer/clubbing mood nothing will.
The radical anti-abortion movement -- comprised of the Christian right-wing fringe of this country -- murdered Dr. George Tiller on Sunday morning in Tiller's own church. While there is an "alleged" triggerman, Scott Roeder, he is nothing more than the face of the radical right that hypocritically commits homicide in "God's name." They're doing it for the BABIES! The Christian fringe are terrorists, whether it's shooting doctors or their hate-filled harangues outside the funerals of servicemen. For all the railing done by the right about terrorists, we have our own faction at work right here in America. I've got a solution. Round up these lunatics and ship them off to Guantanamo. If we can go into other countries and forcibly removed "suspected terrorists" and keep them detained for years with no formal charges, it should be a snap to scrape this country of our own domestic terrorists. I'm just sayin'...
Speaking of the lunatic fringe, one of their messiahs sent a ripple through the religious right today when Dick Cheney -- yes, the biggest Dick of them all -- said he supported gay marriage. This is not a typo. Cheney said "freedom means freedom for everyone." He said marriage should be decided on a state by state basis, which is currently happening now. Maybe Dick's lesbian daughter has finally convinced him to get with the program. Who would have thought that our very own Mr. Potter would look more progressive than President Obama? Again, I'm just sayin'...
Meanwhile, Obama proclaimed June as national Pride month, while his administration has done little to help the GLBT community. People with HIV are still barred from entering the United States, Don't Act Don't Tell continues to throw people out of the military and he hasn't mentioned the gay marriage movement at all. The clock is ticking.
