Lecture and Readings at the Stonewall Library and Archives
It was a lot of ground to cover in an hour, and I’m reminded as I look at video and listen to the audio, that I can talk really really fast when I’m excited about the topic. Excited is an understatement when it comes to lesbian romance.
I hope that every writer gets an opportunity to wax lyrical about their passions to an audience that is engaged and laughs in all the right places. It was a wonderful evening, standing room only, and nobody fell asleep.
Two video cameras were busy that night, and the result is posted on YouTube in nine parts. I could have talked all night.
My profound thanks to Jack Rutland of the Stonewall Library for arranging this event, and to Andrew Katzen for a close-up tour of the Archives themselves. They have precious artifacts of important moments in our history. It might surprise some visitors to learn that space is devoted to Anita Bryant, whose anti-gay campaign in the 1970s epitomized bigotry and lies about gay culture. Like all good libraries, the Stonewall is an equal opportunity offender.
All sides of a story are present; our triumph over the Anita Bryants of the world shines more brightly for the evidence of the darkness that the library also preserves.
Researchers must arrange to view the archives by appointment, but the Stonewall also features an extensive lending library full of LGBTQ titles. It is also a repository of our history and our lives and run almost entirely by volunteers. You can support this mission by joining the Stonewall. The membership fee is a modest $30/year.
I hope to have such a terrific evening again before they pry the keyboard out of my cold, stiff hands. Thank you to the videographers, the authors in the audience, the friends who traveled great distances, my family, my family of choice, librarians and mostly, thank you READERS. Without readers there are no books.