Category: Queer Politics, Culture, and History

Angela Davis at Columbia College

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 5, 2010

Angela Davis’ appearance at Columbia College’s Getz Theater April 30 was book ended by standing ovations. As she strode out onto the stage, the intergenerational audience that had been buzzing in anticipation rose as one and clapped wildly. In a mark of her status as a living cultural icon, some in the audience were sporting T-shirts with the famous image of her from the 1970s, when Davis was wanted and eventually jailed by the FBI, sparking an international “Free Angela” campaign that led to her eventual release.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Gender JUST takes over CPS building

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date May 5, 2010

In a surprise action, approximately 50 members of the local grassroots organization Gender JUST (Justice United for Societal Transformation) and allies took over the downtown headquarters of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) April 29. This was part of an ongoing series of actions by the group’s Safe and Affirming Education Campaign, which focuses on the issues facing LGBTQ and other youth in CPS. Members of Gender JUST, including several youth and students, have been trying to work with CEO Ron Huberman in an effort to institute a grievance procedure with the school system.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Howard Brown: More questions than answers

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 28, 2010

It has now been almost a month since Windy City Times first broke the news that Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) had placed its CEO and CFO, Michael Cook and Mark Joslyn, respectively, on paid administrative leave. Since then, HBHC has revealed no details about the reasons for its actions, only issuing a series of increasingly cryptic press releases promising further details.

Academia On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

D’Emilio talks Nixon and gay liberation

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 21, 2010

The Chicago History Museum’s (CHM’s) ongoing series, Out at CHM, featured local gay historian John D’Emilio on April 15. D’Emilio, a professor of history and gender and women’s studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presented a piece entitled “Richard Nixon, Gay Liberationist?” Speaking to a packed auditorium, D’Emilio discussed the implications of his research for scholars of queer history. He argued that while it was tempting to read the virtual end of the harassment of gay bars in the 1970s as a sign of the success of queer resistance to the Daley machine, the truth might be more prosaic and linked to wider national political changes of the time.

Academia Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

UIC showcases new sexuality studies

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 21, 2010

The University of Illinois at Chicago hosted its third annual Lavender Forum April 15, an event co-sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Center and the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues. The forum began in 2008 as a daylong series of presentations by faculty and students. This year, it focused on student work that included the winners of a paper competition and the recipients of the Gender and Sexuality Center’s Kellogg Rainbow Merit Scholarship.

Feminism On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 7, 2010

A very specifically lesbian world.

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by [Bechdel, Alison]

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History

“Out at CHM” looks at queer Latinos

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date March 10, 2010

The Chicago History Museum’s Out at CHM series hosted its first Latina/o event March 4. Titled “Queer Latinos: Art and Change,” the program showcased the work of two researchers, Lourdes Torres and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes who presented on their Chicago-based work in the Latino/a community. They were introduced by Ramon Rivera-Servera, an assistant professor in the department of performance studies at Northwestern University.

Chicago Chronicles Queer Politics, Culture, and History

CHM looks at queer spaces, past and present

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date February 3, 2010

“We have lost touch with the … pleasure of danger, we risk losing our difference,”

The Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark, hosted a two-person presentation on Chicago’s queer spaces January 28.

Chicago Chronicles Immigration Queer Politics, Culture, and History Reporting

Queers a big part of Chicago youth immigrant movement

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date February 1, 2010

The Immigrant Youth Justice League (IYJL), a group of young immigrants, held a press conference Jan. 12 to announce its support for the 2009 Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act (CIR ASAP) of 2009.

Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Rage, or The Lack Thereof

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date January 11, 2010

Rage has dissipated into conciliation and a call for the status quo.