Last fall, I started a class in neon glass at Milwaukee Makerspace. Our instructor Brett took only a few minutes to do brief introductions to one another and his co-instructor, Rosie, before he led us into a meeting room to view a presentation on neon. He didn’t tell us how we would need to work.…
First, I must clarify that ageing does NOT suck. So, when I hear people use expressions like, “Ageing sucks, but it’s better than the alternative,” I bristle. Second, death is not a failure of the dead nor is it some sort of awful alternative to be avoided at all costs. I cannot think of these…
On August 21, 1983, Ronald Reagan was in the White House. The idea that The Police were monitoring Every Breath You Take had a very different meaning than it might today. The virus that causes AIDS was just identified, and the average life expectancy post-diagnosis was 18 months. My friends and I were generally operating…
Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken-winged bird that can not fly.” — Langston Hughes Finding two people who appreciate performance artists on stage and in recording studios and also hold a deep understanding of culture and community is infrequent but not particularly rare. Finding two such men in one…
We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed by it. As a matter of fact, in the popular black imagination, it is easier for us to construct ourselves as children of Africa, as the sons and daughters of kings…
“Free condoms! Take as many as you like! Free condoms here!” A few times a year I hawk free condoms at Union Station in Chicago and the Intermodal Station in Milwaukee. I figure young adults traveling Amtrak for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring Break should be prepared. After all, some reunions are best served with latex.…
I lament the loss of civil discourse, though I fear at times I am involved in its painful demise. As I write this week about politics, I am struck by my longing for the language of protests of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Hell, I am hungry for something that approaches a good argument. To…
And that’s why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it — Cole Porter, 1928 Recently I was asked a question that, in various forms and various contexts, comes up from time to time. It goes something like, “Do you believe that gay men are having more risky sex as treatments for…
My blog posts are sometimes started days before they are scheduled for online publication. This week as I am writing in concert with my friend Tom whose posts appear at One Whole Life, my writing is particularly organized. We have quite consciously outlined what we will include in each day’s posts, not so much to…
Today my friend Tom wrote in One Whole Life, It is unfortunate it took a deadly virus to bring LGBT people into visibility to society. You would have to know Tom even just a little to know that it would be really difficult to be angry with him. He is the kind of guy that…
Creating Community for Everyone 