A Scarlet Pansy (first edition!)

Our colleague Michael North found the first edition of A Scarlet Pansy (our June 7 selection) in the Library of Congress, and has generously shared these photos of the dust jacket, title page and frontispiece. He also spotlights the publisher's attempt  in this liner note to ride the wave created by the publication of a novel that will be familiar to many of you: "The first honest and really complete story of 'one of those men.' What The Well of Loneliness did for the man-woman [!], this unusual tale does for the Woman-Man --only that the latter is a [sic] so much more wayward and more fascinating."

LGBTQ poetry to get to know, Part I

It's been quite a while since I last offered a compilation of LGBTQ-themed poems (not all by LGBTQ poets, I should note) which the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletters has featured, so I'm playing catchup on that, in this and the next two postings. These poems were disseminated in January and early February 2023. Enjoy!

Elastic Love Contrapuntal                                    by Sarah Cooper

The Forest Road                                                    by Charlotte Mew

Behind Stowe                                                        by Elizabeth Bishop

Dearly Departed, Again I Dreamt about a Ship    by Camonghne Felix

Kink                                                                        by Imani Davis

When Dawn Comes to the City                                by Claude McKay

Canopy                                                                    by Arlene Keizer

 

LGBTQ poetry to get to know, Part II

The American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletters featured these poems with LGTBQ themes (but not always by LGBTQ poets), in February and early March 2023. Enjoy!

Aubade: Nocturne                                by Willie Lee Kinard III

The Eyes of My Regret                        by Angelina Weld Grimke

Boyhood                                               by Jari Bradley

No Room to Form                                by John S. Blake

Dirk McDermott                                   by Patrick Donnelly

Sissy                                                      by Aaron Smith

Lamb                                                     by Richie Hofmann

 

LGBTQ poetry to get to know, Part III

The American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletter featured these poems with LGTBQ themes (but not always by LGBTQ poets), in March, April and May 2023. Enjoy! 

Palm Springs                                                        by Christian Gullette

Snail-Picking                                                        by Onyedikachi Chinedu

anti poetica                                                           by Danez Smith

Western Edge                                                       by Carl Phillips

Taurus Sun, Cancer Moon, Scorpio Rising         by Paul Tran

Mentor                                                                 by Rachel McKibbens

Blood Sex                                                            by Crystal Valentine

What will they think of next?!

Octavio Roca, just back from Italy, was kind enough to share this photograph of the first book vending machine he's ever seen. Although you can't make out the machine's contents from here, Octavio assures us that the selections were not "the usual airport trash."  Viva Italia!

"55 Shades of Gay" on stage

Tonight, we read the first two plays in our newest anthology,  Global Queer Plays: Seven LGBTQ+ Works from Around the World: "Contempt" (from India) and "55 Shades of Gay" (from Kosovo). It's comparatively rare for us to be able to see such works staged, so I'm grateful to David Mendler for sharing this YouTube link to a 2019 performance of the latter play.

Book bans: A growing menace

BookMen members are well aware that censorship is once again on the march in America, mainly (but not exclusively) in red states. But a recent report by the American Library Association spells out just how fast this alarming trend is accelerating. In 2020, just 223 titles were targeted; last year, 2,571 were. Most of the books deal with LGBTQ issues or race. 

In the past, most book removals occurred when a parent raised concerns about a title directly with a teacher or librarian, and complaints were resolved quietly. But now, challenges to books are increasingly being driven by organized efforts led by elected officials or activist groups--whose actions can affect a whole school district or even state (as in Florida). A new report from PEN America documents this alarming trend.

Want more Walt Whitman?

Two weeks ago, we discussed Mark Doty's What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life.  If that book whetted your appetite for more of his poetry, I invite you to (re)read Live Oak, with Moss, illustrated by Brian Selznick, which we discussed almost exactly two years ago now. It's the perfect marriage of text and imagery.

Happy 24th birthday to us!

On May 11, 1999, Potomac Gay Men’s Book Group, the original incarnation of our intrepid band, met for the first time. And 24 years later, we’re still going strong!   

For a good overview of our illustrious history, here is the profile Metro Weekly published in conjunction with our big 20th-birthday bash at the D.C. Center, back in 2019. The Washington Blade also ran an article, but it's a bit cumbersome to get to; you have to click on the PDF file and scroll to p. 38. And, of course, there are various postings on the subject from the spring of 2019 on this blog (scroll down to "Older Posts," select 2019 and go from there).