Careening into Gay Midlife

To whet your appetite for our Wed., June 15, discussion of James Daniel's Careening into Gay Midlife, here is a glowing review from the Seattle Gay Times. James, a member of BookMen DC, will be on hand to talk about his memoir and answer questions. I hope to see many of you there!

James Kirchick speaks at the Library of Congress

As I noted in an earlier posting ("Sex and the Secret City"--scroll down), there is a lot of interest in reading James Kirchick's new book, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. So I am most grateful to Ernie Raskauskas for alerting me to the fact that the author will appear at the Library of Congress this coming Thursday, June 9, at 7 p.m. BREAKING NEWS: Mr. Kirchick has tested positive for COVID-19, alas, so he will participate in the event remotely. However, the Library has set up a livestream, so you can enjoy the interview after the fact, regardless of whether you had ever registered to attend in person.

Poems for Pride Month

Continuing my ongoing series of postings here spotlighting LGBTQ poets the American Academy of Poetry has featured via its Poem-a-Day newsletter, here are a set of nine poems in honor of Pride Month.  

Enjoy!

i love you to the moon &                        by Chen Chen

from obedience [the clock is on time]     by kari edwards

This Is What Makes Us Worlds                by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

10 AM Is When You Come to Me            by Meg Day

I, Lover                                                        by Elsa Gidlow

Black Parade                                                by Darrel Alejandro Holnes

Boy in a Stolen Evening Gown                    by Saeed Jones

Gay Marriage Poem                                      by Jenny Johnson

Edmonia Lewis and I Weather the Storm        by Xan Phillips

Sex and the "Secret City"

There's already been a lot of buzz about journalist James Kirchick's new book, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, which covers the years from FDR's presidency through Clinton's. A tip of the hat to Richard Schaefers and Octavio Roca for independently suggesting it as a candidate for a future BookMen DC reading list. It certainly sounds promising! Here are a profile of Kirchick in the June issue of Washingtonian magazine, an Axios interview, and reviews from the New York Times (largely laudatory) and Washington Post (highly critical).

Barney Frank gets graphic

The May issue of Washingtonian magazine reports on the publication of Eric Orner's new graphic novel, Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank. (Many BookMen members will recall Orner from his long-running comic strip in the Washington Blade and other gay publications, "The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green.") As the former congressman's longtime staff counsel and press secretary, and a fellow gay man, Orner is uniquely equipped to tell the story of Frank's rise from an insider's perspective. Here is the excerpt that appears in the magazine writeup about the book:

Happy 23rd 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 23 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). 

"We're not in Cairo anymore"

We just passed the 10-year anniversary of Omar Sharif Jr.'s coming out in the pages of The Advocate, back on March 16, 2012. As we prepare to discuss his memoir this Wednesday, I thought it would be useful for us all to read (or refresh our memory of) that bombshell declaration. And no, my decision was not influenced in any way by the illustration the magazine used with the article! 😎