Celebrating Lesbian Artists

Expanding the Sense of Humanity in Us All

Lenore Chinn

Lenore Chinn

Ellen DeGeneres is selling American Express cards. The L Word is gearing up for a third hugely successful season on Showtime. We’re seeing out lesbians on other hit television shows, such as ER, Las Vegas, and The O.C.  And yet, hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people are on the rise, gay marriage sparks controversy, and many states are passing anti-gay legislation.

What’s it like to be a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender artist in these schizophrenic times? For our June newsletter we asked three lesbian artists on the WomenArts Network – painter Lenore Chinn from San Francisco, playwright Sharon Bridgforth from Austin, Texas, and novelist Susan Stinson from Northampton, Massachusetts.  Each artist responded in ways that were generous and inclusive. In their online interviews, they discuss the support networks that sustain them in their own communities, as well as their efforts to reach out to larger audiences.  As Susan Stinson says, “I write for everyone, for the expanding sense of humanity in all of us.”

To read Sarah Browning’s interviews with these three artists, please visit: Interviews with Lenore Chinn, Sharon Bridgforth, and Susan Stinson.

 

Learn About Other Fabulous LGBT Artists

June is celebrated as Gay Pride Month because it marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. On June 28, 1969 the police did a routine raid on a gay bar in New York called the Stonewall Inn.  They ordered the customers to leave, but this time the crowd refused, and several days of riots followed. This brave act of resistance to anti-gay laws marked a major turning point in the gay rights movement and continues to inspire people all over the world.

To learn more about LGBT history, you can browse www.glbtq.com, the Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer Culture. Brief essays give readers the history of everything from lesbians in the Blues to pre-Stonewall lesbian photographers.

Also, you can find many lesbian artists on the WomenArts Network by typing the word “lesbian” into any WomenArts Network Search Box.  We have compiled an annotated list of some of these artists for you, as well as some other online resources. To see our list, go to: www.womenarts.org/2005/06/01/other-lgbt-artists/

Keep Up on LGBT Representation in the Media and Take Action!

A new study shows that watching positive representations of gays and lesbians on TV really does change attitudes. Read about the study at: quote from GLAAD article or read the study itself at: www.comm.umn.edu/department/pch.

Two great sites make keeping track of lesbian-themed media easy and fun. Check out:

Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD): Dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Includes TV GAYED: GLAAD’s Weekly Guide to What’s LGBT on TV. GLAAD also organizes campaigns to pressure media companies to improve the representation of LGBT people in the media. Take action through their web site or join their Monitor & Mobilize Team. www.glaad.org

AfterEllen.com
Reviews and Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual Women in Entertainment and the Media. Compulsively readable site that includes a illustrated Timeline of TV Lesbian Kisses and lesbian-themed storylines in U.S. TV shows. (Not affiliated with Ellen DeGeneres.) www.afterellen.com

This Month’s Raffle

Kate Clinton Photo

Kate Clinton

You can win a copy of Kate Clinton’s new book, What the L? or Susan Stinson’s award-winning novel, Venus of Chalk – chosen as one of the top 10 lesbian books of 2004 by The Publishing Triangle.  Just write to us and tell us which book you are interested in winning.


What the L? is a hilarious new collection of essays by Kate Clinton, beloved lesbian comic and Advisory Board member of The Fund for Women Artists.

The book tells what’s happening lately to the L’s: lesbians, liberals, leftists,
lawyers, Ellen, leaders, liars, lapsed Catholics, lifestylists, lovers, and losers.
Help get Kate’s book on the bestseller list: Buy the book and check out her Girlilla Tactics: kateclinton.com/katemart/

Carolyn Gage’s Ugly Ducklings

Carolyn Gage Photo

Carolyn Gage

In a unique educational program designed to address homophobic attitudes among teens, Hardy Girls Healthy Women of Waterville, Maine, will stage the premiere of Carolyn Gage’s Ugly Ducklings, a gothic thriller and lesbian love story set in a girls’ summer camp. Teen actors will be involved in ongoing discussions about homophobia as they rehearse the play.

Academy Award-winner Fawn Yacker will create a documentary about this process which will be distributed to schools around the country.

To find out more about the project or to make a contribution, go to: Hardy Girls Healthy Women/Ugly Ducklings

Special Thanks

This newsletter is made possible by generous grants from the Valentine Foundation, the CDQ Charitable Trust, the Women’s Funding Network Venture Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

 

This entry was posted in Interviews with Women Artists, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writers/Literature on by .

About Sarah Browning

Sarah Browning is Director of Split This Rock and DC Poets Against the War, author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007), and co-editor of D.C. Poets Against the War: An Anthology (Argonne House Press, 2004). The recipient of an artist fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, she has also received a Creative Communities Initiative grant and the People Before Profits Poetry Prize. Browning has worked as a community organizer in Boston public housing and as a political organizer for reproductive rights, gay rights, and electoral reform, and against poverty, South African apartheid, and U.S. militarism. She was founding director of Amherst Writers & Artists Institute — creative writing workshops for low-income women and youth — and Assistant Director of The Fund for Women Artists, an organization supporting socially engaged art by women. She has written essays and interviewed poets and artists for a variety of publications.