lgbtqs

lgbtqs

A Pride Worthy Archives Update

A Pride Worthy Archives Update

IU East LGBTQ+ Archive Just in time for Pride Month, we added several new items to the IU East LGBTQ+ Collection. Current Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, Dr. Nathan Froebe, recently premiered his new song cycle titled “In Paths Untrodden” on Facebook Live. This song cycle consists of ten poems by Walt Whitman and depicts the navigation of an LGBTQ+ relationship in the messy aftermath of romantic separation. Dr. Froebe composed this music over the last eight years, pulling from his own personal experience, and wrote the voice parts for two ungendered voices. The IU East Archives now has the performance, the performance program, the musical score, and Dr. Froebe’s interview on how and why he created this song cycle … Continued
Celebrating Pride and African American Music Appreciation Month

Celebrating Pride and African American Music Appreciation Month

June celebrations are myriad and interesting, with lots of opportunities for discovery and learning.  This month, we celebrate both African American Music Appreciation Month and LGBTQ Pride Month.  African American LGBTQ musicians have contributed some of the most recognizable songs in American history, as well as serving as examples of successful artists who in many cases lived their truths openly.  Here, we profile a handful of artists spanning over 100 years of recorded music. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey Ma Rainey was born in 1886 with the full name of Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett, likely in Columbus, Georgia.  Her potent version of the blues was confrontational and influential, and she worked with some of the most famous artists of her (and any … Continued
History of HIV/AIDS

History of HIV/AIDS

The history of AIDS, and the human immunodeficiency virus that causes it, has left a long and bloody mark on world history, moving from an academic concern, to an always-fatal but poorly understood disease, to an inflection point in civil rights, to what is now, in much of the world, a survivable chronic condition.  It has been an instrument of death and division which has cost perhaps 35 million lives. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans from apes, mutated from the related simian immunodeficiency virus.  While the nature of its first transfer to humans remains a point of debate, it spread rapidly via unsterilized injections (commonplace in most of the regions of Africa where infected apes were known) … Continued
Spotlight: Actors and Famous Personalities with HIV

Spotlight: Actors and Famous Personalities with HIV

The IU East LGBTQ+ Resource Team, Office of Diversity, Center for Health Promotion, Campus Library, and Aspire Indiana Health are hosting “You and me and HIV: A month of awareness and action for prevention” throughout March. In support of this, here are just a few examples of actors and iconic personalities who were HIV positive or who are currently open with their diagnosis. Michael Jeter (1952-2003) was an actor of the stage, television, and films. Jeter won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1992 from his role as Herman Stiles in the television show Evening Shade and was nominated multiple times for Outstanding Guest Actor from his roles in Picket Fences (1993) and Chicago Hope … Continued
Visual Artists and HIV

Visual Artists and HIV

Since 1989, art galleries and museums have taken note of the toll that HIV has taken on artists and their communities.  While a number of HIV+ artists are well known, such as photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and Herb Ritts and painter Keith Haring, the disease still affects the art world today.  Profiled below are three artists whose work is making a significant impact in the art world today. Photographer John Dugdale produces fragile, beautiful cyanotypes and calotypes that often feature LGBTQ themes (even the flowers – really!).Born in 1960, Dugdale studied photography at New York’s School of the Visual Arts.  He was diagnosed with HIV in 1982 and lived with the disease mostly in check until 1993, when he suffered two … Continued