Posts by Jason Baumann

Last week at the 2011 ALA Mid-Winter meeting in San Diego, the Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Awards were announced as part of the ALA youth media awards. The award is given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience. This year's winner is Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher.  This groundbreaking young adult novel depicts the troubled friendships and coming-out of a transgender teen. In addition to the winner, four honor books were selected: will grayson, will grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Love Drugged by James Klise, 

In case you were unable to attend the Library's standing-room-only talk by Hide/Seek curators Jonathan D. Katz and David C. Ward, check out the video online through our website:

Hide/Seek is a groundbreaking show, the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture, currently on view at the National Portrait Gallery. “Hide/Seek” considers such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art—especially abstraction—were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment. The curators of the exhibition, 

Take Care of Your Blessings: Items from the Essex Hemphill/Wayson Jones CollectionNovember 3-13, 2010Black Gay & Lesbian Archive Project

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books DivisionSchomburg Center for Research in Black CultureNew York Public Library

Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) was a writer, editor and activist. Hemphill is the author of Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992), Conditions: Poems (1986) and Earth Life (1985), and the editor of Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men 

The New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division is pleased to announce the opening of the records of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). The collection comprises 170 linear feet of GMHC records, chiefly dating from 1982 to 1999, including correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports and brochures that document all aspects of the organization’s activities. Also of particular interest is the nearly 1,000 video recordings of interviews with founders and early members of the organization, public service announcements, and segments from GMHC’s cable-access show, Living with AIDS. GMHC’s records show the rapid expansion from grassroots initiative to a 

  John Waters says "Modern Art hates you because you're stupid." That was just one of a battery of provocative statements that Waters volleyed from the analyst's couch last night with Paul Holdengraber.  Waters is of course the director of cult classics Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Hairspray, among others. He is also an Ambassador of the Library's LGBT Committee. Holdengraber played psychoanalyst to Waters, getting him to dig deeply into his wild mind, pulling out everything from his love of Johnny Mathis, his friendship with Leslie Van Houten, the influence of Tennessee Williams, to Thanksgiving dinner with Lana Turner.  Check out his new book Role Models for more 

 Join Sapphire, Staceyann Chin, Sofia Quintero, and Girls Write Now this Wednesday, June 9th at 5 p.m. at the Countee Cullen Library to celebrate the work of June Jordan. Be there to ask your questions about June Jordan, “His Own Where,” poetry, and more.

The Feminist Press celebrates the much anticipated reissue of June Jordan ’s 1971 young adult novel, His Own Where , with a new introduction by Sapphire . This classic novel about two young people in Brooklyn navigating poverty and discovering love for the first time was a finalist for the National Book Award and gained both praise and notoriety for being 

  Very sweet picture of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home on display side by side with Catcher in the Rye at the newly opened St. Agnes Branch. The juxtaposition is perfect. It makes me realize how Bechdel's graphic novel is our classic coming-of-age story for contemporary LGBT readers. If you haven't read it yet, check it out. From Bechdel's great blog.

Each year the Library's young adult librarians and participating teens pick the very best in young adult literature, music, games, and more in Stuff for the Teenage. This includes the best in the growing genre of LGBT literature for young adults. This year's picks include two great new titles:
 
The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Nick Burd   
Dial
Between his crappy job and his crappy “boyfriend,” Pablo, who won’t even acknowledge their relationship, Dade’s last summer at home before college pretty much sucks.But when Alex Kincaid becomes part of Dade’s social circle, Dade finds him a welcome distraction. Even as the two of 

Start off National Poetry Month right by checking out Walt Whitman's "Blue Book" on the Library's Treasures of The New York Public Library page.  The "Blue Book" is Walt Whitman's hand edited copy of the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. The entire book is available online through the Library's Digital Gallery. When you're done, check out Gary Schmidgall's classic study of the role of homoeroticism in Whitman's work Walt Whitman: A Gay Life.

Yank!, an amazing new musical portraying the lives of gays and lesbians in the armed forces during WWII, opens this week at the York Theatre. The production is incredibly well timed given the renewed debates taking place over the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The musical is even more notable for the in-depth research that the show’s composer and lyricist, brothers Joe and David Zellnik, undertook to support writing the piece. The show’s provocative title, Yank!, came 

In case this Valentine's day found you lonesome, why not try checking out these two current advice guides for gays and lesbians on finding true love:   

Boyfriend 101:  A Gay Guy's Guide to Dating, Romance, and Finding True Loveby Jim Sullivan, provides light-hearted and very practical advice on gay relationships. For the truly relationship-challenged, he starts at the very beginning by defining "What is a date?"    

D. Merilee Clunis and G. Dorsey Green's Lesbian couples : a guide to creating healthy relationships, takes a more serious look at overcoming tRead More ›

 
Pulitzer Prize winning poet John Ashbery (who is also an ambassador of the Library's LGBT Committee) just came out with a delicious new book of poems. Planisphere has all of the vision, humor, slant observation, and colloquial intelligence for which Ashbery is famous. The new poems also have a careful intimacy and elegiac sense, which were noted in the New York Times' glowing review.  I've been reading it back and forth all week; my favorite poems so far is "Episode":

"In old days, when they tried to figure out
how to write the sweetest melodies, they fell
on a bed, chewed the 

Above, Michael McConnell and Jack Baker photographed by Kay Tobin Lahusen, 1970.  

Given the New York State Senate’s rejection of marriage equality last week, it seems a good moment to remember the history of LGBT struggles for marriage rights in the U.S. During the early years of the modern American LGBT civil rights struggle, during the 1950s through 1960s, marriage was a lively topic of discussion. Most of these discussions of marriage in early LGBT political journals like One and The Ladder focused on how to 

The New York Public Library LGBT Visiting Scholars Program
Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars

Each year, The New York Public Library provides stipends for up to three Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars. The stipends support travel to New York City and related expenses to do research in the Library’s premier LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) history collections. The travel grants awarded range from $1,000 to $8,500. The program is limited to emerging scholars—those without permanent academic appointments—or those who are unaffiliated with an academic institution. Recipients must supply a written summary of their findings upon completion of their 

  
A "tour de fuerza" of queer Latino literary talent convenes in the South Bronx this Saturday for the second part of this groundbreaking queer NYC reading series' visit to the Library.Performance and slam poet-extraordinaire Karen Jaime and writer Charlie Vázquez (who were featured at BAAD!'s recent "From the Page to the Stage" reading) join novelist and playwright Charles Rice-González and Nicaraguan-American poet Cristina Izaguirre for an afternoon gathering of queer Latino words and wizardry. This event is free and open to the public. Please try not to miss this rare public gathering of queer Latino writers in the South Bronx! This Saturday, November 7th at 2:15 p.m. at 

Following up on last week's standing-room-only reading at the Schomburg Center, tonight, three esteemed writers will read from their latest works and engage questions about being immigrants, creative artists, and pushing against the grain of social norms as queer artists of color. Featuring Staceyann Chin, Anton Niblett, and Curu Necos-Bloice. Hosted by Steven G. Fullwood, project director of the Library's Black Gay & Lesbian Archive. Books will be available for purchase in the gift shop prior to the event. Tonight, 7 p.m. at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 515 Malcolm X Blvd.

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Join us on Monday, October 26th at 7 p.m. at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for a lively reading and discussion with four writers whose thought-provoking, innovative works challenge conventional social and cultural norms. Readers include Pamela Sneed, Herukhuti, G. Winston James, and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor. Hosted by Steven G. Fullwood, project director of the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive. Books will be available for purchase in the gift shop prior to the event.

Pamela Sneed

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PANIC! is New York City’s only ongoing LGBT reading series, held every last Wednesday of the month at Nowhere in the East Village. Hosted by Charlie Vázquez, PANIC! offers changing themes and features writers from different sectors of New York City’s LGBT community. The New York Public Library is thrilled to present PANIC! @ the Library on Saturday, October 17th at 2:30pm at the Jefferson Market Library, 427 Avenue of the Americas at West 10th Street, 212.243.4334. The scheduled readers are: 

Charlie Vázquez is a writer of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. His fiction and essays have been published in various anthologies such as the iconoclastic volumes Queer and