FYI...
Stefanie Rixecker
ECOFEM Coordinator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
BROMFIELD STREET EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
29 Stanhope St.
Boston, MA 02116
617.262.6969
617.267.0852 fax
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
www.bsef.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Bullock-Jordan (617) 262-6969
AS MILLENNIUM APPROACHES, OUTWRITE RELIVES ITS PAST, WHILE PLANNING FOR THE
FUTURE
This February 26-28, the national and international lgbt
communities will converge on Boston for the 8th annual OutWrite
conference--the only such meeting of its size dedicated to the needs of
queer writers and the literary community. This year's keynotes are
award-winning and prolific artists from diverse genres: Pratibha Parmar,
filmmaker and editor; Mark Doty, poet and author; Barbara Smith, scholar,
activist, writer and editor; and Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, playwright, actor,
poet and dancer.
THE PAST
Returning to its previous home at the Boston Park Plaza, right in
the heart of the city, OutWrite '99 marks its own history while looking
forward to the new challenges of publishing lgbt voices in the next
millennium. In 1990, the editors of OUTLOOK, a San Francisco-based
magazine, conceived and produced the first OutWrite conference. The
organizers of that inaugural event sought to bring together the mostly
scattered threads of the queer writing community. The OutWrite conference
created a place for literary lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and
transgendered to meet, network, brainstorm, and do business en masse.
OUTLOOK hooked up with GCN to co-produce the conference in 1992, a
partnership that drew on the journals' shared commitment to making a space
for the imaginative and analytical voices shut of the mainstream politics
and publishing. Stewardship of the conference passed to GCN alone when
OUTLOOK ceased publication in 1993. Since then the Bromfield Street
Educational Foundation, the queer progressive organization that produces
GCN, has staged five more OutWrite conferences. The guidance of BSEF also
insures that the continued emphasis on the intersections of culture, art,
politics, and theory since BSEF pursues a mission that sees cultural
expression and intellectual engagement to be inseparable from political
organizing.
The roster of former keynotes and organizers for OutWrite
demonstrates its history: each individual chosen to represent OutWrite in
these capacities has embodied the quality to challenge the status quo, in
expression and action, from a variety of stances "within" or "without" the
worlds of established publishing and performance. Keynotes at previous
OutWrites include Alan Gurganus, Cherrie Moraga, Cheryl Clarke, Craig
Hickman, Craig Lucas, Chrystos, Dorothy Allison, Edmund White, Jewelle
Gomez, Kate Rushin, Linda Villarosa, Luis Alfaro, Mariana Romo-Carmona,
Melvin Dixon, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Nancy Bereano, Peggy Shaw, Samuel R.
Delany, and Tony Kushner. Past OutWrite Coordinators and programmers at
BSEF include Michael Bronski, Sarah Grant, Sue Hyde, John Gordon, Kanani
Kauka, Surina Khan, Lawrence Schimel, and Cecilia Tan.
THE FUTURE
Working behind the scenes to create this year's conference are
Karen Bullock-Jordan, Conference Director; Pallavi Nuka, OutWrite '99
Assistant; and G. Winston James and Kris Kleindienst as programmers.
Bullock-Jordan, who took the reins of OutWrite in December 1997, is a
lecturer and writer on sexual politics, and an activist/organizer
previously employed by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Nuka's former
projects include The Thistle, a progressive student newspaper at MIT and
the Inter-collegiate Queer Collective. She currently divides her time
between MASSPIRG and OutWrite '99. Winston James is Executive Director of
the Other Countries: Black Gay Expression artists collective. He is an
award-winning poet and author who has collaborated with some of today's
best known choreographers to create works that meld the art of dance with
the spoken word. A bookseller for 24 years, Kleindienst is a co-owner of
Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri, a general independent bookstore.
She has served as a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards since their
inception, and was one of the founders of Red Tomatoe--one of the first
womens' music production companies.
Building on their own histories and that of the OutWrite conference
in general, this year's organizers have planned a slate of panels and
workshops that continue explore the cutting edge of lgbt expression and
organizing. In addition to panels and workshops listed on the brochure,
other panels and workshops include " Let's Talk About Race", "Writing
Bisexual Characters", "Can We Talk?: Booksellers Tell All", "Memoir and
Autobiograophical Fiction As Social History", "Queer Solo Performance",
"Writing Gay in a Post Gay World", "What's Happened to the Queer Media",
"Politics and Poetry", "Anthology Business". The many other forums offered
will push the envelope on new ideas and controversies, prompt the
unexpected, and recreate a place of imagination for ourselves and our
future.
For more information, or to register, call OutWrite 617.262.6969,
or visit our web site www.bsef.org.
*******
Karen Bullock-Jordan
OutWrite Conference Director
BSEF
29 Stanhope St
Boston, MA 02116
617.262.6969
617.267.0852 fax
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
www.bsef.org/outwrite
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Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker
Division of Environmental Management & Design
Lincoln University, Canterbury
PO Box 84
Aotearoa New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fax: 64-03-325-3841
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