MAR|APR 2016
SUBSCRIPTION BostonSpiritMagazine.com FREE! DELIVERED
Escorts We take you past the perceptions and inside the surprising secrets of their real world
Double Daddies
The gayby boom spawns a whole new community
Manhunt turns 15
The founder of the online hook-up looks back and ahead
Lady Gaga’s Mother
She’s being honored at GBPFLAG this year
Insiders Inside
Local luminaries reveal their personal creative spaces
L ove wins on Boston’s beautiful waterfront. Celebrate at the New England Aquarium.
Artifact Images
Leah Haydock Photography
Artifact Images
Zev Fisher Photography
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Boston Spirit Magazine supporters
From The Publisher For us at Boston Spirit this is the most exciting time of the year. There is so much going on that it can get a little overwhelming. Where to start? Well, first of all we have our annual LGBT Executive Networking Night coming up on April 13. If you’ve never been to this event, it is the largest networking night in New England for LGBT professionals with more than 1,000 attendees each spring. But that’s just the start… On April 3 we will head back over to Cathedral Station for our 2nd annual Red Sox Hot Stove Happy Hour. Once again we are partnering with WEEI—Sportstalk Radio, the Boston Red Sox and Cathedral Station for this very fun event. Former Red Sox player Lou Merloni as well as sports writers Rob Bradford, John Tomase and Steve Buckley will be on hand, along with several representatives from the Red Sox. If you are a baseball fan this is a must-go-to event.
Then, of course, we’ve got the Fenway Men’s Event and Women’s Dinner, AAC’s Taste of the South End, Victory Programs’ Dinnerfest, The Point Foundation’s annual fundraiser, Greater Boston PFLAGs’ Pride and Passion event and so much more!!! Like I said, it is an amazing time.
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Boston University
60
Burns & Levinson, LLP
46
Carpe Diem
THE GUIDE
Celebrity Series
55
Circle Furniture
23
Club Café
31
Condor Air
22
Destination Salem
81
DJ Mocha
THE GUIDE
I also want to thank all of you who attended our first-ever LGBT Family event held recently at the New England Aquarium. It was such a fun day! We look forward to more family events in the future.
Dover Rug
35
Eastern Bank
15
Fenway Health
13
Fertility Solutions
69
I look forward to seeing everyone at our Executive Networking Night and at the other events I mentioned. (Oh, and spring is on the way too, can’t forget that.) Now that you have been warned, get the suits and dresses cleaned, get the tuxes and gowns ready and let’s go out and have some fun.
Fusco and Four
COVER
Gardner Mattress
28
GBPFLAG
33
GOAL - NE
26
Harvard University
37
Jasper White’s Summer Shack
75
Johnny Appleseed Trail Association
45
Landry & Arcari
9
Lombardo’s
34
Long’s Jewelers
3,17
Lucia Lighting
71
Mitchell Gold
5
NE Aquarium
COVER
Partners Healthcare
32
Peabody Essex Musem
11
Provincetown Tourism
56
Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston
74
Seashore Point
57
Seasons Four
77
Seligman Dental Designs
THE GUIDE
Sienna
COVER
Thought Action
73
Victory Programs
79
David Zimmerman Publisher
SAVE THE DATE Wednesday April 13 Boston Marriott Copley Place
6:00–9:00 p.m.
PRESENTING SPONSORS
2 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Boston Symphony Orchestra
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Contribute your opinion: editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com
Letter to the Editor To the editor:
As We Go To Press … Mention the federal prosecution of Rentboy.com at a gathering and you’re likely to get a whole host of opinions. It’s easy to see the sensationalist, prosecutorial side. Simply pull some choice quotes from special agent Susan Ruiz’s assessment in the The Department of Homeland Security’s complaint. “I have learned that a sling, also known as a ‘sex sling,’ is a device that allows two people to have sex while one is suspended,” she wrote. Um, okay. Then there’s the sex worker activist side, which is probably best represented in an editorial by, of all media outlets, the New York Times. The opinion pointed out that Homeland Security should have more pressing issues on its hands than taking down a company that brought in “less revenue than an average McDonald’s franchise generates,” especially, the paper further noted, when there is significant movement to begin decriminalizing consensual sex work, led by such reputable organizations as Amnesty International. But rather than quote the Department of Homeland Security or the New York Times or a myriad of other activists and others who have weighed in on the topic, we at Boston Spirit thought we’d go straight— er—direct to the source, the escorts themselves. We initially thought it’d be a tough story to crack, with few willing interview subjects. And, without Rentboy.com as a resource, it did
4 | BOSTON SPIRIT
initially take us a little time to find some escorts willing to talk. In order to get the story, we were even willing to allow our sources to go on the record anonymously or using pseudonyms, provided we felt comfortable enough that they were telling the truth of their experience. And we were a bit surprised when we not only found escorts willing to talk, but some actually had no qualms at all revealing their identity in print. One of them, Tyler Dårlig Ulv, provided our reporter Scott Kearnan with some interesting insights. “It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience that has taught me a ton about how people interact and how relationships work, and how they don’t, and about sexuality in its broadest sense,” he said. Ulv’s articulated experience runs as a counter narrative to some more highly publicized experiences often linked with the industry, such as problems associated with human trafficking and drug addiction. And no one is saying that these seamier sides of the escort business don’t exist. But teasing out these troublesome facets from what consensual escort relationships might look like seems to be an important part of looking at what’s next for sex workers. And what better way to help us frame that discussion than words from the mouths of the sex workers themselves?
James Lopata Editor
Many of us at The History Project were surprised—and, frankly, dismayed—to learn that the organization had not been recognized in the LGBT History Group category that was included as part of Boston Spirit’s “Best of LGBT New England” listings (January/February 2016). The History Project maintains one of the largest independent LGBTQ archival collections in the nation, encompassing more than 700,000 items— from organizational records and personal papers to photographs and memorabilia. We not only process these materials for posterity; we share them with the public through exhibitions and engaging programs like our popular “From the Archives” series. A number of articles from past issues of Boston Spirit have drawn heavily upon our materials, which we are always eager to share with journalists, researchers, and the general public. Throughout the year, volunteers spend thousands of hours at The History Project’s offices on nights and weekends, performing the detailed, meticulous work required to document and preserve our community’s history. They are motivated by a deep commitment to social justice and the desire to give LGBTQ individuals their rightful place in the larger historical narrative—a place that was systematically denied them for centuries. While we support and applaud the work of the Peace Encampment Herstory Project wholeheartedly, the omission of The History Project within this category is an oversight worth remarking upon. Given that our all-volunteer organization has received widespread national recognition for its heroic efforts on behalf of the region’s LGBTQ community, one would hope that those exceptionally dedicated volunteers would receive the acknowledgment they deserve within the local LGBT media. Sincerely,
Neal Kane Chair, The History Project
introducing:
SPRING 2016 COLLECTION
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Hit List
Contents Hit List Cycling Around America Community Cliffnotes Dinnerfest RED Party + Auction
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Man Up
30
It takes a team to bring Boston’s LGBT Film Festival to area audiences
36
Jesse Bechard returns to Boston with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Manhunt.net takes stock of the present and plans for the future
Building a Kinder, Braver World
Greater Boston PFLAG celebrates Mother’s Day Weekend honoring Cynthia Bissett Germanotta, Lady Gaga’s Mom
Spotlight 8 10 12
‘Powerful, Beautiful, Insanely Sexy’ 14 From the Blogs 16 Miami Three Ways 18
Feature
Room to Breathe
38
Miami as You Like It
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A Miami Mini-Guide
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Local Luminairies share their personal creative spaces LGBT Travelers Rediscover Florida’s Great Big Getaway Hot Spot
Culture Telling His Truth
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Survival Instinct
72
Long Night’s Journey
74
Gentleman Callers
21
Paternal Partnering
25
Phoenix-like themes emerge in post911 psychological thriller
Double Daddies provides peer support for parents and kids
Local filmmaker tells story of lesbian’s struggles with disabilities and domestic abuse
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Room to Breathe
76
The World on Screen
The World on Screen
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All the Right Moves
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Heroic Hedonist
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Retrospective of queer photographer Tseng Kwong Chi is a blast from the past
Seasonal
Robert O’Hara digs deep in the fierce and funny ‘Bootycandy’
For many gay escorts, experience and connection is the real pay-off.
Paternal Partnering
Senior Spirit
LGBT Senior Housing in the Bay State
MAR|APR 2016 | VOLUME 12 | ISSUE 2
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Gentleman Callers
Scene Valentine’s Day Cards for Boston Elders Workshop First Event Conference 2016 Gayla Ball Dinner Dance Network It Out Beyond the Stage Alex B. Morse Third Inaugural Ball
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Calendar New England Events
90
Coda Patriotic Passion
96
Patty Griffin
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More than 1,000 people attended this event in 2015, don’t miss out! PRESENTING SPONSORS
CORPORATE SPONSORS
LEGAL COUNSEL, BUSINESS ADVISORS.
Join us for Boston Spirit magazine's 10th annual LGBT Executive Networking Night. The event is the largest networking event for LGBT professionals in all of New England with more than 1,000 attendees and 40+ exhibitors.
SAVE THE DATE
Wednesday April 13 Boston Marriott Copley Place
6:00–9:00 p.m.
We will also have some incredible sessions on personal and professional development. This year's sessions include an expert presentation on “Building Your Personal Brand—Increasing Your Professional Value” by nationally recognized auther and speaker Jenn T. Grace. And, once again, we will have an expert panel giving you all of the best advice on “Best Practices for Your Comapany's LGBT Employee Resource Group”
SPOTLIGHT Trending STORY Scott Kearnan
Hit List NEWS, NOTES AND TO-DOS FOR EVERY GAY AGENDA
TUNE IN to Lifetime, where Newton, Massachusetts native Sam Donovan is starring on “Project Runway All Stars,” which reunites 13 of the most memorable contestants from past seasons of the hit show. The 25-year old gay designer scored the runner-up position on 2014’s “Project Runway: Under the Gunn,” and won over viewers with both his witty quips and vulnerability, even discussing his suicide attempt as a oncebullied middle school student struggling with his sexuality. Here’s hoping Donovan goes all the way this time. PICK UP some t-shirts for
Sam Donovan
infants, toddlers and older kids from Pink Truck Designs, a new brand founded by Hopkinton mom and legal consultant Dana Babbin. Babbin grew tired of hunting through the boys’ section to find clothing for her twin daughters, who would rather wear motifs of trucks and rockets than flowers Julian and ladybugs. Cyr Guided by the
motto “It’s Time to Change Gear,” Pink Truck features traditionally male-associated machines—from farm tractors to airplanes—on various color
Pink Truck t-shirts
backgrounds, signifying that it’s okay for girls and boys to have preferences that reflect multiple gender associations. More: pinktruckdesigns.com
LEARN MORE about two openly gay candidates who are running to fill seats in their state legislatures. 30-year old Truro resident Julian Cyr is currently campaigning to represent Cape Cod and the islands in the Massachusetts state senate; Cyr is director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, former chair of the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, and has served as a harm-reduction counselor for AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. Meanwhile businessman Daniel Innis, a professor of marketing at the University of New Hampshire, is running for a 1st District seat in the Granite State’s house of representatives. If he wins, Innis would make history as the first gay and married GOP congressman elected to office. PAY ATTENTION to the trial of former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate and well-known anti-gay pastor Scott Lively. A Springfield judge has recently scheduled a September hearing that will determine whether Lively goes before a jury for crimes against humanity. The case, Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Scott Lively, is a potential landmark one, with the plaintiffs asserting that Lively’s ferocious anti-gay
PUBLISHER David Zimmerman EDITOR IN CHIEF James Lopata MANAGING EDITOR Robert Phelps [rob@bostonspiritmagazine.com] ART DIRECTOR Dean Burchell CONTRIBUTING LIFESTYLE EDITOR Scott Kearnan [lifestyle@bostonspiritmagazine.com] CONTRIBUTING ARTS EDITOR Loren King CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ricardo Rodriguez, Christopher Wallenberg CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Joel Benjamin ON THE WEB [bostonspiritmagazine.com] TALK TO US [feedback@bostonspiritmagazine.com] EDITORIAL CONTACT [editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com] PUBLISHING AND SALES CONTACT [publisher@bostonspiritmagazine.com or 781-223-8538] THE FINE PRINT Boston Spirit magazine. A Division of Jake Publishing, LLC
MAR|APR 2016 | VOLUME 12 | ISSUE 2
Published by Jake Publishing, LLC. Copyright 2004 by Jake Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without the written permission of Boston Spirit magazine. Neither the publishers nor the advertisers will be held responsible for any errors found in the magazine. The publishers accept no liability for the accuracy of statements made by advertisers. Publication of the name or photograph of any person, organization or business in this magazine does not reflect upon one’s sexual orientation in any way. Boston Spirit Magazine, 398 Columbus Ave #395, Boston, MA 02116
8 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Margaret Cho
rhetoric during travels to Africa, and his alliances with Ugandan political and religious leaders, have resulted in laws uniquely targeting gays and a rise of vigilante-style violence in the country.
CLICK OVER to “Hey Qween!”
the online talk show hosted by gay comedian and Boston University grad Jonny McGovern, which just launched its fourth season on thestream.tv. The glittery gab-fest lures LGBT-interest guests, from RuPaul to “Queer Eye” alum Jai Rodriguez, and has just added a new cast member in Berklee College of Music alum Adam Joseph. Joseph, a songwriter who has penned tunes for out singers like McGovern and Ari Gold, has stepped in as bandleader— the Paul Shaffer to McGovern’s Letterman—and will introduce more musical performances and parodies to upcoming episodes.
TAKE A PEEK at this year’s
tongue-in-cheek list measures the queer quotient of cities using criteria that range from serious (number of LGBT sites on the national register) to silly (number of tour stops by gay icons like Madonna and Janet Jackson). Three New England cities made the top 10: Hartford, Connecticut took the top spot; Cambridge, Massachusetts ranked #3, and New Haven, Connecticut made #5.
TAKE A LISTEN to “American Myth,” the new album by queer actress and comedian Margaret Cho. Cho is best known for her stand-up career, but this is her second album of original music—and although there is plenty of humor to be found, Cho is also characteristically candid about other, more serious issues. That includes her experiences as a survivor of sexual abuse as an adolescent, which she discusses in the song “(I Want To) Kill My Rapist.” [x]
RUGS AND CARPETING
“Queerest Cities in America” list compiled by “The Advocate.” The
Boston
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Salem
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Framingham
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landryandarcari.com
SPOTLIGHT Extreme Travel STORY Scott Kearnan the most memorable locations he visited. We asked Gorman to share some of his designs, and stories, with “Boston Spirit.” (To view more and purchase BarelyMaps, visit etsy.com/shop/barelymaps)
West Texas
Cycling Around America HARBOR-TO-BAY RIDE ISPIRES 10,000-MILE TREK Peter Gorman followed his dream — for 10,000 miles, to be exact. Last fall, Gorman completed a yearlong solo bike ride around the entire country. He traced the perimeter of America: from his then-residence in Cambridge to the outermost tip of the Florida Keys, across the Deep South and up the Pacific Coast, swooping north through Canadian territories and following the southern edge of the Great Lakes en route back home. He saw the United States from two wheels, and he did it all on his own—without, up to that point, much biking experience at all. Gorman, who formerly worked in the development department at Fenway Health, counted the Harbor to the Bay fundraising ride from Boston to Provincetown as his longest trek until his crosscountry journey came along. “Six weeks in advance I just picked a date and made
the decision to do it. It was absolutely crazy,” laughs Gorman, who was inspired in part by reading travel writer Bill Bryson’s bestseller “A Walk in the Woods.” The idea of a one-man odyssey across America was too tantalizing to pass up, so he loaded a new bike with saddlebags containing a tent, clothes, repair tools, and a lightweight cooking set. (Though he admits that junk food grabbed on the go wound up fueling most of the 3,0004,000 calories required to fuel each leg of his trip, which amounted to at minimum 30 miles per day.) He camped in parks and on the front lawns of welcoming homeowners, found overnight hosts through websites like warmshowers.org, and discovered friends with whom he remains in close contact. (He also recorded his experience on a blog, packpedal.com, and on Instagram as @400closeups.)
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“I met some really amazing people from all walks of life,” says Gorman, who is gay. He says friends gave him some warning about a solo ride through parts of the country that can seem inhospitable to LGBT people. But Gorman says that his experiences were uniformly positive. “A lot of my hosts wound up being gay couples, but really any stranger that I asked for help came through. When people find out you’re biking across the country, you’re such a curiosity that they go out of their way to help.” Though his 10,000 mile bike ride around America went off without a hitch, there’s an ironic coda: After he returned, and while visiting his family’s home in Syracuse, New York, Gorman was struck by a car while crossing the street on foot. Several months, a spinal fracture, and surgeries later, Gorman is finally almost fully mended. But while he was laid up recovering he found a creative way to capture his experiences. He created BarelyMaps, a series of evocative, abstract graphic prints that represent some of
“This was one of the most remote sections of the trip, where I would bike for 60 miles without seeing any sign of civilization,” says Gorman. “Luckily, I met three other cyclists going in the same direction, and we biked through most of the desert together.” Luckily he also had a Camelback hydration pack given to him by a former soldier he crashed with in Delaware. “He taught me a lot of survival tips, like how to find water if I ended up on my own.”
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY “The Pacific Coast is one of the most popular sections for bikers, and one of the most beautiful,” says Gorman.
“This map is based on Big Sur, where the road is built up on these giant cliffs, curving up and down between green mountains with redwood forests on one side, and the blue Pacific Ocean on the other.” Gorman also spent a lot of time exploring the Pacific Northwest, where he even met Washington governor Jay Inslee. “I was taking pictures of the capitol building when a man at the second floor window started asking me where I came from,” recalls Gorman. “I told him my story and he asked me if I’d like to come up and meet the governor. I said, ‘Who are you?’ And he said, ‘I’m the governor.’”
Savannah “This is where I had one of my first hosts through the website Couchsurfing, and one of the best,” says Gorman. “I originally planned on staying in Savannah for one day and then moving on, but he convinced me to stay for a full weekend to explore the city.” He also explored The Hostel in the Forest, a nearby site in Brunswick, Georgia comprised of nine sustainable tree houses built into a lush 133-acre forest and wetlands.
Treat your guests to an event they will never forget! At the Peabody Essex Museum
Florida Keys “It took me two days to get from Key Largo to Key West, going from island to island for 100 miles,” says Gorman. “At one point, there’s a sevenmile bridge between two of the keys, which took over 30 minutes to bike from end to end.” His reward: some particularly memorable kayaking trips in Key West, also known for its thriving LGBT community.
Zev Fisher Photography
David Tucker Photography
Quebec
The Great Lakes
“I rode through Quebec near the end of my trip, where many people in the smaller towns don’t speak any English,” says Gorman. “I met one man who told me he learned most of his English from ‘The Simpsons’!... It forced me to learn some French, and it made me think about someday going for a tour abroad.”
“One of my favorite sections to bike. I could camp near the beach and go for a swim every night,” says Gorman. It’s also where he met one of the more inspiring groups of fellow bikers, a team of 30 folks raising money for the nonprofit Fuller Center of Housing, who were riding across the country and building houses along the way. “I spent the day riding on roads overlooking Lake Erie with this whole group, ate lunch with them by the lake, and traded stories from our adventures.” [x]
Pizzuti Photography
David Tucker Photography
For information, please call Natalia Laskaris at 978-542-1615, email wedding@pem.org or visit pem.org/venues.
161 Essex St. | Salem, MA 01970 | pem.org
SPOTLIGHT Politics STORY Scott Kearnan
Community Cliffnotes
Dinnerfest RED Party + Auction
Spotlighting New England LGBT organizations and the work they do. Helping you to discover some new neighbors—and fresh facts—about our diverse community.
LGBT ROOTS INFORM THIS ANNUAL FOODIE FUNDRAISER FOR VICTORY PROGRAMS On Sunday, April 24, over 200 guests are expected to attend the Dinnerfest RED Party + Auction at the swanky Back Bay restaurant Red Lantern. The event has emerged as the single largest annual fundraiser to support the multi-service non-profit organization Victory Programs, and it’s a major foodie draw. But it is also rooted in the story of much smaller gatherings that started nearly 30 years ago, and which exemplified the courage of a gay community that came together in the face of AIDS. Since then, many things have changed. But the need to unite against an epidemic—whether it is illness, poverty or addiction—remains the same. “It all began with a group of men who were losing their friends to AIDS,” says Shauna Helton, a special events manager who helps steer the current Dinnerfest team. “They would come together around the dinner table to share stories, information and commiserate.” Helton is essentially describing the inception of the Boston Living Center, which was formally incorporated in 1990. It opened in its earliest incarnation at the YWCA building on Clarendon Street in Boston, as part of the Massachusetts Coalition for People with Disabilities; in 1995, it moved to its current location on Stanhope Street (where it now nearly neighbors Red Lantern). There, the organization became a leader in care for the community, eventually emerging as the largest peer–led organization for people with HIV/AIDS in New England. Free of charge, the BLC offers daily meals, holistic care, classes, workshops and other services to a membership of thousands. And the BLC is now just one of many programs operating within the larger Victory Programs organization.
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Over the years, Dinnerfest emerged as an event that pays tribute to the BLC’s earliest days while performing as a successful fundraiser: Last year garnered a record-breaking $88,000 thanks to 75 restaurants—including longtime supporters like Aquitaine, Mistral and Grill 23—that donated dining packages for its elaborate silent auction. (The party also features passed hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, a raffle for JetBlue tickets, and more fun.) But Dinnerfest’s popularity has increased in tandem to the needs it must answer. Recent cuts to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and Social Security benefits have impacted members who now “simply do not have enough to survive,” says Helton. As those with HIV/ AIDS live longer, healthier lives, the BLC has been supporting them with job training and workplace readiness opportunities—like the launch of its BLC Academy, a collection of computer classes, test prep programs, and other occupational initiatives. And it has partnered with BAGLY
(the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth), among other community stakeholders, on the POZ Vibes Café, a monthly meet-up for HIV-positive young people and their allies. There have been struggles, though, particularly back in 2011. That’s when the BLC was nearly forced to shut its doors after it was discovered that its thenexecutive director, Valerie Tebbetts, had embezzled more than $125,000. Without any interruption in service, the BLC was able to rapidly fundraise about $200,000 to stay in operation long enough to solidify a new, more stable arrangement: In 2012, it announced a merger with Victory Programs, another organization with roots in the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities. Over the last 30 years, its president Jonathan Scott, former chairman of MassEquality, has turned what began as a single 1975-founded South End residence for the homeless into a multifaceted nonprofit that encompasses a litany of diverse programs that annually serve over
2,600 people, from those dealing with substance abuse to those living with chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS. And Scott has cultivated an especially LGBT-inclusive reputation for Victory Programs: After all, he says, he wanted to make a difference after he saw gay men in need barred from
homeless shelters back when he was a volunteer in the ’70s. Today, Victory Programs’ portfolio includes seven programs that directly affect those with HIV/AIDS: from the Boston Living Center to the Bobbie White Housing Services, a mobile medical
case management service, to the Living and Recovery Program, a 30- to 90-day stabilization program for men and women who are simultaneously living with HIV/ AIDS and dealing with chronic relapse of substance abuse. But support of the organization, and Dinnerfest, contributes to its ability to address many other issues too. Right now, Victory Programs is making a fight against the opioid epidemic central to its mission. Massachusetts has seen an 88-percent increase in related deaths from 2012 to 2015, and they cut across all socio-economic lines: the LGBT community is as vulnerable as any other, and if there’s one thing the community should understand, it’s that no serious epidemic should ever be ignored. We’ll drink, and eat, to that. This year’s Dinnerfest is co-chaired by Attorney General Maura Healey and chef Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery and Myers + Chang. It will be held at Red Lantern (39 Stanhope Street, Boston) on Sunday, April 24 from 3to 6 p.m. Tickets are $60 in advance (visit vpi.org) and $70 at the door. [x]
A benefit for
SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016 Join 1,100+ lesbian and bisexual women, transgender people and allies for an event a quarter century in the making! Dance, dine and delight in New England’s largest event of its kind while supporting the lifesaving work of Fenway Health. For tickets or information on becoming a table captain or sponsor, visit fenwaydinnerparty.org or call 617.927.6350.
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
GOLD SPONSORS:
MEDIA SPONSOR:
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SPOTLIGHT Culture STORY Loren King
‘Powerful, Beautiful, Insanely Sexy’ CLIMACTS! REUNITES TONY-WINNER LISA KRON AND THE THEATER OFFENSIVE Over its more than 25 years of presenting bold theater and nurturing queer performers, The Theater Offensive (TTO) of Boston has earned praise and loyal support from audiences and the LGBT community. It also built a family. One of those family members is Lisa Kron, playwright and Tony-winning lyricist of the acclaimed Broadway musical “Fun Home.” Kron for many years was part of the acting troupe The Five Lesbian Brothers, who were among the many queer artists and activists that regularly appeared with The Theater Offensive. Now Kron and her Brothers—Maureen Angelos, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell and Peg Healey—will be honored with the OUT On The Edge Award at TTO’s signature event, ClimACTS!, a fundraiser that’s equal parts lavish celebration and immersive performance. “ClimACTS! Underground” takes place April 28 from 6 to 11 p.m. at Stage Nightclub, 19 Boylston Place, Boston. For TTO founding Artistic Director Abe Rybeck, seeing “Fun Home” was not only a visceral, moving theatrical experience but Kron’s success—on her own terms—feels personal. “It was very powerful, as a grassroots queer theater artist and activist, to watch the Tonys and hear the name of someone who’s part of our Theater Offensive gang,” he says. “Lisa stays in touch with the importance of grassroots work; it’s what she’s done for decades.” Rybeck adds that The Five Lesbian Brothers were part of the first shows at TTO in the early 1990s after the troupe earned a reputation for cutting-edge performances at the Obie award-winning WOW Cafe Theatre in New York City. The Brothers performed their original plays including “Voyage to Lesbos,” “Brave Smiles,” “Brides of the Moon” and “Oedipus at Palm Springs,” the show they developed with TTO in 2005 before taking it on the road. “What’s always been true of both the Brothers’ work and ‘Fun Home,’ in terms of queer theater, is that they’re not asking for permission; they’re just out there with the reality of people being queer. And the core of Theater Offensive’s work is to inspire
14 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Lisa Kron outness—that was crystal clear in ‘Fun Home,’” says Rybeck. The Five Lesbian Brothers won’t be doing any formal performance at ClimACTS, but Rybeck says queer activist theater is alive and well whenever and wherever the troupe shows up. “I’ve never been in the same room with the Five Lesbian Brothers and not felt it wasn’t a performance in the best sense,” he says. “Just hanging with them is art.” Another member of the TTO family who’ll be participating in ClimACTS Underground is Miami-born Cuban-American dance theater artist Octavio Campos. He will direct an ensemble of dancers and performers at the fundraiser. Rybeck first met Campos on a Miami dance floor 10 years ago, he says, and they quickly connected. A former member of the famed German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch’s company, Campos was intrigued by TTO’s “A Street Theater Named Desire”—performances that provided safer sex education in Boston’s gay cruising areas—and visited Boston to participate. “He has a passion for community-based work. I knew he was someone special,” says Rybeck. “He’s been a great fit with Theater Offensive because he’s outrageous and provocative in a way that invites people in.” Campos designed last year’s ClimACTS! fundraiser, “Wet,” which was a smashing success. “It was powerful, beautiful and insanely sexy,” says Rybeck, who promises
Octavio Campos Marta Garcia another one-of-a-kind celebration this year. ClimACTS! Underground co-chairs Ricardo Rodriguez and Suhail Kwatra have put together a design team that includes Campos, photographer Joel Benjamin (“He’s created beautiful imagery that combines glamour and grit,” says Rybeck) and Rodriquez who came up with the “underground look” for the event and who is styling the models. This year’s ClimACTS! will again feature an auction of unique items and services donated by local businesses and individuals. Last year, the auction offered a walk-on role on the award-winning series “Transparent” with the 2015 honoree Alexandra Billings, who appears on that show. Rybeck notes that fans of “Fun Home” will want to check out a package that is sure to drawn plenty of bidders. Like all of TTO’s work including the youth-based True Colors, ClimACTS! is an environment that welcomes and celebrates diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Rybeck says the atmosphere at ClimACTS! will be electrifying and edgy, which is TTO’s trademark. “I didn’t get into this to be part of the status quo,” says Rybeck. “If you’re in the mood for shaking things up, ClimACTS a party unlike any other in town.” [x]
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SPOTLIGHT News COMPILED Rob Phelps
From the Blogs The New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, New England Revolution, and the Garden— home to the Celtics and Bruins—all officially endorsed the public accommodations bills (SB 735 and H 1577). Freedom Massachusetts, a politically bipartisan equal rights advocacy group that brings together busi-
HENRY CONFIRMED TO BAY STATE APPEALS COURT “GLAD’s loss will be the Commonwealth’s gain.” So said Janson Wu, executive director of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders upon the appointment of Vickie Henry to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Henry was the much-valued Senior Staff Attorney and Youth Initiative Director for GLAD.
She has also contributed her expertise to many of GLAD’s landmark legal cases, ranging from our two challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, to our work on the Michigan marriage equality case that was among the consolidated cases before the Supreme Court earlier this year, to challenging
HRC noted Clinton’s long record as a champion for LGBT rights both in the U.S. and, notably, around the globe. As Secretary of State, Clinton became the first in her position
GLAD’s Vickie Henry, outgoing senior staff attorney and youth initiative director; Janson Wu, executive director; Gary Buseck, legal director; and Mary Bonauto, civil rights project director PHOTO Susan Symonds Social Security’s discrimination against married same-sex couples. It is a testament to the excellent lawyering that we prize here at
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton PHOTO hillaryclinton.com ness leaders and policy makers, announced the teams’ effort. In signing on their support, the region’s top pro teams joined many businesses, including Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Google, Eastern Bank, and Hill Holiday.
Despite GLAD’s loss, Wu was, well, glad indeed his soon-to-beformer colleague. Having joined GLAD in 2011, Henry “has been a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community as well as a respected colleague,” Wu said. “She developed and has guided the critical work of our Youth Initiative, working on education, legislation, and advocacy with schools and agencies around New England to implement systemwide policies that respect and support LGBTQ youth.
world,” said the HRC’s president in a Jan. 19 press release. “We are proud to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, and believe that she is the champion we can count on in November— and every day she occupies the Oval Office.”
GLAD to see Vickie go to the bench.”
NEW ENGLAND MAJOR LEAGUES SUPPORT EQUAL PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS BILLS Let’s hear it for the teams! Five of Boston’s major leagues— and the TD Garden—rallied around state legislation to include non-discrimination protections for transgender people in public places like sports stadiums, restaurants, shopping malls, and other public accommodations.
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HRC ENDORSES HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT Recognizing her “robust agenda for advancing LGBT equality, strong record, and ability to win in November,” The Human Rights Campaign’s board of directors unanimously endorsed Hillary Clinton for President in mid-January. Clinton publicly accepted the endorsement at an event in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday, January 24, with HRC President Chad Griffin and HRC members and supporters. “Hillary Clinton is fighting to advance LGBT equality across our nation and throughout the
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. PHOTO berniesanders.com
to robustly advocate for LGBT equality throughout the world, making a historic and forceful speech to the United Nations declaring that “gay rights are human rights.” In the Senate, she helped lead on bills to protect LGBT workers from employment discrimination, and had a strong record on key votes and legislation that mattered to LGBT Americans.
SANDERS SCORES A PERFECT 100 PERCENT ON HRC’S EQUALITY INDEX The Democratic-Socialist, Independent, Democraticparty-caucusing senator from Vermont—and candidate for President of the United States— Bernie Sanders scored a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Equality Index for the 113th U.S. Congress.
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Academy Award-nominated best-song lyricist Antony Hegarty PHOTO Antony and the Johnson’s Facebook page.
Soon after Bernie announced his bid for the White House the Advocate blogged about Sander’s top score, noting that the Vermont Senator has long been “a steadfast and reliable supporter of LGBT equality, supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act when it passed the Senate in 2013 and even calling on President Obama to evolve already and support marriage equality in 2011. He’s a cosponsor of the federal LGBT-inclusive Student Non-Discrimination Act and has consistently voted against bills seeking to amend the Constitution to ban samesex marriage, while cosponsoring a bill that would repeal the remaining portions of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.” Secretary Clinton, too, soon after Sander’s announcement acknowledged her opponent’s early support of marriage equality, telling NPR’s Terry Gross “You know, somebody is always first. Somebody’s always out front and thank goodness they are. But that doesn’t mean that those who joined later in being publicly supportive or even privately accepting that there needs to be change are any less committed.”
TRANS SINGER NOMINATED FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG OSCAR Despite outcries over the lack of diversity among this year’s (most years?) Oscar nominees, the esteemed voters of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences have made at least one progressive move in their 2016 props. Trans musician Antony Hegarty received a nomination in the category of lyricist for Best Original Song. Hegarty scripted the lyrics to “Manta Ray” for the documentary film “Racing Extinction,” collaborating with Oscar-winner J. Ralph, who composed the song’s music. (J. Ralph also worked on the scores for “Man on Wire,” “The Cove,” “Chasing Ice,” “Finding Vivan Maier” and several other films that received nods from the Academy.) “Racing Extinction” presents a visual collage of artists and activists grappling with issues of endangered species and mass extinction. “I always think about those stories about the last bird, or the last of a species, when they’re calling out and they don’t have the other animal, the partner that can call back to them,” Hogarty told the culture blog Flavorwire. “The idea of the disappearing voice is very resonant for me. What hears a solitary voice. What responds to a solitary voice.” Hegarty is the second trans person to be nominated for an Oscar. The first, a two-time nominee, is the late composer Angela Morley, who scripted the lyrics to Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerners’ music for “The Little Prince” (1974) and for the Sherman Brother’s Cinderella story, “The Slipper and the Rose” (1978). [x]
18 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Miami Three Ways MAKING THE MOST OF A TRIP FOR FUN, FRIENDS OR FAMILY Even in a more inclusive world, a handful of certain destinations continue to provide especially popular with LGBT travelers. In the summer months, New Englanders are just a quick road trip or ferry ride away from Provincetown, of course. But in winter and spring, we’re getting our dose of Vitamin D from the sunshine in Miami. The ever-thriving, always-trendy city remains in the top 10 travel destinations for gay and bisexual men, according to Community Marketing Inc., which studies LGBT consumer trends. (It lands in the top 20 for gay and bisexual women.) Can’t make it until P’town Carnival for a beach escape? No problem. We’ve come up with three itineraries that’ll help, no matter what you’re looking for: an opportunity to connect with new queer friends, a chance to find a little fun, or a boredombanishing getaway with your LGBT family. For Friends: My, how The Welcoming Committee has grown. What began as a modest monthly party series, Guerilla Queer Bar, has grown into a fullfledged LGBT events company
that now plans and executes even national travel opportunities. “From the moment you arrive you’re making new friends,” says TWC founder Daniel Heller, speaking to the value of the organization’s outings, which convene queer TWC fans from all the group’s national markets. (One recent trip to Vegas pulled in 175 participants from around the country.) Yes, the trips are an opportunity to explore a TWCapproved, iconic gay destination alongside LGBT friends. But there’s a fringe benefit, says Heller: You’ll also meet folks from many other cities—so wherever you travel next, you’ll have a new friend you can look up to say hello. TWC’s Miami getaway is going down from March 30 to April 3, and the team has pulled together a pretty action-packed lineup. The beachfront Royal Palm South Beach is HQ for the event, but you’ll be all over the Miami map: from dancing at legendary gay clubs like Twist to resort pool parties and snorkeling excursions. There’s even an evening jaunt to neighboring Fort Lauderdale to catch
Bal Harbour
Kathy Griffin’s stand-up show, #LikeABoss, and throw down at mega nightspot The Manor. And if you just want to do your own thing with your new posse of nearest, dearest and queerest friends—well, the options abound.
four-hands massage at the hotel spa. And the seaside terrace at DeLido Beach Club, one of the property’s onsite restaurants, is the perfect place for a lunch date—or a day-after brunch—if you manage to meet up with someone special.
“The great part about Miami is that gay life is mixed in with everything,” says Heller. “In Vegas, you have to escape the strip to find a gay bar. In Miami you can stay at the center of everything and have it at your fingertips.” (Pricing for TWC’s Miami getaway runs from $624 to $1674.)
Where should you prowl? Miami is full of LGBT-specific nightspots, of course. In fact, the Ritz-Carlton South Beach is just two blocks from SCORE, one of the most popular gay clubs. But broaden your horizons, because the swinging singles scene is just as fun—and replete with possibility—in the trendier mixed joints. Our suggestions: Spice up your palate with Eastern Mediterranean small plates at Byblos, a trendy new two-floor restaurant with a sizzling bar scene, or splurge on haute cuisine at The Matador Room, internationally renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s sexy and Latininflected ring-shaped restaurant at the EDITION hotel. (It’s very “La Isla Bonita”-era Madonna.) The EDITION’s bar is great for prowling and preening among hot moneyed things, but for something less pretentious hit The Broken Shaker. Regarded as one of the top cocktail bars in the country, it’s a cloistered hideaway within
For Fun: You’re single and ready to mingle: Miami is where you want to be. The city’s nightlife is legendary and its beaches packed with hot bodies—so if you’re looking to spark some new social opportunities, you’ve come to the right place. Step one: Book yourself a bed at the 375-room Ritz-Carlton South Beach, a chic and stylish gem among the city’s elegant art deco accommodations. Take in sweeping ocean views from a waterfront room’s private lanai, and then have cocktails delivered straight to your cabana on the resort beach. Tone your muscles at a state-of-the-art fitness center; soothe them with a
a hipster-skewing, haciendastyle hostel, a palm frond-filled poolside oasis where tiki drinks flow like fountain soda. And for something more intimate, bat eyes at the suspender-clad bartenders mixing tipples at The Regent Cocktail Club, a dim and handsome, speakeasy-style den that frequently features live music. It’s nice for a nightcap. For Family: Miami might seem like an unexpected choice for a family vacation, but combine its varied options for fun with its LGBT-inclusiveness and you actually have a getaway that’s great for the whole clan. Your best bet to opt for the Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour. Bal Harbour, is basically the Beverly Hills to South Beach’s West Hollywood: A 10-minute cab ride north, it is affluent, a bit older, and striking a slightly lower key. The best part of the Ritz there is the level of privacy it offers for groups. Its one- and twobedroom suites—tricked out with full living rooms, oceanfacing balconies and gourmet kitchens—are accessed via semi-private elevators that drop you right at your door. So your brood feels like you’re staying in a home more than a hotel— though you’ll certainly enjoy all the same amenities of luxury property, from bistro dining
to spa services and a private beach. There’s also Ritz Kids, a program created in partnership with Jean-Michael Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, offering fun educational experiences that connect the little ones to the ocean and natural world. Miami also has a thriving art scene that shows off a different side of the city. The Perez Art Museum is a sleek, world-class destination for contemporary works that is large enough to offer exciting exhibits—and small enough that it won’t drag on during family trips. (Also, this summer the Patricia Frost Museum of Science will reopen neighboring the Perez.) Spend a day with the fam perusing the art galleries (and funky shops) in Wynwood, the city’s art district, which is covered in colorful murals. (Not the least of which being the Wynwood Walls.) This neighborhood is also where you’ll find regular family-friend activities like open-air movie nights and food truck festivals. [x]
For event more Miami travel tips check out our travel feature on page 64 aedistrictmiami.com
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FEATURE Social Network STORY Scott Kearnan
Gentleman Callers For many gay escorts, experience and connection is the real pay-off. What’s your price? If you want to see a conversation kick into high gear, throw that question out there at your next dinner party. The August raid of Rentboy.com by federal agents has sparked quite a bit of discussion around the topic of gay escorts, and some people hold strong opinions on the industry of pay-for-play. Not all of them are glowing. But ask escorts about their biz, and they’re eager to dispel some of the stigmas and misconceptions associated with it. With so many tongues wagging in the wake of the recent scandal, we tapped a few escorts with New England connections to share their perspectives—and if you listen with an open mind, you might be surprised by what they have to say. No, it’s not always about the money. No, it’s not synonymous with sex. And yes, the connections they have with clients can often run much deeper than the paper thinness of a paycheck. “It was a safe way for me to experiment,” says Paul (not his real name), 37, a Boston medical field professional on his early motivations for escorting. He identifies as bisexual and, after divorcing his ex-wife, was offered compensation for accompanying his gay colleague to an industry conference. Through word of mouth (and eventually online ad placement), his client base grew. Paul already enjoys a high-earning career; as someone who previously had “very little experience” exploring his same-sex attractions, the opportunity to deepen his understanding of his desires within clearly defined and respectful arrangements was the main draw to escort work. He says that sex is
“ People understand escorts in the context of ‘sad drug addicts’ or ‘American Gigolo,’” says Ulv, who considers the raid of Rentboy. com, a site on which he advertised, more akin to “persecution” than “prosecution.” Tyler Dårlig Ulv
never “a requirement” (“they pay me for my time”), but he follows the chemistry where it goes and, as a result, has been able to dabble in everything from bondage fantasies to, well, more unusual kinks: “One guy I never met just wanted me to soak my underwear and mail it to him in a zip-lock bag.” Whatever floats your waterbed. Paul says he also feels innately empathetic to the intimacy craved by his clients, who tend to be affluent and older (his most mature is 92). “Probably sixty percent of them tell me something like, ‘I was married to a woman, I had a family, and I never had the opportunity to do this even though I would have loved to,’” says Paul. “Many of them are looking to fill a void, and I’m someone whose personality can find a connection with almost anyone.” Ironically, though he is conscientious about respectfully managing the emotional attachments of his
clients, Paul is actually engaged to marry a fellow escort—one he hired in the wake of his divorce. They even have clients in common, though once they’re officially hitched, says Paul, he expects their escort days to be numbered. When it comes to telling personal partners about escort work, “I am up front immediately,” says Tyler Dårlig Ulv, 28. He might as well be: Ulv has a fairly prominent online presence in the industry. He’s based in NYC but has clients in Boston, is the editor of Cambridge-based Manhunt’s daily blog, and waxes about sex-related issues on his own site, badwolfblog.com. He says he’s not on the hunt for an exclusive relationship right now, but when it does come to people he sees casually, he’s immediately forthcoming about his escort work (which complements a separate career as a graphic designer and marketing consultant). “If that’s going to be the rejection point, I say let’s do it quick,” says
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Ulv. “But more often than not, they have intense curiosities and lots of questions that I don’t have salacious answers for.” Their curiosities can reveal stigma. “People understand escorts in the context of ‘sad drug addicts’ or ‘American Gigolo,’” says Ulv, who considers the raid of Rentboy.com, a site on which he advertised, more akin to “persecution” than “prosecution.” Ulv is happy to clear the “minefield of misconceptions,” particularly the assumption that sex is “promised” with a hiring. (“There’s no ‘you paid for a blowjob so here’s your begrudging blowjob’ stuff with me.”) He was initially drawn to the biz by the money and “sexual reinforcement” that comes with the gig: “My inner capitalist was thrilled to have such a clear and large value assigned
“ I’m always very straightforward that sex isn’t why I’m here.” For him the money is the main appeal, so he treats it like any other job: Keeping the right clothes on hand for a last-minute gala date, or studying up on, say, real estate if he knows that his client will be bringing him to an event with investors. Jayjay Wild
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to my penis.” But now, he says, the gratification runs much deeper. Sure, he gets some great opportunities out of the work—upcoming travels will take him from London to Southeast Asian—but he most appreciates the “liberating” effect it has had by dissolving his and others’ sexual preconceptions. “It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience that has taught me a ton about how people interact and how relationships work, and how they don’t, and about sexuality in its broadest sense,” says Ulv. “There’s a way of seeing and understanding sex, gay sex most especially, that is informed by porn and adult performers that doesn’t match up with what people really want or need most of the time. … Getting over [limited definitions of sex] was super liberating to me as a gay man, and I’m glad to help other men
“ It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience that has taught me a ton about how people interact and how relationships work, and how they don’t, and about sexuality in its broadest sense.” Tyler Dårlig Ulv understand that their wants are legitimate even if they don’t align with what they see in gay porn.” Though the sexual experiences of these relationships can be emotionally liberating for both the escort and the client, there are some for whom physical matters are totally moot. That’s certainly true for Boston’s Jayjay Wild, 23. Wild, who is bi, has only accepted a handful of escorting gigs since
he “came out to the gay scene” a couple years ago and started working as a go-go dancer in clubs. He says his clients have provided him with some pretty exciting opportunities: From a Florida getaway with a high finance exec to dining with a prince from the Middle East. But Wild says he has never had intercourse with any of the men who have hired him, and he’s very careful about protecting himself legally. Wild
says that he’ll often require potential clients to chat with him over Skype first, where he’ll ask their permission to record the conversation so that there’s a record of exactly what was promised—or more importantly, what wasn’t. “I’m always very straightforward that sex isn’t why I’m here,” says Wild. For him the money is the main appeal, so he treats it like any other job: Keeping the right clothes on hand for a last-minute gala date, or studying up on, say, real estate if he knows that his client will be bringing him to an event with investors. While some might assume sex is involved, he says that men of certain means are more than happy to pay for a cute face and companionship. “They just want some social interaction,” says Wild. “And they’re used to getting what they want.” [x]
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Michael Wartofsky, Kalila, and Imtiyaz Hussein Tim Kelleher, Josh Reed, and Colin Robert Sutfin, Eric Forsberg, and Katherine 24 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Paternal Partnering Double Daddies provides peer support for parents and kids No doubt love makes a family. Sometimes, however, love can use a little help—especially when it comes to successful parenting. When Timothy Kelleher, a digital marketing executive, and his husband Josh Reed, a yoga instructor, decided to expand their family through adoption, the two dads-to-be prepared as thoroughly as possible. Kelleher and Reed had been together for almost 11 years and they felt the time had come. The two had so much love and life experience to share. For over a year, they did their homework. They made all the right legal moves. They educated themselves in child development. They moved from the South End of Boston and relocated to Jamaica Plain, where they could afford a house with one more bedroom. They planned to bring up their child in a safe neighborhood with good schools and a diversity of family types. Still, they were amazed when their son Colin’s adoption process went smoothly. “There’s a lot of stages in the process where things can potentially falter and we were certainly anticipating that,” Kelleher says. “We were very lucky,” agrees Reed. “Everybody’s adoption process is different. For us, it worked out in a way that was really wonderful and I hope for his natural parents as well.” Colin was born in May 2009, and his new dads were there at the hospital to welcome him into the world. Like most parents seem to agree, raising an infant comes with many surprises. For starters, Kelleher knew he’d be home alone with Colin several days a week. But,
he says, “I began to feel pretty isolated and lonely.” “Your old friends don’t always know quite what to do with you,” says Reed. He and Kelleher, he adds, were the first in their social circle to have a kid. In their new neighborhood they found the diversity of family groups they’d hoped for and a welcoming community. However, Reed says, “a lot of the new parent groups are particularly focused around moms.”
But the two just wished their new family had a little more support in a way they hadn’t expected.
Birth of the Double Daddies “We were married in 2009, about five years after the first gay legal marriages in Massachusetts,” Reed says. “Those older than us with kids had them in oppositesex relationships. In our small circle and neighborhood it felt almost like we were pioneers in being a two-dad family.” So the pioneering parents struck out on their own, as pioneers do.
“ We had one set of friends that was just starting their adoption-process journey.” Then through connections among other friends, they began to meet other two-dad teams. They came from all over Boston and the suburbs. Friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. This was not exactly a problem. The moms were friendly. “But when the conversation about breast feeding comes up we can’t really participate in it,” Kelleher says. Almost all baby products from diapers to playpens, bottles to infant bath soap, storybooks to building blocks, tend to be marketed to women. This is also true of classes and playgroups, TV shows and how-to guides—you name it. Again, Kelleher and Reed agree, not a major problem.
Josh Reed “We had one set of friends that was just starting their adoption-process journey,” says Reed. And then through connections among other friends, they began to meet other two-dad teams. They came from all over Boston and the suburbs. Friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. And so a new kind of support group was born: Double Daddies. “Couples started coming to our house,” says Kelleher, laughing. “For a while we
MAR|APR 2016 | 25
Out of necessity, spin-off groups formed. “We have two-and-a-half year olds now who like to run and jump and it can be tricky putting them in a room with a whole bunch of babies who need quiet to sleep,” Reed says.
“ It’s incredible to be living in a time and place that we can not only experience parenthood but find community with such an amazing group of gay dads ” Michael Wartofsky
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Most of the Double Daddies come together as a big group around Thanksgiving and other holidays. In addition to the home play-dates, they’ve now expanded to include a variety of age-appropriate outings—visits to museums, playgrounds, picnic trips, and even shared vacations. “It’s incredible to be living in a time and place that we can not only experience parenthood but find community with such an amazing group of gay dads,” says Wartofsky. “Double Daddies has been so helpful to us,” says Robert Sutfin, who joined the group with his husband Eric Forsberg and daughter Katherine. “It allows us to connect with other gay dads and their children on a regular basis and share stories of adoption, surrogacy, lack of changing tables in men’s bathrooms, and other successes and challenges that we face together. “Above all else,” Sutfin says, “it’s so great for the kids to make friends with other kids whose families look like ours. Hopefully, it will be more of a resource for them than it is for us.” [x]
4 Days Only!
Rachael McLaren. Photo by Andrew Eccles
had one new couple after another showing up in our living room.” Kelleher and Reed hosted Double Daddies’ first official meeting, a potluck/ play-date. Colin was six months old. “The first gathering at Josh and Tim’s happened just eight days after our daughter [Kalila] was born,” recalls Michael Wartofsky, who, along with his husband Imtiyaz Hussein, happened to fall into the category of already established friends. “Joyful but exhausted,” Wartofsky says, “we showed up two hours late. It was a hot summer day so we had her dressed in a onesie, and like novices, we forgot we’d be going to an air-conditioned home. Without skipping a beat, Tim took our daughter in his arms, found her a blanket, and also showed us his ninja method for changing a diaper right on the couch.” The group grew through word of mouth. Social media. In no time, more than two dozen couples began reaching out to one another through texting or Facebook. Kelleher and Reed hosted the first few home play-dates in their house but soon it started shifting from one home to another.
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FEATURE Elders STORY Bob Linscott
Senior Spirit
For the Golden Girls, this arrangement was a much better option than a traditional retirement home or living by themselves.
LGBT Senior Housing in the Bay State WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM “THE GOLDEN GIRLS” Over the past four months, as a member of the LGBT Aging Project, I have had the opportunity to travel across the state of Massachusetts to co-facilitate a series of focus groups with LGBT older adults around their anticipated needs for housing. These focus groups are part of a collaborative research project between The LGBT Aging Project, The Fenway Institute and Simmons School of Social Work.
For years, those involved in LGBT aging in this area have known that Massachusetts is a national leader in programing, service delivery, and training models but it is falling far behind in areas around LGBT senior housing. Other cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and even Minneapolis, have developed stunning models of LGBT inclusive elder housing. One
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Joanne Colucci & Marilyn Lober Colucci tell their Seashore Point story. AGE: Joanne 57; Marilyn, 58 OCCUPATION: Joanne is a Director of Global Security for a Fortune 100 corporation and was a first responder on 9/11; Marilyn, a painter and photographer, works in a gallery in Provincetown. ORIGINS: New York, NY PASSIONS: the arts; the LBGT community; and The Residences at Seashore Point
After two years at The Residences at Seashore Point, homeowners Joanne Colucci and Marilyn Lober Colucci share their three favorite things about living here:
Value–You can not beat the price for what you get. Consider what you spend now. Amenities like maintenance-free living and the in-house gym alone make living here worth it. And that’s just for starters. Convenience–The option of underground parking is worth its weight in gold in Provincetown. And we’re just two blocks from the center of town. Welcoming & Vibrant–Anyone 55 and older is welcome. For us, it was important to know Seashore Point openly welcomes those from the LGBT community. It feels just like home, but with a “vibrant buzz.” We wake up every morning in our lovely condo with an incredible view, and think,
“We made the right choice.” Visit or call 508-487-0771 to learn why Seashore Point may just be the right choice for you.
www.seashorepoint.org
100 Alden Street • Provincetown, MA 02657
of the recommendations in The Massachusetts Commission on LGBT Aging’s formal report to the legislature was the development of such a project in The Bay State. The findings from these state-wide focus groups will help develop a needs assessment to gather critical information about income, housing, services, and other unmet needs for LGBT elders. This data would help the city and state move forward with the development of LGBTfriendly, affordable housing projects, catching Massachusetts up with similar housing trends across the country. From discussions with diverse people from all corners of the state,it is clear that there isn’t one model that will serve every aspect of the Massachusetts’ community. It can be exciting to think about what kind of housing one would want when they approach those fabled “golden years.” It may be easier to identify what one doesn’t want. Many certainly don’t want to end up in a nursing home or in an assisted living facility run by a staff who is not understanding or welcoming towards LGBT elders. Like many of the people the LGBT Aging Project has listened to across
the state, Bay State elders may like to have the opportunity to age in place in their own homes. For, say, a single man, how long will that be possible once he reaches his 70s and 80s? The LGBT Aging Process is aware of the challenges many of our current LGBT seniors face who are living alone and trying to maintain their homes. The results are often isolating, burdensome, and cost prohibitive.
There is good news on the horizon. In addition to the Housing Recommendations from The Commission on LGBT Aging, there is also a small group of community members and professionals who have formed a special LGBT Senior Housing Task Force with the mission to get such a project under construction as soon as possible. There are a number of organizations who stand behind this work
f rom g e t t i n g a ru n n i n g i nj u ry to j ust g e t t i n g ol de r , w e’ re he re w hen you n eed us .
find your strength.
Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, combined with Partners HealthCare at Home, provides a preeminent system of rehabilitation and home care services to help people recover following illness or injury. From inpatient care after stroke to outpatient care for sports injury to at-home care and support for aging parents or loved ones, our teams are dedicated to providing culturally sensitive care that offers the physical, emotional and spiritual strength to feel better or recover. For more information, visit us at spauldingrehab.org or partnersathome.org
®
including the Department of Neighborhood Development and The Boston City Council. The difficult reality is that such a project could take years to complete. After listening to the participants in our focus groups as well as countless conversations from LGBT seniors at our programs and the LGBT senior meal sites it is clearly evident that there are many people who need a safe housing option now.
A SHARING SOLUTION Hope is not lost because there is a model that is more familiar, accessible and viable than one might think. It is what one might jokingly call “The Golden Girls” model. Let’s begin with a refresher for those who didn’t see the popular NBC show when it was running or for the younger generations who have not yet experienced it on HULU. “The Golden Girls” was a popular sitcom (1985–’92) about four single older women, three widowed and one divorcee, sharing a home in Miami. It was a stellar cast including Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClannahan and Estelle Getty, who joined the women after escaping from
unpleasant experiences at a retirement home. Each of these women chose to live out their “Golden” years together in community instead of aging alone. For these women, this arrangement was a much better option than a traditional retirement home or living by themselves. Many of us, regardless of gender, can see ourselves growing into any one of those characters and enjoying that comradery.
VILLAGE PEOPLE So how does a Hollywood sitcom become a reality? This is actually a case where truth is better than fiction because we are seeing a model that is being perfected right here in Massachusetts that provides an even better solution than the one depicted in the sitcom. This is called the Village Model, which enables older adults, in whatever living arrangement they chose, to live in their own homes and receive services that will support them as they age. The home care element is what makes this an even better option than the arrangement Sophia and her housemates
had because they would not have to be reliant on caregiving from each other. This model has part of its roots in a movement that began here is Massachusetts with the Beacon Hill Village, a community based model that allows neighbors to share services and home care. The latest version based on this system is JP@ Home, which is a member-driven program for Jamaica Plain residents who wish to age in place with social, educational, and in-home service supports. Although there are a growing number of such models across the country, JP@Home represents one that is LGBT friendly. Ethos, an elder service agency located in Jamaica Plain, has been the leader in Massachusetts for providing LGBT friendly services and programs. Now Ethos’ newest program JP@ Home is another extension of that mission and they already have a number of LGBT seniors who are active participants. If “The Golden Girls” were starting over today, they would be a part of JP@ Home. [x] LGBT Aging Project
857-313-6578
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FEATURE Cyber-Anniversary STORY Scott Kearnan
Man Up Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Manhunt.net takes stock of the present and plans for the future Print to web. Albums to iTunes. Taxi cabs to Uber. Every industry has its story of innovation and disruption: those moments when something comes along that is so cool and clever, it topples the old guard and makes bank by blazing a new trail. It has happened in media. It has happened in music. It has happened in transportation. It has even happened in sex. When it was founded in Boston in 2001, Manhunt.net revolutionized the way that gay men meet. It was more customizable than a page of personals ads, and more covert than a visit to a local gay bar. The directness of its name announced Manhunt as an unapologetically adult playground where guys could, from the comfort of home, find a nearby score who fit their uniquely filtered specifications— and (no surprise!) its success exploded. Founders Larry Basile and Jonathan Crutchley had pulled off the oldest trick in
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the entrepreneurial book: They identified a need, answered it, and reaped the rewards. This year Manhunt celebrates its 15th anniversary, and the Cambridge-based business is enjoying the perks of being a legacy brand. But it is also looking forward, and working to carve itself an even larger niche in the scene—especially with Millennials. The story of innovation is a cyclical one, after all, and though Manhunt disrupted the then-status quo with its launch, it now finds it must compete with a crowded marketplace of mobile apps—like Grindr and Scruff—who modeled themselves after Manhunt but added the extra convenience of a smartphonebased experience. To know where Manhunt is going, though, you have to understand how it came about. It emerged from an earlier brainchild of Larry Basile, a West Roxbury-raised former seminary student
who abandoned a pursuit of the priesthood for a series of gay business ventures (and strong history of community activism). He once owned and operated the South End’s historic gay bar Fritz—and worked with its former staff to recently open Cathedral Station, essentially an offspring of that late watering hole. He marched alongside Act Up! and inspired advocacy as publisher of “OutWeek,” an influential NYC magazine of the late ’80s. And he also launched Dial Information Services (DIS), a precursor to Manhunt that used telephone party lines to connect gay men in Boston and New York markets. Founded in 1987, DIS tapped in to the same energy that was then fueling a heyday of gay nightlife. “The ’80s and early ’90s in New York City were out of control,” says Basile. “And boy, was it fun.” One of his DIS customers was realtor Jonathan Crutchley. They met when Basile dropped by Crutchley’s office to check out an investment property—and in 1992, the real estate broker bought shares in DIS, going from customer to partner. By the time Y2K rolled around, though, the
duo saw that gay men were increasingly shifting over to Internet sites and chat rooms to hook up. So they responded by launching Manhunt.net, the original, flagship product of Online Buddies Inc. It was an act of foresight, but also a gamble. They were essentially disrupting their own business model, and banking on the future success of the then-burgeoning online world (which, at the time, wasn’t quite the sure thing we now know it to be). Its success was first slow, then astounding. It took one year to build the site to 10,000 users, says Crutchley, at which point Manhunt began offering paid subscriptions. Gay men agreed to open their wallets, and it became clear that this was the basis for an international business. Over the course of a decade it exploded, growing not only its staff—whose marketing savvy made Manhunt one of the most widely recognized brands of the Aughties gay scene—but also its membership. The site has logged up to 10 million users throughout 100 countries, aided in part by the gay community’s reputation as early adopters of Internet technology.
“The gay community sort of hijacked the Internet,” says Basile. “I know people who told me they bought their first computer to use Manhunt.” The rewards were handsome. Manhunt made windfall profits, sponsored countless gay events, and saw its team travel the world. The Brookline home of Crutchley, often dubbed “Manhunt Mansion” by guests, became the site of fabulous soirees—from summer pool parties with porn stars to holiday fetes—to which invites were highly coveted. Manhunt ruled the gay world—or at least, one very important part of it. That success, says Crutchley, can be attributed to Manhunt’s unabashed sensibility, which has never waned. “It is an adult website and proudly explicit, because that is what gay men want,” he says. “We had competitors—Gay.com comes to mind—who sought advertising revenue from major companies as their business model rather than subscription revenue from gay customers. Corporate America does not want to see their ads anywhere near photos of naked gay men, though ads in something like ‘Playboy’
magazine would be different. Gay.com and similar sites are gone and Manhunt is still here because our customers are the gay community and not large corporations.”
those concerns have included Manhunt Cares, a website that partners with orgs like Gay Men’s Health Charity on outreach efforts, and the OLB Research Institute, which supports social and scientific Slings & Arrows research around LGBT sexual health.) And plenty of thinkBut when you’re on top, pieces have been proffered you’re also a target. Manhunt on whether Manhunt has weathered some slings and accelerated the decline of gay arrows. Some of it has been bars or contributed to a greater highly personal: In 2008, cultural shift that, as more and an uproar over a Crutchley more meetings happen online, donation to John McCain’s depersonalizes relationships presidential campaign forced and makes long-term connecthe co-founder to temporarily tions harder to obtain. (Can step down as the company’s intimacy exist when the endchairman. Other Manhunt less quest for a next best thing critiques have been aimed is always just one click away?) more generally at what the Been there, heard that, site stands for within gay says Crutchley. “When I culture. Some pundits have was involved in the gay chat wondered whether Manhunt telephone business, we were has made hookups so seamless accused of taking business that it encourages risky sex. from gay bars. Now the InterGardner12-10-12R2_Gardnr_Dec2012R2 12/11/12 2:15 PM Page (The company’s response to net has made telephone chat 1
lines obsolete, and then mobile phone apps take business from websites. Before you know it, there will be a new technology that makes everything else out of date.” “There is nothing to be done to stop progress. However, fantasy is still with us.” Crutchley’s comment on mobile apps is, well, apt. If Manhunt has faced any single challenge in its dominance of the gay dating sphere over the last 15 years, it has been the relatively recent emergence
of smartphone platforms like Grindr. Manhunt was a “boilerplate” for businesses like these, says Basile. But whereas Manhunt was a web browser-based platform tethered to your computer desktop, mobile apps put grids of nearby, GPS-located guys right in the palm of your hand. The Manhunt team admits it was slow to recognize the competition this geosocial model offered. And to be fair, Grindr was easy to ignore early on: It quietly rolled out
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Friday, May 6, 2016 6:00pM
Founders Jonathan Crutchley and Larry Basile
Supporting
“The gay community sort of hijacked the Internet. I know people who told me they bought their first computer to use Manhunt.”
Greater Boston
celebrating Mothers and all who love and support us unconditionally, on the occasion of Mother’s Day Weekend HonorarY co-cHairS
Larry Basil in 2009 and built its user base over the next few years, a period when Manhunt was still climbing toward peak business. In the time since, though, Grindr rapidly rose to 10 million downloads and 5 million active monthly users between nearly 200 countries. And just as Manhunt spawned imitators, so too has Grindr inspired a glut of niche apps that appeal to gay men seeking specific types of partners, from bearded dudes (Scruff ) to older gents (Daddyhunt) to bears (GROWLr). Suddenly, the gay sex sphere was fragmented among many platforms. Manhunt the disrupter had been disrupted, and it saw users—especially younger ones—migrate elsewhere. “I have to admit that I didn’t ‘get’ mobile apps when they first started,” confesses Crutchley. “I mean, who cares if there is a gay man one block away, if you don’t have anything in common with them?” But for a generation that was
just toddler-aged when Manhunt launched, one that has grown up with smartphones affixed to a palm, Manhunt’s hesitation to adapt could, if not ameliorated, threaten to brand the company with the most rankling of insults to gay man’s dating life: the notion that you’re old and uncool.
attorney General of Massachusetts Maura Healey and her mother, Tracy Healey-Beattie eVent co-cHairS Stan Griffith & ann Schauffler Tom Harvey & Manny Correia
cornerStone oF eQualitY 2016 aWarD recipient Cynthia Germanotta Co-Founder and President of Born This Way Foundation Proud Mother of Lady Gaga, a leading voice in the LGBTQ movement
Jacking It Up So as it enters its 15th year, Manhunt is doubling down. In November, Manhunt finally rolled out its own full mobile app. There were a few fits and starts as developers worked to translate Manhunt’s overtly sexual brand, perfectly at home on the World Wide Web, into a product that would be approved by, say, the comparatively sanitized iTunes store. But now that a stable app is up and running, the team is already at work conceptualizing new bells and whistles that it hopes will revolutionize the scene yet again—and lure back some younger users too. (Right
Featuring culinary chair Karen akunowicz executive chef, Myers+chang top chef contestant and 2015 James beard nominee botanical chair Marc Hall of Marc Hall Design
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now, an average Manhunt member is in his forties.) To that end, the company has also added to its arsenal of tools. In 2013, Online Buddies announced that it had purchased the gay social app Jack’d. It was a smart move, as Jack’d might just be the most diverse gay app on the market. It has exploded in Asia, which accounts for about 60 percent of users, says Kevin Letourneau, Online Buddies’ senior director of marketing. Stateside, about half of Jack’d users identify themselves as black and 14 percent as mixed-race. They also skew much younger than Manhunt users. Not only does this give Jack’d a toehold in a market of younger gay men of color, a demographic often ignored elsewhere, but it could also help the platform distinguish itself in terms of social sensibility. If there’s one thing that connects with younger online audiences, it’s a call toward more inclusive and culturally responsible behavior. Every app offers abs, but Jack’d is setting itself apart with its attitude. For instance, it produced a hugely successful viral video (garnering 1.2 million YouTube views), “If Guys Acted In Real Life The Way They Do On Gay Apps,” that
lampoons community prejudices based on race, body type and perceived level of masculinity. (“No fats, no femmes, no Asians!” announces one actor, echoing a too-common online profile refrain. He is summarily, and humorously, dismissed.) The hunt for the next big breakthrough continues. For Manhunt, times have changed and so has its team: last year Basile retired, selling his remaining shares of Manhunt (he retains some shares in OLB Media, the company’s adult video production arm), while the company appointed a new CEO in Hector Camacho, previously its director of advertising. And Crutchley? He’s working to launch his own gay video company that will “leverage Online Buddies’ existing customer base—one that he believes isn’t going anywhere, even if he knows that one day, it will be time for both its founders to finally move on. “Gay men will always be looking to meet,” says Crutchley. “Online Buddies should continue in one form or another long after I am no longer there.” [x]
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FEATURE Youth STORY Rob Phelps Greater Boston PFLAG at 2015 Boston Pride Parade PHOTO courtesy Greater Boston PFLAG
Building a Kinder, Braver World Greater Boston PFLAG celebrates Mother’s Day Weekend honoring Cynthia Bissett Germanotta, Lady Gaga’s Mom How does a parent raise a kid who grows up to be not only one of the most talented and famous artists in the world but also an incredible agent for social change? For Cynthia Bissett Germanotta, Lady Gaga’s mother, having a few shared values is a big part of it. “My daughter and I truly believe passionately in building a kinder, braver world,” Germanotta tells Boston Spirit magazine, “and that means fighting for equality for all people, and certainly including the LGBTQ community.” For her work as president of the Born This Way Foundation, which Germanotta created with daughter Stephani (aka Gaga), Greater Boston PFLAG is honoring her with its 2016 Cornerstone of Equality Award at its 14th annual Pride and Passion benefit and auction at the Boston Marriott Copley Place on May 6. “As a dad,” says Tom Bourdon, executive director of Greater Boston PFLAG, “I can tell you she’s the kind of parent I aspire to be and I know many others do too. She’s
36 | BOSTON SPIRIT
raised two children, Stephani and Natali, in a home that values individualism, inclusion, compassion, and this idea that we all have the ability to make an incredible impact on the world.” “At Greater Boston PFLAG, we know that acceptance and support has a tremendous impact on outcomes for youth,” Bourdon says. And that’s what the Born This Way Foundation is all about. “From the very start of her career and even prior to that,” Germanotta says, “[Stephani] has been very candid with her fan base about the struggles that she experienced and the struggles that she observed other young people facing.” Germanotta describes Stephani as the kind of kindergartner who, “if she saw someone crying she’d go over and give them a hug. If someone was new in middle school she’d introduce herself and ask them to have lunch with her. And then the older she got, in high school and college, and saw wrong things in the world, she would advocate for change and stand up
for human rights and equality and inclusiveness and acceptance. She used her voice to advocate for people.” “The double-edged sword when you’re raising a child like that,” Germanotta says, “is that it is very positive but it’s also very much of a struggle because she’s so sensitive. She feels people’s pain so deeply that if affected her. It led to self-doubt. It really rattled her and she became so depressed and developed anxiety disorders, and ultimately led to some destructive behavior. So that became a challenge for us as a family.” As Stephani grew into a young adult, her mother says, “there were times, honestly, that I was concerned because she was being so open about the struggles that she had, but what I began to realize over time was that she was healing by sharing her story and other young people were healing by hearing that somebody else had been through this and overcame it.” “The Born This Way Foundation uses storytelling, as does the Greater Boston PFLAG, to empower individuals and change hearts and minds,” Bourdon says. “Their mission is to protect youth and to build community. Our mission is to create safer and more inclusive environments for LGBTQ people and their loved ones. So the missions really align.” “I just really want to applaud Greater Boston PFLAG for all of the amazing work that they’re doing and for raising the conversation and the dialog and changing attitudes for our young people,” says Germanotta. “They’re a fabulous organization and I know they work tirelessly to create environments of equality and inclusion and acceptance, and that’s where we’re really aligned.” Partnering with groups like Greater Boston PFLAG is a big part of Born This Way’s mission. For example, they developed a bus tour that followed Lady Gaga in concert. At each stop, they connected young people with resources right in their own communities. Resources that covered mental health and behavior concerns, civic engagement and mentoring organizations, and for LGBTQ issues they had representatives from the Trevor Project, GLSEN, and Campus Pride. And as the
tour went on more and more organizations got on the bus. “The really cool thing about what we did on the bus tour was that when we left we had young people who knew where to go in their communities, either to get help or to volunteer. It was a very, very successful campaign,” Germanotta says. Along with organizational partnering and sharing resources directly with youth (largely through its robust bornthisway. foundation website but also through youth leadership camps, one which has partnered with the YMCA, and a whole lot of other initiatives you can check out on their website), research is a top priority. Born This Way has twin advisory boards, one made up of scholars in partnership with top universities and the other of youth. “It was very important to my daughter that we always have the voice of young people in our work,” says Germanotta. “There needs to be so much more research done on youth resilience and empowerment and other things that they’re focusing on like self-awareness, openness, and compassion,” says Bourdon.
“It’s my hope that we can incorporate what we’re learning from the Born This Way Foundation into the work that Greater Boston PFLAG is doing in the community,” Bourdon says. “I hope that we will build a strong partnership between the two organizations and have a stronger and more positive impact on the youth that our organization is getting to on the ground level.” Coming just two days before mother’s day, 2016 Pride and Passion “honors both mothers and everyone else who’s out there supporting and loving us unconditionally,” Bourdon says. “After all, not everyone has a mother. My kids have two gay dads.” Honorary co-chairs include Attorney General Maura Healey and her mother Tracy Healey-Beattie, with Karen Akunowicz, executive chef of Myers+Cheng and Top Chef contestant, serving as culinary chair. Plus the Elsie Frank Scholarship recipients, youth leaders promoting LGBTQ inclusion and acceptance, join Germanotta in being recognized for their work at the event. [x]
Valuing differences and creating value through differences ... Count Us In. Cynthia Bissett Germanotta PHOTO courtesy
Born This Way Foundation
“They’re looking at how teens hurt each other and at things that sound simple but are actually very complicated, like what it means to be kind, what it takes to be brave and to take a stand, and where teens are most likely to get help.” “Our goal,” Germanotta stresses,” “is to take the learning from our research and put it into practice through the partnerships we form.”
gbpflag.org 781-891-5966.
Valuing differences and creating value differences Harvard Pilgrithrough m is a proud supporter of Boston Spirit Magazi... ne. Count Us In. Harvard Pilgrim is a proud supporter of Boston Spirit Magazine.
SEASONAL Interiors STORY Scott Kearnan PHOTOGRAPHY | ART DIRECTION Joel Benjamin
Room to Breathe Local Luminairies share their personal creative spaces
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You watch them on TV. You eat their food. You read their writings. You already know these well-known LGBT locals by their public personas. But we decided to pay them a home visit, and capture each in the room where they say they feel most “at home.” And each resulting snapshot of life reveals something surprising about their private style—and substance.
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Tiffani Faison For three-time “Top Chef” contestant Tiffani Faison and her wife Kelly Walsh, life literally revolves around food. Especially right now. Four years after Faison opened Sweet Cheeks Q, her Fenwayside barbecue restaurant, the couple has become co-owners in Tiger Mama: a Southeast Asian-inspired eatery located just a few doors away. But an equally important dining room is the one inside their Jamaica Plain home, where the twosome shares some of their most memorable meals—and cooks up some bright, brilliant ideas. “The dining room is where I do all my work,” says Faison. “It’s usually covered in computers, cookbooks and paperwork, and here is where the original plans for Tiger Mama were born.” The restaurant is rooted in a trip to Thailand that was the couple’s first vacation together, though it folds in other influences from Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries visited on subsequent returns to the region. In this JP dining room they hashed out details for the eatery—but oh, if the table could talk, it would have many more stories to tell.
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“I can’t help but think of all the things that table has seen,” says Faison. “From difficult conversations to hosting brunch for our friends. It’s the place where we sit and talk about what we want to do in the years ahead.”
When it comes to running the household, do you each have different roles? Oh yes, we each stay in our own lane. [Laughs] I’m the creative who takes the lead on how things look and feel aesthetically, and she’s the one who pays the bills on time. Of course, sometimes she wants to decorate and I’m always happy to listen—and sometimes she wants to have executive approval over my idea. But it works really well how we focus on where we excel. What’s your favorite element in the room? The painting on the wall is so ridiculous. We found it in Bangkok during one of our trips sourcing inspiration for Tiger Mama. It’s a silk-screen reproduction of an oil painting, with these kids at a party just losing their shit and crying. It’s very British in its humor and I just thought it was hilarious.
Are you the type of chef who loves to entertain at home too? I love to, but I don’t get to do it as much as I want. I really go full stop with all the Martha Stewart kind of things: I like to do it up with flowers, candles, the whole nine yards. So I don’t like to entertain when I don’t have the time for that. What’s one renovation to the room you’d love to do one day? I’d love to take those bookshelves and replace them with built-ins around the ceiling, so that I can be surrounded by all my favorite cookbooks. What’s one great design tip you’ve stumbled upon? I really think a room can benefit from an impromptu bar setup. It’s a great design element for a small space. We hide all the ugly bottles and use these beautiful old crystal decanters that were a gift from Kelly’s mom and dad. At the moment they are, appropriately, empty. They’re on an antique cabinet we stumbled upon in a warehouse on the South Shore. I have a shitty back and paid these neighborhood kids twenty bucks to haul it three floors up to our house. They were way too young and dropped it on the ground, but miraculously it didn’t break! [x]
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Randy Price Randy Price keeps his eye on the horizon. Every day the New England media icon wakes well before sunrise to drive from his home in Kittery Point, Maine to the studio of WCVB Channel 5, where he co-anchors the station’s top-rated “EyeOpener” newscast. And every evening he and husband Mark Steffen take in the sight of spectacular ocean sunsets from their living room, where a wide wall of windows offers amazing Atlantic views. “It’s absolutely breathtaking,” says Price, who has lived on the Pine Tree State’s southern coast for about 25 years. He and Steffen moved into this home three years ago in an effort to downsize a bit from larger digs. “We wanted to scale down. The older you get the more you realize that the things you thought you wanted, you no longer really need.” To everything there is a season, says Price. Regarded as the country’s first openly gay TV newscaster, the popular personality moved to WCVB in 2009 after he was suddenly, and somewhat unceremoniously, dismissed from WHDH after more than a decade of work there. (Behind the scenes, Price’s skepticism toward the
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station’s increasingly sensationalistic approach to news didn’t go over well with head honchos.) He weathered that storm, and now “EyeOpener” regularly trounces competitors in the ratings. Price loves this latest act in his career, as well as the somewhat more sedate social side of his life. Though he has maintained a high profile in the LGBT community, where he has long been a go-to guy for special event hosting and Pride parade marshaling, he says he now concentrates even more on savoring time spent with his closest circles, from Maine neighbors to beloved family—because in life, as in the newsroom, every moment matters.
What do you consider your most special memory from this room? My father was a real blue-collar kind of guy: not especially expressive, all business. In our family you could be a world-renowned brain surgeon, but if you couldn’t fix a doorknob they’d say, ‘Sure he’s a brain surgeon, but he’s horrible around the house.’ [Laughs] My father personally helped with all our home projects over the years. Before he passed away my parents had a chance to visit
MAR|APR 2016 | 43
here and celebrate their anniversary. I remember him looking around and saying, “It’s so beautiful here.” I will always be so grateful that we had that moment. How would you describe your home style? Mark is way more artistic and insightful and I’m more mechanical. But we’re both really impulsive people. We both get really caught up in spirit of a moment, and I love that. Our home sort of reflects that. It’s filled with pieces from our travels, as far back as our earliest time together. We have gardens with literally dozens of flowering plants. We have eight dogs and we’ve had about 250 birds. I love that our home captures all these different chapters of impulsiveness. What are some of the favorite pieces in here that represent your travels? You’d think we were Buddhists with all the small, bronze Buddha statues we have. They’re just beautiful; they came from Cambodia and Thailand. We have this Berber ceremonial necklace we bought in this gallery in Morocco. We got it home and didn’t know what to do with it. We were so fearful of hanging it, so we had it properly framed. Everything has memories attached, from an alabaster that reminds me of Italy to collections of glass from around the world. [x]
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A Simple Guide to Solar Powering Your Home RICHARD KANOFF, Partner SAQIB HOSSAIN, Associate
TERMS TO KNOW A Kilowatt-Hour (kWh) of energy measures the amount of power used over a given period of time. One kWh is equal to 1,000 watts of power used over a period of one hour. Your electric bill is calculated by multiplying the cost of one kilowatt-hour by the number of hours of electricity used.
Net Metering allows the owners of a solar system to receive credits for the excess electricity they generate but don’t use. When you consume power from the distribution company, your retail meter spins forward. When there is excess generation, the meter spins backwards.
Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) are tradeable certificates that are created when a solar energy system generates electricity. One SREC is issued for every 1,000 kWh placed on the grid.
So, you’re environmentally conscious and interested in saving money on your electric bill. Or perhaps a pitch by a solar sales rep at the mall intrigued you. In either case, you now have questions about solar power, and namely, how to pay for it. Maybe you’ve heard that you can have a solar energy system installed at your home for free, or that you can benefit from solar without installing anything. Massachusetts’ solar market is flourishing and there are various options available to residents. Here we’ve summarized a few popular solar financing options, recent residential solar trends and important contractual issues to consider before you make a decision.
THIRD-PARTY OWNERSHIP Most homeowners install solar through a third-party ownership arrangement with a developer, either through a solar lease or power purchase agreement (PPA). Under both arrangements the system is owned by the developer, who is entitled to the benefits from net metering and SRECS. The value of these credits are then factored into the financing arrangements. When entering a solar lease, the project developer installs and owns the system at your home and you agree to scheduled payments to the developer. These payments, essentially rent, are offset by the savings that you receive from reductions to your
electric bill. This option typically allows homeowners to avoid all upfront costs of installing the system. Solar PPA’s are similar to solar leases in that the developer will install and own the system on your property, and you will avoid upfront costs, but differ with respect to what you’re paying for. Here, the homeowner purchases the energy generated by the system on the fixed kWh basis set by the company, knows the cost of solar electricity for the entire term of the PPA, and saves money by purchasing electricity at a lower cost than what the electric company charges.
CONTRACT TERM Solar leases and PPA term lengths are commonly set for 15 to 25 years. Review your options at the end of the term, which in addition to including a possible extension, could allow you to purchase the system at fair market value or a predetermined price.
BUYOUT OPTION Life happens, things change. Ask if you can buy out the remainder of your payments, and if so when and how it would be calculated. Some contracts provide this option at a certain time, usually several years in.
SELLING YOUR HOME You want to move, now what? Make sure your contract allows you to transfer to the buyer your obligations for the remainder of the term.
ESCALATING PAYMENTS Ideally, your electricity savings should always be greater than your monthly payments under a PPA or solar lease. Both usually include a provision that increases your monthly payment on an annual basis, to account for inflation and projected electricity price increases. This payment escalator is typically one to three percent. If this rate is greater, don’t take the company’s word for the assumed rates. Research your local electricity rate and then compare.
PROPERTY ALTERATIONS Most financing contracts restrict changes or additions to your property that would negatively impact the production of the solar system. If you anticipate repairs to your roof, for example, do them prior to installation. Removing a system can be timeconsuming and costly. Review the contract to ensure that restrictions are reasonable and clear. The company will generally not be responsible for any roof repairs, unless damages are directly related to the company’s actions, such as a faulty installation.
OWN YOUR OWN
Owning your system allows you to retain the net metering and SREC benefits, while potentially saving more money depending on your repayment terms. With ownership comes increased liability however, so consider the following three points.
MAINTENANCE Solar systems are generally lowmaintenance. Apart from cleaning the panels and removing snow buildup, issues are usually limited to wear and tear, such as a loose wiring connection. It’s your responsibility to take care of these issues, although the installer will likely offer an operation and maintenance agreement to cover repairs at a reasonable cost.
INSURANCE As an owner, you bear the risk of accidents and damages to your system, and therefore should consider additional insurance coverage.
EQUIPMENT WARRANTIES Confirm who will cover the cost of replacing the equipment. Sometimes more expensive items won’t be covered by the company installing your system.
LOAN FINANCING
COMMUNITY SOLAR
If you’re looking to own your solar system, a growing number of lending institutions offer solar loans. In 2015, Massachusetts announced a $30 million residential solar loan program that provides funding to support solar lending. Under this program, homeowners seeking ownership of their solar energy systems can apply for low, fixed-interest loans between $3,000-$60,000.
If you can’t install solar on your own property, consider a community solar project. This enables customers to purchase energy produced at an offsite solar facility. The energy generated by the project is allocated to multiple customers who are ratepayers of the electric utility that services the area where the project is located. You choose how much power to purchase, usually at a fixed kWh basis. The
project owner then applies a credit to offset your electric bill. The biggest draw of participating in a community solar project is that you get to buy-in without assuming obligations or liabilities for the project. Opportunities to participate in a community solar project are quickly expanding and offer an easy way to benefit from solar.
THE SOLAR PROJECT If you’re pre-subscribing to a project that hasn’t been completed, ask the developer for a status update. If the project is never completed, the company may swap in another project. If the project underperforms, your agreement should state when you will receive your credit.
SAVINGS As with all solar arrangements, you want to save money. Check the kWh rate that is being offered. A fixed-flat rate or a discounted utility rate (set at a percentage below your utility rate) will give you a clear picture of future payments.
FEES AND TERMINATIONS Community solar contracts are generally customer-friendly. It’s not uncommon for a company to require no upfront fees and allow you to terminate the agreement early without penalty. Massachusetts residents are uniquely situated to take advantage of the evolving solar market, which is among the most developed in the nation. Consulting counsel experienced with the relatively new and changing solar landscape will help you weigh your options.
This communication provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. © 2016 Burns & Levinson LLP. All rights reserved.
Burns & Levinson is a Boston-based law firm with more than 125 attorneys and offices in Providence and New York, as well as in the Merrimack Valley/North Shore, Metro West and South Shore areas of Massachusetts. We work with entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, private and public companies and individuals in sophisticated business transactions, litigation and private client services. burnslev.com l 617.345.3000 MASSACHUSETTS l NEW YORK l RHODE ISLAND
Our LGBT Group: Lisa Cukier l Scott Moskol l Deborah Peckham l Laura Studen l Donald Vaughan l Ellen Zucker
Senator Stan Rosenberg Every public figure needs a private space. And few gay notables in Massachusetts politics are as visible as state senate president Stan Rosenberg. Rosenberg and his partner, Byron Hefner, have a condo in Beacon Hill and a primary residence in Amherst. But given the long, arduous hours of a high-ranking politico, it’s the senate president’s office at the State
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House that Rosenberg really considers home—especially the Coolidge Room. While he hosts formal meetings and entertains important guests in the more ceremonial president’s suite, the Coolidge Room is, by contrast, a small and intimate space where Rosenberg retreats to both clear his head and do deep thinking. “It’s a nice quiet space,” says Rosenberg. “I mostly come in here by myself to ponder what I’m working on.” The president’s suite is the most obviously eye-catching part of his office. Originally the senate library, it is an elegant study in Boston Brahmin-era beauty, from the stained glass units over the entryway to ornate carvings in peroba wood (otherwise known as “white mahogany”), from cherubs and seashells to a fireplace mantle featuring five faces that are believed to represent historic
figures like Shakespeare and Beethoven. The Coolidge Room may seem comparatively more sedate, but its dark mahogany walls, ringed in gold gilding, resound with amazing history. It is named, after all, for Calvin Coolidge. Before he was America’s president he was president of the Massachusetts senate—and ironically, he represented exactly 100 years ago the same district that Rosenberg represents today.
What is your favorite element of the room? It’s a beautiful room, but it’s not a busy room. It would have to be the desk, which is the original desk at which Coolidge sat. I sit mostly at a small oval conference table in the room. But I love that his desk sits there, this snapshot in time. Are there any personal items in the office that really represent your stamp of style? Not in the Coolidge Room. There are a few pieces of art here and there, some framed things, a few small awards, and say, a beautiful hand-etched glass dish that I gave to the senators for the holidays one year. The suite is where you’ll find more of what has to do with my style. For instance, from Halloween through the New Year
we’ll decorate the conference table with elaborate designs [created by fiancé Bryon Hefner] celebrating the holidays, including Christmas and Hanukkah. There are also lots of glass vases, and various kinds of orchids and cactus spread around the room. What is one of your most meaningful memories from the space? My memories of the room go well beyond this moment in time. When I was working on the same-sex marriage debate, during the state’s constitutional conventions this room would often be used as a holding room. I would end up in this room before going into the suite to meet with then-senate president Travaglini and others to discuss strategy. So there’s those really historic memories associated with it. How do you use the space now? It’s a quiet space where there isn’t even an active telephone. There’s one phone, under the couch, and you have to plug it in. Being senate president is more a lifestyle than a job, so I spend a huge amount of time in here. Even over the weekend I’ll often come in here for three or four hours on an afternoon, just to write notes or prepare lists when there’s no one else around and it’s totally silent: just me, my thoughts, and the scratching of my pen. [x]
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Steve Buckley Emmy-winning gay journalist and sports writer Steve Buckley’s office is the culmination of his greatest story: his own. Look around the space at his Somerville home and you’ll find items reflecting every era of his career. There’s a coffee cup from Galaxy Diner, a Hell’s Kitchen haunt where he used to hang in the late ’80s. There’s a street corner distribution box that used to proffer copies of the “National Sports Daily,” for which he was a columnist. (Today, of course, he’s known as a decades-long fixture in the “Boston Herald.”) There are plenty of journalism awards, and a framed editorial cartoon that features Buckley alongside Nomar Garciaparra and Larry Johnson. “The room is festooned with all the stuff that you think a sports writer would have.” Interestingly, you won’t find Buckley doing much actual writing here; he’s
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more likely to file copy from his kitchen counter. Rather, his office is used more often for the research stage of his work. It’s a space to sprawl the reports and notes he compiles while he’s starting on his next big project—and if you snooped around his desk right now, you might find quite a bit of background on America’s presidents. Buckley is currently gathering material for a book about presidential gravesites. He’s already gathered 29 such sites within the last six months, traveling from Nashville to Denver to gather information, trivia and historic anecdotes. “When I’m working in there it looks like hell,” laughs Buckley. Maybe so, but when it comes to his work—he still hits it out of the park.
Are there any items that might surprise a visitor? Along the top of my bookcase are a bunch of about thirty bobble heads of athletes. As a sports writer, you always seem to be getting them for free. But there’s one bobble head that stands out: The only one I bought myself is of the Wicked Witch of the West. I got it in Times Square. I had interviewed Margaret Hamilton when I was working for the “Journal Tribune” in Biddeford, Maine. It was a phone interview, but later I met her at the Whistling Oyster restaurant when she was in Ogunquit staying with her friend, a gay guy who ran a bed and breakfast. I’ve met everyone from Reggie Jackson to Mickey Mantle, but I always get a kick out of telling people about the Wicked Witch of the West. Is there anything in the room that represents some of your travels? I was covering the World Series at Candlestick Park in San Francisco when an earthquake famously hit just before game three. The World Series
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had to be stopped for ten days. I bought a copy of the “San Francisco Chronicle” that has on its front page in big block letters, “Killer Earthquake Strikes San Francisco!” It’s framed alongside my 1989 World Series press pass. What’s the most meaningful book on your shelf? I’ve written several books myself, but the book that has the most meaning to me is an autographed copy of “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I’ve known her for twenty years and had lunch with her just as she was starting to write it. If you could only save one item from a fire, what would it be? In 1991 I wrote a magazine piece about Albert S. Teevan, a serviceman who died in World War II, and later directed a documentary on his life. I interviewed his sister and she gave me some of his notes and letters, including one he wrote home to a girl before he was killed during the war. He closed it by saying “I’ll be seeing you.” And that became the name of the documentary. [x]
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Jonathan Soroff Jonathan Soroff is more than a journalist — he’s also a professional social butterfly, always flitting from one high-profile party, gala or special event to another armed with indefatigable energy and a quick wit that never falters. The man-abouttown is probably best known as a fixture in “The Improper Bostonian,” where his celebrity interviews get stars to spill their secrets and his social column maintains a handy register of all the boldfaced names Bostonians need to know. (He also cohosts “Status Report” on Boston Herald Radio with “Herald” lifestyle editor Erica Corsano.)
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Unsurprisingly, the decor inside the living room of the Newton home he shares with his other half, PR pro Sam Mazzarelli, is a physical accumulation of a life that brims with warm memories and treasured human connections. There are vestiges of all the travels he has taken, from a chrome cattle skull scored in Mexico to a colorful rug from a handcrafts cooperative founded in part by Jordan’s Queen Rania. And there is much that reflects his family history, from his parents’ collections of bronze age pottery, antiquities and art (including a Picasso and a piece by Holocaust survivor Irene
Awret), to furnishings that forever have his heart: like the same chair in which his mother sat to read stories to her son, an eventual writer. The room’s single most important element, though, is the people who fill it. “We entertain all the time,” says Soroff. “We love it. Plus, it’s an opportunity to stay home for once!”
There’s a peacock motif throughout the room. Where’d that come from? One of my best friends on Martha’s Vineyard had peacocks. I probably have thousands of the feathers that I would walk around and pick up. I love those colors, the blues and greens. That’s how it started. One unusual piece is a taxidermied white peacock, which are rare, that my friend Suki found at Brimfield and left on my doorstep.
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He had a note on him that said, “My name is Eugene. You can not keep me, but I am on loan indefinitely.” What’s one piece from your travels that has an especially unique story? There’s a tortoise shell I smuggled back from Belize. We were on our way to see the Mayan ruins and met a family who made turtle soup the night before. I bought the shell and it almost didn’t make
it back into the country. TSA was looking at it in the x-ray machine. Thank god they didn’t unzip the suitcase. I lied and told them it was some of my diving equipment! You have an unusual arrangement in the fireplace. What’s that about? Growing up we always had a working fireplace and that was really important to me; I love building fires for the room. This is a non-working
fireplace, so I asked myself, “What’s the opposite of fire?” Water. So I turned it into beach: it’s filled with rocks and coral from all my favorite beaches around the world. And there’s a blue jug encased in rope, which they’d use to hold the whale oil on old ships. Do you and Sam have similar tastes? They’re very different. He tells me a lot of the things I love are bubbie-ish. On the
other hand, he’s 17 years younger than me so a lot of the things he thinks is very cool and contemporary — like the midcentury modern style — is just what I grew up with. To me, that’s old. So some might call my style old-fashioned, but I think of it as timeless. [x]
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Larry Basile Larry Basile once studied to be a priest. That didn’t work out, but he’s since answered the prayers of a whole lot of gay men. Basile is the co-founder of Manhunt, the men-seeking-men website that revolutionized hookup culture by tugging it in to the 21st century—and the online frontier. It launched 15 years ago, around the same time that Basile, already a longtime South End resident, moved into his modern loft in the neighborhood’s burgeoning SoWa district. His is an industrial space, a sprawling open floor plan with huge picture windows that look out to the twinkling Back Bay skyline. But that architecture is juxtaposed with Basile’s personal tastes, which run more toward antiquities: Nearly every corner is filled with framed paintings, objets d’art, weathered books and fascinating relics culled during world travels, from Turkey to the Sahara. It looks like the treasure trove of a gay Indiana Jones. We can’t vouch for his skill with a bullwhip, but Basile has certainly led a life full of adventures. He spent years living in NYC, where by day he ran the influential activist mag OutWeek and Dial Information Services, a phone-based precursor to Manhunt; by night he partied at iconic spots like Paradise Garage in the same circles as folks like Keith Haring. (“He was a good kid,” says Basile.) He founded the Grass Roots Gay Rights Fund and the Boston Gay Pride Street Dance, which have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for LGBT organizations. And he owned and operated Boston’s Chandler Inn and historic gay sports bar Fritz; two years ago he worked with Fritz’s former team to launch Cathedral Station, a gay watering hole just a few doors down from his South End home. And yet, there are still traces of the former seminary student. A copy of the Ten Commandments hangs in his bathroom, above a urinal and between photos from
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gay Pride rallies. One closet in his dressing room opens to reveal an altar filled with items that really speak to his soul: letters from friends, a chalice from a church, pictures of saints—and even a dirty photo of two guys in the midst of a tryst. Who’s that? “I don’t know,” says Basile. “But I can tell we’d get along.”
INDUSTRY SAVVY RIGOROUS STUDY INDUSTRY INDUSTRY INNOVATIVE SAVVY SAVVY RIGOROUS RIGOROUS TEACHING STUDY STUDY INNOVATIVE INNOVATIVE CUTTING-EDGE TEACHING TEACHING DEGREES CUTTING-EDGE CUTTING-EDGE
Would you describe your style as eclectic? I was actually very high-tech minimalist for a long time. But once you go into a seminary that’s kind of gone! I’m just so interested in certain kinds of things. Interested, but it’s not that I’m attached to them. I give them away. Would you say that faith is still important in your life? As far as having integrity and going out of your way to do good things for people,
DEGREES DEGREES
Success is the language we speak.
Success Success is the is the language language we we speak. speak.
absolutely. The gods have been very good to me. And because of that I’ve been very willing to do what I can for other people. Do you have a favorite place to shop? There’s a flea market in Lynn, just over the bridge [the Lynnway Mart] that is my favorite secret. I get to buy all this devalued stuff that people put out for sale. They want brand shiny new stuff, and think it’s just because it’s old. There’s also a big cruising area off to the side. After two years of going there I didn’t notice it. But then I was like, “Whoa!” Do you find the South End has changed over the years? It’s still full of characters. By its very nature it attracts characters, so it’s still fine for me. [x]
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Steven Maler To Maler, all the world’s a stage— and his living room offers a front row seat from which to watch the tales of a city unfold. “The neighborhood is growing and changing,” says Maler, who recently moved with husband Tony Liquouri from
a historic house in Charlestown to a brand new building on the rapidly developing border of South Boston and Fort Point. Maler is a major mover and shaker in the Boston area’s arts community, the founding artistic director of Commonwealth
Shakespeare Company (CSC) and the director of Babson College’s Sorenson Center for the Arts. So perhaps he’s uniquely situated to appreciate a vantage point from which to view the live drama of a city in constant flux. “We have a wall of windows with 180 views from Fort Point Channel to Downtown. I can see cranes putting up buildings and planes going in and out of the airport. It’s like a theater.”
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Boston’s arts landscape is itself in perpetual flux, and some recent transitions have caused concern among observers: like the dissolution of a 33-year partnership between Boston University and the Huntington Theater Company and Emerson College’s still-developing plans to repurpose the historic Colonial Theatre. These isolated business decisions aside, Boston’s art scene is as vibrant as ever, says Maler. That’s in large part thanks to the work of his organizations, which have a “a lot of exciting new projects in the hopper.” Among upcoming highlights: Maler himself will direct CSC’s next annual summer performance in Boston Common, a production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” and the Sorenson will host a series of “script in hand” performances—raw, workshoplike shows of especial intimacy—featuring actors like Pedro Pascal from “Game of Thrones” and Cote de Pablo from “NCIS.” And when this arts guru needs inspiration, he takes in a show every day from his
living room, where beyond his window Boston sunsets rise and fall like curtain.
Are there any parallels between home design and set design? Something interesting about set design, which is very different from other visual arts, is that the designer is always creating a space that has a key absence, a missing element: the actors. The space is only truly complete once they’re in it. Sometimes your set’s so cluttered and overwhelming that it crowds out the actors and their narrative. We maintain openness to our living space. It’s a vessel to be filled with people—whether that’s just me, Tony and our dog, or a dinner party for 100. You don’t feel overwhelmed in the space. Are there any special artists represented in the space? It’s practically become a gallery for this one local artist, Elena Francesca du Plessis. Every painting is by her. We have
five of her canvases on our walls. They’re beautiful colors and we love that they’re abstracts that recall the organic shapes that inspired them. The art leads the rest of the design, in terms of things like furniture. Since they’re colorful, the rest of the space is gray, neutral, taupe. It lets the eye flow to the canvases. It’s awesome to be able to support a local Boston artist. Do you entertain often? Absolutely, we do a lot of entertaining for both social and business reasons. We’ve only been here six months, but one memorable night so far was a party marking a big birthday for me. It’s great to see a wide range of people coming together from all different aspects of city life: say, a lot of actors and artists meeting people they might not otherwise, because people tend to stay in their lanes and silos. That’s always really special. [x]
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SEASONAL Travel STORY Jim Brosseau
Miami as You Like It Downtown Miami
LGBT Travelers Rediscover Florida’s Great Big Getaway Hot Spot Even mild New England winters can leave us craving a gulp of sultry, subtropical air. Indeed, a break for the sunshine at the start of spring is often more rewarding than in the depths of January or February. For the LGBT traveler, Fort Lauderdale has earned its image as the Florida mother ship for the winter weary. But farther south, the allure of Miami has never burned brighter. Besides a beach scene with a surfeit of eye candy, the rest of the
A Miami Mini-Guide
metropolitan area pulsates with plenty for those seeking more than bacchanalian entertainments. Ground zero for gay and lesbian travelers is the beach at 12th Street. If you haven’t been before, you’ll know you’re there by the familiarity of the men and women enjoying its warm sands. The sight of rainbow flags might tip you off, as well. A stroll along Ocean Drive before or after forays in the sand can be a people-dodging walk through many different eras. Funky beachwear shops spared by the thoroughfare’s gentrification mingle with sleek new buildings and updates of decadesold structures. One generous stretch of Ocean is home to the world-famous Art Deco district, where prime examples of
HERE’S A SMALL SAMPLING OF THE DIZZYING SELECTION OF PLACES TO STAY AND EAT, AS WELL AS THINGS TO DO 64 | BOSTON SPIRIT
the architectural form glow one after another in their low-rise splendor. And on the drive, nostalgia clings to the Mediterranean mansion that belonged to the late fashion designer Gianni Versace (now a boutique hotel, The Villa, and the stylish Gianni’s restaurant). You’ll find no shortage of spots for lunch, where the bounty of people-watching is complimentary. Among the laid-back favorites are the cluster outside hotels between 12th and 13th. For something slightly more grown-up (and pricier), there’s dining a few blocks north on the broad porch at BLT Steak, at the Betsy Hotel. If you don’t want to spend your whole day appended to the Atlantic, you could
LODGING National Hotel. This Art Deco gem on a tony stretch of Collins Avenue (the Delano and RitzCarlton are neighbors) has been thoughtfully restored to its original elegance. The service
is as polished as the lobby’s terrazzo floors. Rooms are smartly appointed, with views of the Atlantic, the city’s bustle and the striking 205-foot-long pool. Dine indoors or on the terrace of Tamara Bistro, where
The Gatherin hotel
Sunday brunch is an unhurried affair elevated in style by the starched white tablecloths and napkins. The hotel is the new home of The Cabaret, where Provincetown singer/pianist
Doug Repetti can often be found at the grand. The Tides. Old Hollywood chic meets South Beach cool in this Deco District tower. Its former 100-plus rooms have been
converted to just 45, lending a residential sensibility to its rooms and suites—all with ocean views of the beach hubbub and cruise ships on the horizon. The exquisite tile work extends to the
eye-catching floor-to-ceiling checks of the first-floor mens room. In the soaring lobby bar, a collection of tortoise and other shells lend an old-style masculinity to the room. A beach umbrella, chairs and
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The pool at the National Hotel
Downtown Miami Perez Art Museum
towels are standard amenities. (Note that the convenience of the Palace Bar right next door—home to a famous/ infamous drag scene—can also be a bit too boisterous if you retire before 11 p.m. The Gaythering. The name is a play on a word that captures the tone set by the folks who
own and run this intimate hotel on Lincoln Road’s quieter end. Its dramatic red-and-black interiors take the brothel look to new levels of sophistication. A sign embedded in the glass of the front entrance warns: “If you are racist, sexist, homophobic or an ass----, don’t come in!” Happy hour in its homey bar
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is a hit with locals as well as guests, who are encouraged to have fun at being themselves. (Spa treatments set to be offered later this year will eschew gender specificity.) YVE Hotel. This alternative to the chain properties lends a hint of New York’s Soho to Miami’s once-tired downtown.
The young international crowd in the buzzy lobby sits among artworks provided by local galleries. Rooms can be smallish but provide super city and Port of Miami views (often dominated by ships like the sleek “Reflection,” part of LGBT-friendly Celebrity’s fleet). The staff is always helpful, and
walk, shop and dine along the pedestrianonly blocks of Lincoln Road. While there are such familiar retailers as H&M, Banana Republic and Zara, locally run Scotch & Soda offers a beautifully edited collection of smart menswear. Check out the cool fashions of AllSaints, if only to be dazzled by its scores of vintage sewing machines. Break for a tasty Frenchinspired meal or snack at Paul. The international is now the everyday in Miami. Whether in South Beach or downtown, it’s not uncommon to walk for several minutes without hearing English spoken. The influx of South Americans and, more recently, Eastern Europeans— many born during modern technology’s ascendancy—has heightened the city’s energy level and volume; amplified music along parts of Ocean Drive and the city’s Brickell neighborhood can test the limits of sensitive ears. Just how much has Miami been shaped by its cultural mashup? A sometime Bostonian tells of a saleswoman he encountered who’d ventured to the Florida city of Sarasota. “It felt like I was going to America,” she remarked, innocently missing the point that Miami’s diversity, in fact, captures a very American ideal. That diverse culture has made the city particularly friendly to the LGBT community. Same-sex hand-holding is no longer confined to the area within shouting distance of the gay beach. And while gay PDAs may not be welcomed everywhere in the metropolitan area, they’re increasingly less foreign in places like the Design District, Wynwood, the Brickell neighborhood and downtown in general. The jewel of that revitalized downtown is the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Pérez Art Museum Miami. The sleek, imposing structure reigns over Biscayne Bay and invites visitors to enjoy views of the water on its huge outdoor decks.
the downtown tram is only steps away.
DINING La Savina. An open-air table at this posh spot in the Mondrian South Beach Hotel affords a real sense of place with its sensuous Biscayne Bay and city skyline views. Sunsets and
Lobby of The Tides
Indoors, the rambling galleries hold stunning works by the likes of Diego Rivera among its 1,800-plus collection. Just minutes away, the beautiful Mediterranean Revival MDC Museum of Art + Design lends a note of history to
the metropolis of glass-and-steel high rises. This former processing center for Cubans fleeing their homeland in the 1960s has become a popular gallery for the works of Cuban-American photographers and painters. (A footnote: The nearly
the twinkling lights of evening complement a Mediterraneaninspired menu of delectably charred meats and fish. It’s nice—and romantic—to linger over one of the fresh desserts.
scene with its garden setting. The Northern Italian cuisine has earned raves among the locals. We enjoyed the just-right grilled calamari and hand-made pastas.
Spiga. A long-time Collins Avenue favorite, it offers stately refuge from the sometimes overripe beach
Juvia. Its sprawling rooftop setting, with striking views by night or day, might be enough. But this chic spot offers a
menu of thought-out fresh and light dishes. With cuisine that could be a metaphor for the region with its French, Peruvian and Japanese touches, the dining can be as rewarding as its setting. Creative salads are standouts.
MAR|APR 2016 | 67
century-old structure is also where Marco Rubio launched his presidential bid.) These days, the buzz on the art scene is the former warehouse-and-factory neighborhood of Wynwood. Dozens of galleries and restaurant-galleries—like the hot R House—dot the streets, where graffiti has found many an inviting wall. While taking in the enclave’s gritty glamour, try something from the craft-beer menu at the Wynwood Brewing Company or sample the wine bar at Lagnaippe. Also on the wide-ranging gallery scene, back in South Beach, the Williams McCall has given a Southern home to Provincetown artist John Dowd. Adding to the painter’s memorably moody Cape Cod landscapes are a series of works inspired by the Sunshine State. Of course, for culture enthusiasts, the Art Deco district is not to be missed—and toured again by repeat visitors. Its blocks and blocks of colorful buildings from the 1920s, 30s and 40s create a living museum. The portals, pastels, decorative touches in threes and other signatures provide a vivid reminder of what might have been lost had preservationists not
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NIGHTLIFE Twist. The dark, undulating spaces recall gay bars of another era. It has something for nearly every taste, from a garden space for conversation to a barroom where go-go dancers can be viewed up-close. Score. Amid the darting lights and throbbing beats, the crowded dance
floor will feel like the place to be, whether you’re in leather or Lacoste. Palace. Its slogan captures the spirit of this anything-can-happen gay Miami Beach staple: “Every queen needs a palace.” Revelers of any gender identity crowd the deck and spill onto the sidewalk, surrendering to the outsize charms of its take-no-prisoners drag stars (earplugs not included).
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ATTRACTIONS Vizcaya Museum & Gardens. This classic covers 25 acres that include a lovely orchid collection. The 34-room mansion features some 2,500 works of art and notable furniture. Design District. This city neighborhood has come into its own in recent years, with many boutique museums and galleries showcasing contemporary works. It’s also known for its cluster of high-end designer shops, including Cartier, Givenchy and Giorgio Armani.
Miami Children’s Museum. The playful hues of its exterior set the tone for this fun and educational stop for traveling families. The kids won’t be bored wandering through its 14 galleries, featuring a modified cruise ship that gives visitors a taste of life at sea.
EVENTS OF NOTE Winter Party 2016, March 2-7 Miami Beach Pride 2016, April 8-10 [x]
stood up to the whims (and deep pockets) of eager developers. Several blocks from the ocean, just off Washington Avenue, another snapshot defining Miami can be found in a narrow corridor of Espanola Way. This cheery thoroughfare gyrates to Latin beats melding with Italian pop hits blaring from restaurant after restaurant. Dining alfresco day or night is a sensory treat. Try a pasta or fish special at Hosteria Romana or the generous Cuban fare of friendly Havana 1957. Though perhaps not topping a must-see list for LGBT vacationers, a visit to the Brickell neighborhood affords the chance to see thriving city life as the locals see it. Once downtown, it’s easily accessed by the free Metromover tram. Get a dose of Las Vegas-style glitz and polish in the acts at the Blue Martini, and join the crowd as Brickell’s largely youngish urban professionals play as hard as they work amid the restaurants and clubs of a multi-layered vacation destination where sleep can take its own holiday. [x]
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CULTURE Stage STORY Loren King
Telling His Truth Robert O’Hara digs deep in the fierce and funny ‘Bootycandy’ When he was in the sixth grade, Robert O’Hara wrote a play that offered his own take on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” In “Ebony and the Seven Cool Cats,” instead of an evil witch who says “Mirror, Mirror on the wall,” O’Hara’s version had the Diana Ross song “Mirror Mirror.” That might have been a pretty good indication that this fierce and fearless child would grow up to be an Obie-awarding writer/director who has no problem being describes as a “gay playwright” or “African American playwright.” “I like to think I’m all of those things. I can’t leave my left arm in the room so I’m not just a right-handed person. I don’t mind being called a gay artist as long as
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people understand that’s not all I am. I am a gay artist; it’s a part of me,” says O’Hara over the phone from his home in Brooklyn. His embracing of his total identity has been a bounty for theater mavens craving an authentic voice. The prolific O’Hara, over his 20 year career, has written and directed numerous plays for companies ranging from the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago to Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C.. His new show, “Barbeque,” a raucous family drama, just ended a run at the Public Theater and O’Hara says it’s headed to Boston this year but isn’t at liberty to say where. But he can talk about the Speakeasy Stage Company’s anticipated New England premiere of “Bootycandy,” O’Hara’s
Maurice Emanuel Parent
subversive, comic satire that will run March 12-April 9. “Bootycandy” is a series of connected vignettes based on O’Hara’s growing up black and gay in a large Cincinnati family as the main character, Sutter, goes on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms and even nursing homes. “Bootycandy” was selected by the New York Times as one of the top 10 plays of 2014 after its run off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. “It takes real guts to do ‘Bootycandy’; it’s challenging to know that people are going to see people like me on stage,” says O’Hara. “Anyone who calls a play ‘Bootycandy’ isn’t interested in playing it safe. I find it invigorating to speak out, especially in the theater. To whose benefit would it be if I did not speak the truth about sexuality? There’s enough work out there
that doesn’t do that. I don’t live in a world in which all gay people are one thing so I can’t write that story—unless I’m writing science fiction.” The Elliot Norton Award-winning Johnny Lee Davenport, one of Boston’s best actors, will make his Speakeasy debut in the show. He will be joined by an impressive cast including Maurice Emmanuel Parent, last seen at Speakeasy in the musicals “Far From Heaven” and “The Color Purple.” He also earned raved reviews for his work in the play “The Motherf**ker with the Hat.” “Bootycandy,” says O’Hara, is an exaggerated take on his life and childhood but it is grounded in truth, and that makes it a work unlike any other audiences will see on a theater stage. “My mother was the oldest of 12 siblings and they all lived at home,” he says, describing the education he got just living with his extended family. “If you are a 13 year-old uncle, you don’t take a three year-old under your wing. There was always excitement at our house. It was a whole other side of crazy.” Even though he’d been writing stories and plays all his life, O’Hara enrolled at
Tufts University as a pre-law student. He pursued playwright in earnest once he got to grad school at Columbia University, where he met and befriended George C. Wolfe who had just directed “Angels in America” for the Public Theater. “He was an incredible mentor and a supporter from the beginning,” says O’Hara. “I am working with him on something now that I can’t discuss. Without him, I would not be who I am. Without him, I would not have a world view about how to negotiate life as an artist in New York City.” In April, O’Hara heads to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he will direct “The Wiz” starting June 8. “I was in ‘The Wiz’ in high school and I’ve always been in love with it. I could not say no, because it’s an opportunity to engage in a profound and revolutionary work. It will be performed outside in 1,000 seat Elizabethan theater.” Seems that the boy who put Diana Ross in his singular version of “Snow White” has come full circle. [x]
www.speakeasystage.com Robert O’Hara PHOTO Zack DeZon
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CULTURE Theater STORY Loren King Anna Botsford and Elliot Sicard in “Unsafe.”
Jim Dalglish, playwright of “Unsafe.”
“ Culturally, [9/11] was a watershed moment for the country. We no longer felt safe.” Jim Dalglish
Survival Instinct Phoenix-like themes emerge in post-9/11 psychological thriller Playwright Jim Dalglish turned one of the most traumatic experiences of his life into art. Dalglish, author of some 25 plays, many of which have been staged around the country, still has a day job as a digital strategist. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he was a software specialist setting up a presentation for a client, Standard and Poors, in a meeting room of a hotel
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across from the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. As the first plane hit the tower, Dalglish recalls his shock that “they told me to go on with the presentation.” As the horror unfolded, Dalglish was soon outside “covered in dust” and two days later on a train heading home. He first wrote about that life-altering event in a short play “Professionals,” which received a 2002
production in the Provincetown Theatre Company Playwright’s Festival. The aftershocks of that day stayed with him. Dalglish worked for several years on a feature-length play about a family fractured by alienation and addiction, each one reeling from still-haunting memories of 9/11. “Culturally, it was a watershed moment for the country,” he says of that day. “We no longer felt safe.” His psychological thriller, “Unsafe,” a semifinalist at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater
Center in 2008, will be presented in a coproduction between Boston Public Works Theater Company and Cotuit Center for the Arts. It will be staged March 31–April 10 at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. From April 14–30, “Unsafe” will be at the Plaza Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts. “I wanted to take advantage of this synergy. It’s basically the same production we’ll be bringing to two different audiences,” says Dalglish, a North Dakota native who graduated from the University of North Dakota before heading East to earn his MA in creative writing at Brown University (his thesis advisor was Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and out lesbian Paula Vogel). Besides his personal experience on 9/11, Dalglish drew on two other sources as inspiration for his multi-character play. First, the young gay hustler Will is based on the gay friends Dalglish knew in the early 2000s who’d gotten into the party scene and attendant party drugs like crystal meth. A community that had been decimated by AIDS just a decade
before was now letting itself be harmed by another kind of terror. Meanwhile, Will’s stepmom, Lisa, whose 40th birthday party opens the play, evolved from Dalglish seeing a video interview with Dr. Oliver Saks about Williams Syndrome. Dalglish was fascinated by a striking little girl named Heidi with an exceptional gift for music, which is typical of those with the condition. Setting these elements against the backdrop of a freshly post-9/11 New York City during a blizzard, Dalglish unleashes internal and external demons that emerge as metaphors for examining culture and family. The staging of “Unsafe” at the Cotuit Center for the Arts grew from Dalglish’s former job as managing director of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) and his relationship with Cotuit Center for the Arts Executive Director David Kuehn who, says Dalglish, “has great taste and has created an amazing arts center.” When 100 people attended a reading of Dalglish’s short play “Bark Park” at the center, it led to a full, sold-out production
that was voted “Best Theater” for 2014 by the Cape Cod Times. A reading of “Unsafe” followed to an equally enthusiastic reaction. Dalglish recalls that 120 people showed up for the reading in the middle of winter, and all of them remained for the talkback that followed. Kuehn liked the audience engagement that the reading generated, so he told Dalglish, “Let’s do it.” In the meantime, after dividing his time between New York, Cape Cod and Boston, Dalglish moved to Boston fulltime last year with his longtime partner, Rob Phelps, who is the managing editor for Boston Spirit. One of the first things Dalglish did after settling in town was to join Boston Public Works (BPW), a collaborative of writers who produce their own plays. Dalglish will direct the production of “Unsafe,” relishing the chance to work with actors and create the world of his play. “We will use the Black Box [theater] as a post-industrialist concept of the wreckage of the World Trade Center,” he says. An
[CONTINUES 82]
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La Red, a survivor-led organization that since 1989 has been working to end partner abuse in the LGBTQ community. Others on the panel include Jennifer Harnish, Ph.D., Director of Rehabilitation Services at the Carroll Center for the Blind, and Martha Steele, a member of the Board of Directors at the Usher Syndrome Coalition. Leventhal says the film “personalizes” domestic abuse so that “people connect to an individual’s story. You see what her experience is like.” That’s why it’s important for social workers, who are often the first to connect with people just of hospitals, for instance, to understand complex dynamics such as denial and how difficult it is to identify an abuser. Social workers often
have little to no experience with same-sex domestic abuse. “You can get through social work [schooling] without addressing domestic abuse in a good way and LGBTQ partner abuse isn’t being addressed anywhere,” says Leventhal
who adds that The Network/La Red will use the film in the organization’s volunteer training. Olivieri’s long journey with “Blindsided” hit many obstacles but it also included many boosts along the way: grants from the LEF Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Women and Film Foundation, The Frameline Film and Video Completion Fund, and private donations kept production going. A graduate of Suffolk University and Emerson College, Olivieri worked for independent filmmakers early in her career so she knew the rocky road to completing a film and the tough task of getting it before an audience. But since March, that has started to happen. “Blindsided” had its world premiere in September
at the OM Film Festival in Kansas City, MO. It was also an official selection of the online Broken Knuckle Film Festival. Olivieri says she is seeking a distributor and has a commitment from the PBS station in Maine to air the film. She hopes that “Blindsided” will be used for education and outreach so that it might make a difference for people with disabilities and for those struggling with domestic abuse. “It is vital to have social workers see the film because these are the issues they’re going to have to deal with,” says Olivieri. “It’s also important for women who are afraid to leave. They will see this story and think, ‘If she can get out, I can too.’” [x] “Blindsided”
www.lisaolivieri.com.
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CULTURE Cinema STORY Loren King
The World on Screen
“Summertime”
It takes a team to bring Boston’s LGBT Film Festival to area audiences
friend out of an asylum where he’d been sent to be “cured.” But when Delphine is called home by a family emergency, she gives up her newfound liberation. Carole follows her to the countryside, and the romance that blossomed in Paris is put to the test in the provinces. The men’s opening night film is “Kiss Me, Kill Me” from director Casper Andreas (“Going Down in LA-LA Land”) and screenwriter David Michael Barrett (“Such Good People”). It’s a contemporary film noir set in West Hollywood and stars Van Hansis as Dusty, who confronts his unfaithful boyfriend Stephen, played by Gale Harold (“Queer as Folk”). - But then Dusty suddenly blacks out. When he comes to, Stephen has been murdered and Dusty’s the prime suspect. Other highlights of this year’s fest include “Love in the Time of Civil War,” Canadian director Rodrigue Jean’s drama about a gay hustler and drug addict named Alex (Alexandre Landry) who lives by committing petty crimes and drifting from one dingy flat to the next. Director
For the all-volunteer staff of the Boston LGBT Film Festival, watching movies— lots of movies—is a necessity. Voraciously logging in hours in front of films from around the world is how the programmers assure audiences of a thoughtfully curated lineup of movies. And it’s that kind dedication that’s made the Boston LGBT festival one of the longest running in the country. James Nadeau, the festival’s artistic director, says it’s the “great team of diverse programmers” who deserve credit for producing a festival rich in shorts films, women’s films, trans films and films by African-American directors that includes many first-time filmmakers. That diversity and inclusivity is what makes for a program that offers something audiences can’t get anywhere else. “I don’t feel comfortable running an organization of only white gay men,” says Nadeau. And that shows in the 32nd Annual Boston LGBT Film Festival, which opens
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March 31 and runs to April 10 at The Museum of Fine Arts, The Institute of Contemporary Art and The Paramount Theatre at Emerson College. One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the women’s opening night feature, “Summertime,” French writer-director Catherine Corsini’s luminous lesbian romance set in 1970s Paris and the French countryside. It begins in the early ’70s when Delphine (Izia Higelin) leaves her family’s farm for Paris where the feminist movement is in full, wild and passionate swing. She falls for the charismatic leader of the local women’s group, Carole (Cecile De France). “Summertime” is one of the few films that shows how intoxicating it was to be part of the early years of feminism, when women were challenging authority, breaking rules and engaging in confrontations that were akin to street theater. One of the turning points in the film is when the activists break a gay
William C. Sullivan ’s “That’s Not Us” is a comedic drama about three twentysomething couples—one gay, one lesbian and one straight—at a beach house during the end of summer. It stars Mark Berger and Sarah Wharton. Among the documentaries in the fest is gay documentary filmmaker Jack Walsh’s latest, “Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer” about the renowned dance icon and lesbian who first achieved national and international fame as part of the Judson Dance Theater in Greenwich Village between 1962 and 1964. Now in his fourth year as head of programming, Patrick Falloon notes that each year is a challenge because of the number of films being submitted all year and the many that often become available at the last minute. “The programmers like to book local filmmakers as much as possible. To bring them in is quite rewarding and enjoyable for the festival audience,” he says. Falloon and the other programmers watch films and keep notes on each one which they share with one another via an
“ With the ease of digital media, there are more voices we can hear from,” he says. “You don’t need a $1,000 camera. Some of these films are shot on phones. ” Patrick Falloon online spread sheet.”We pick our favorites and mark off themes. There’s so much to review that keeping things organized is a must,” he says. One of the new trends that Falloon has noticed this year is the number of trans films from small countries in Africa or the Middle East, places where LGBT people
“are struggling just to survive. With the ease of digital media, there are more voices we can hear from,” he says. “You don’t need a $1,000 camera. Some of these films are shot on phones.” Falloon is enthusiastic about Adam Garnet Jones’ feature film debut “Fire Song,” about Shane, a gay Anishnabe teenager living in Northern Ontario who tries to break free from his family living on a reservation. “It’s a family struggle story that we don’t often see,” says Falloon. Kelly May is now the women’s programmer after serving as the festival’s managing director for several years. “I’m committed to seeing everything and it’s great to see what’s being done around the world,” she says. “The programmers talk; we’re all connected and there’s a lot of communication. We’re all eager to make sure we’re sharing the stuff we see.” This year, May is also booking short films by women and has been impressed by the quality and scope of the films.”It’s amazing the impact that nine-minute film can have,” she notes.
[CONTINUES 82]
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CULTURE Dance STORY Loren King
All the Right Moves Jesse Bechard returns to Boston with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Bolton native Jesse Bechard remembers one of his first soccer practices at a new high school. He hadn’t told anyone yet that he’d studied dance with Boston Ballet and at his former school. One of the players took a penalty kick, recalls Bechard. “The coach was like, ‘if you’re going to kick like that, join the ballet team! My ears perked up; ‘Oh, there’s a ballet team?’” Not that Bechard ever had reservations about dancing. He started at age five, appearing in
“The Nutcracker” and participating in summer programs at Boston Ballet. “There was zero conflict in my family. My mom’s an acupuncturist, my dad plays guitar and my brother is a classically trained actor, so my dancing wasn’t an issue,” he says. Still, Bechard pursued other interests from playing sports to playing drums. But by 16 he began to dance with renewed commitment, and even applied to the dance programs of several college including Juilliard and
78 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Hubbard Street Dancer Jesse Bechard in “A Picture of You Falling,” by Crystal Pite PHOTO Todd Rosenberg
NYU. He elected to go to the University of Chicago but soon the dance bug bit again. In 2000, after his freshman year, he returned to dance, performing for one year with Ballet Austin and for eight with Richmond Ballet. “Richmond Ballet Company was more classical. We did ‘The Nutcracker’ and other ballets as well as some contemporary and neoclassical but it was a tutu and pointe shoes company. I had a desire to shift gears. I wanted a more contemporary vocabulary and aesthetic,” he says. Bechard joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in August 2010. Now in its 38th
year, the company is among the most original forces in contemporary dance in the nation and one of the only professional dance companies to perform year-round, continually touring nationwide and internationally. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Bechard when he performs in Boston for the first time with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago April 15-17 at the Citi Shubert Theatre as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston. Bechard will perform the solo “A Picture of You Falling” by Crystal Pite; he’s one of two Hubbard dancers selected by the choreographer to perform the piece (the other is Jason
Hortin). Bechard’s performance in 2015 of the premiere of “A Picture of You Falling” earned him a nomination by the readers of Dance Magazine for Best Male Performance. Other works on the Boston program include a second Crystal Pite work, “Solo Echo”; “Out of Keeping” (choreographed by Penny Saunders); and “N.N.N.N.” (by William Forsythe). After the April 15 performance, there will be a talk back with Hubbard Street Dance artistic director Glenn Edgerton. Bechard says he was attracted to Hubbard Street because even though its repertoire is contemporary, there is still a ballet component. “We take a ballet class ever day. [The company’s style] is a mix between classical ballet and break dancing; there’s a lot of gestural movement,” he says. “Within the ballet vocabulary,
there are strict limits and pathways with how the body can move. In contemporary dance, there is no prescribed pathway. The body can move however the choreographer desires.” Company dancers perform solos as well as do extensive work with partners. “You must be fully present to rely on others and have them rely on you,” says Bechard. It’s a full mind/body experience that requires dancers to be focused and in the moment, which is what appeals most to Bechard. “There is the immediacy that comes about onstage when you know you’re part of this organism and the music is playing and the curtain is going up. You have to be there and if you’re not present mentally, not only will you mess up and maybe hurt yourself or someone else but there is an absence in the
Florian Lochner is surrounded by other Hubbard Street Dancers in “Solo Echo,” by Crystal Pite performance that people can recognize and that you recognized in yourself,” he says. “In terms of mental centering and being upfront and clear and focused in the thought process
Victory Programs’
dinnerfest dinnerfest
of you’re what telling your body to do, it is challenging and rewarding.” [x]
celebrityseries.org/hubbard/
Bid on a wonderful array of auction packages including fabulous dining experiences, sports and theater tickets, hotel stays, unique prizes and more! Guests who wear red to the event will be entered to win a special prize.
Sunday, April 24, 3-6 PM Red Lantern, Boston Honorary Co-Chairs Attorney General Maura Healey and Joanne Chang
#Dinnerfest2016 Tickets are on sale at www.vpi.org!
CULTURE Photography STORY Rob Phelps
Heroic Hedonist Retrospective of queer photographer Tseng Kwong Chi is a blast from the past He was one of the rising stars of the East Village arts scene who died of AIDS at 39. His friends and creative coconspirators included fellow artists Keith Haring and JeanMichel Basquiat, the dancer Bill T. Jones, Madonna and a litany of other ingenious souls too numerous to list but many of whose images can be found in the more than 80 images selected for this new show. His name, for those unfamiliar with his work celebrated throughout the late ’70s and ’80s, is Tseng Kwong-Chi. His current retrospective, “Tseng Kwong-Chi: Performing for the Camera,” which received a rave in the New York Times when it was first displayed at NYU last spring, opened in late January at the Aidekman Arts Center at Tufts University. It was co-created by the Grey Art
Gallery at NYU and at Norfolk, Virginia’s Chrysler Museum of Art, by the late Amy Brandt, who earned her curator creds as a Tufts grad student, and moves on for a run at Northwestern University in the summer. Brandt worked closely with the artist’s sister, the dancer Muna Tseng, who manages the estate of her brother’s more than 100,000 works. Despite its playfully accomplished artwork, which we’ll get to below, what’s most remarkable about the show is its exuberant spirit. Pop songs from the ’80s—Bowie, Madonna, The Talking Heads, The B52s, Echo and the Bunnymen—provide a soundtrack for the show, which, when you walk in is set up like one of those infamous parties at museums or couture fashion shops from the days when
80 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Self-portrait with Niagra Falls, by Tseng Kwong Chi, “East Meets West” series, 1984 PHOTO Courtesy Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Portrait of Keith Haring by Tseng Kwong-Chi, 1988. PHOTO Courtesy Muna Tseng Dance Projects and Eric Firestone Gallery, Artworks © Keith Haring Foundation
“Art After Midnight, New York,” by Tseng Kwong Chi, 1985, PHOTO Courtesy Muna Tseng Dance Projects
Deborah Harry, Andy Warhol, Happy Rockefeller and Yves Saint Laurent would brush elbows with the denizens of Alphabet City. A great, big slide montage of the party days, where clubs were regularly turned into pop-up shows decades before the term was coined, is splashed across a giant screen at the show’s center stage. Unlike, say, the depressing and drug-addled pre-AIDS holocaust documentary photos by Nan Goldin, Tseng captured in his documentary photos and artist portraits not just the exuberance but the urgent creative energy of his party-goers. Yes, many of Tseng’s contemporaries plunged into the killer substances and hedonistic sexcapades that tended to go hand in hand with AIDS in the early ’90s, but Tseng did not focus on tragic behavior; rather, we see his creative co-conspiritors engaged in what truly charged up these artistic souls: their exuberant spirits at work
and at play. Tseng exposes this much overlooked aspect of an oft-maligned culture, and we see it all here in this show through brilliant gelatin silver and giant color prints. With more than 80 wallmounted images, light boxes, hand-made photo books, and several audio-visual components, the show is divided into 11 bodies of work that showcase Tseng’s four major types of work: documentary photography, magazine work, formal portrait photography and self-portraiture. As fresh and contemporary as Tseng’s work are, this guy received a formal education in both traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, starting at age 6 with a private tutor in Hong Kong, as well as major training in the classical arts at the École Supérior d’Arts Graphiques (previous alumni including Matisse and Duchamp) in Paris. Students of the visual arts can spot all these influences especially in
his portraiture work (notably his critically acclaimed “East Meets West” and “Expeditionary” series) but even in the set-ups of his “candids” from the party scenes and the playful, and often ambitiously
ingenious magazine work. For one counterculture magazine, the “Soho Weekly News,” he even managed to convince major members of the moral majority (Rev. Jerry Falwell, William F. Buckley, and the
@DestSalem #SalemMA
closeted Pastor Ed Dobson who, like Tseng, died of AIDS) to pose in front of a crumpled American flag in an ironic, yet somehow strangely sweethearted send-up of their draconian values. As for his serious work, Tseng is best known for donning a Zhongshan suit, or “Mao suit,” and setting up portraits of himself before iconic sites of Western culture. Unlike today’s selfies, these shots took great skill to compose and shoot; Tseng used cumbersome Rolleiflex and Hasselblad cameras and with them achieved elements of composition that critics have compared with Henri Cartier Bresson’s “decisive moment” and the depth of field of Ansel Adams. Comparisons aside, Tseng was applauded for not only his mastery but for his unique vision, ever-symbolized by
that ubiquitous Mao suit of his and his self-description as “an ambiguous ambassador” in his elaborate selfies (Tseng began shooting his series in the early ’70s, shortly after President Nixon began breaking down the great wall of culture between Red China and red-white-and-blue Western democracy). As Brandt describes it in her essay in the show’s companion book, “Tseng’s performances of tourism reverse the typical power structures of the dominant and colonized cultures. Emphasizing his role as ambiguous ambassador, he presents himself as an already-marginalized Other, a visitor from a colonized culture on the hunt for his own authentic experience of dominant culture.” [x] Aidekman Arts Center
artgallery.tufts.edu
STILL
M KING MEMORIES
Explore Salem this winter! Great dining, unique museums, boutique shops, and cozy accommodations. Just 15 miles north of Boston. 30 minutes on the Commuter Rail.
DON’T MISS!
Salem Film Fest March 3 - 10 Salem Restaurant Weeks March 13 - 17, 20 - 24 Massachusetts Poetry Festival April 29 - May 1
Learn more about Salem, Massachusetts at Salem.org
MAR|APR 2016 | 81
[UNSAFE FROM 73]
ancillary art show to the production uses videos, artwork and written responses from the audience to the play and to 9/11 itself. Dalglish has in the past directed his own plays and those of other writers. While directing at the Provincetown Theater Company, he met actress and playwright Lynda Sturner and the two have collaborated on several works including “A Talented Woman,” the winner of the 2013 Jeremiah Kaplan New Play Prize and a semi finalist at the 2013 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. Their two-character short play “Super-Lubricated,” about a widow who buys condoms from a gay male clerk in a drugstore, was a highlight of the Women’s International Theater Festival in Provincetown this past October. “Super-Lubricated” was just accepted into a gay theater festival in Dublin, so Dalglish and Sturner will head to Ireland the second week of May. Dalglish’s work is too wideranging for him to be called
a “gay playwright,” although he routinely incorporates gay themes and characters into his works. His most recent play, “Lines in the Sand,” is about a bullied gay teenager and the older man who befriends him. Dalglish acknowledges that for people with careers, whether in or outside the theater, “the last thing you want to do is go home and write. But I was disciplined and I do it. There’s no way anyone wants to be a playwright,” he says. “It is a horrible compulsion. It’s crazy to work in a medium where you need 50 people to produce your work—it does not exist until it’s in front of an audience.” But there is nothing quite like the moment when the lights go up on such a personal, intimate creation. “All of my plays are my best friends. You’re with them for so long that the characters take on an amazing dimensionality as they travel from my own imagination,” says Dalglish. “To see them fully realized is a thrill.” [x]
cotuitcenterforthearts.org www.bostonpublicworks.org
[FILM FESTIVAL FROM 77]
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The festival, says May, has long made women’s films a significant part of its program. Among the features she’s excited about this year include “Margarita, with a Straw,” Shonali Bose’s wellregarded second film after 2005’s “Amu.” It’s about Laila (Kalki Koechlin), an outgoing young woman with cerebral palsy who leaves India and her protective family for the U.S. where, among other adventures, she embarks on a lesbian relationship. May also has high praise for “While You Weren’t Looking,” a South African film directed by Catherine
Stewart about several couples including a black woman who works in real estate and who is cheating on her white wife, and their bohemian daughter dating a gender non-confirming woman in the Khayalitsha township. “I love the focus on international films,” says May. “We are so lucky in Boston because our audiences are sophisticated. They want complex stories that show a different side of LGBT life that they won’t get from mainstream films.” [x]
www.bostonlgbtfilmfest.net
Volunteers crafted more than 400 Valentine’s Day cards for Boston Elders
SCENE Good Will PHOTOS Rosetta Stone
Valentine’s Day Cards for Boston Elders Workshop Arlington Street Church | Boston | January 24, 2016
Once again Gay for Good Boston spread the love around town, crafting more than 400 Valentine’s Day cards, which they hand delivered to Boston’s elderly. Cheered on by The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,
Sister Gloria LeLuia with one of Cupid’s volunteers
the volunteers turned the Arlington Street Church into Cupid’s workshop for a very productive day. Each month, Gay For Good Boston, part of the national nonprofit, selects different local community
Volunteer Fahad AlRoumi displays his handiwork
groups, projects, and organizations where volunteers can donate their time for community service. No money required — just a little time and, of course, a whole bunch of love.
Volunteer Tim Kozlowski
MAR|APR 2016 | 83
SCENE Trans Pride PHOTOS Denise MacCaferri Photography
First Event Conference 2016 Westin Hotel | Waltham | January 20–24, 2016
Attorney General Maura Healy addressing the 2016 First Event conference
Bay State Attorney General Maura Healy, U.S. Congressman Joe Kennedy and keynote speaker Dr. Rene McLaughlin were just a few of the luminaries among the guest speakers at the 2016 First Event conference, which took over all 17 conference rooms, social gathering spaces, and guest rooms at the Westin Hotel in Waltham. At the conference, held in mid-January, 180 workshops catered to just about everyone under the transgender umbrella—youth and family, spouses/partners, therapists-intraining , transsexuals, genderqueers, crossdressers, the nonbinary, and friends of the community.
Fashion show producers: Jennifer Fay, Michelle Hirsch, Carol Levey
Over 350 guests dined in the ballroom Sunday night
At the conference’s community service awards, held at the Neighborhood Club in Quincy, the honorees were Nancy Nageroni [AT PODIUM] and Anderson Clark. On stage along with Nageroni are Grace Stevens, Mechelle Ziff, Andrea Ziff, Clark, and Jansson Wu, executive director of GLAD, who introduced Anderson 84 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Attorney General Maura Healy (third from left) with event coordinators Mechelle Ziff, Andrea Ziff, and Grace Stevens
SCENE Scholarship Fundraiser PHOTOS Rob Phelps 10
Gayla Ball Dinner Dance Cape Codder Resort & Spa | Hyannis | February 6, 2016
At this year’s Gayla Ball Dinner Dance, the annual celebration that brings together Cape Cod’s LGBT community and its straight friends and allies, honorees of the Skip Warren Award went to Dr. Basia McAnaw, Lindsey Straus, and Rikki Lee Bates “for their courage to give up so much to become who they truly are.” All proceeds from the benefit go to the PFLAG Cape Cod Scholarship Fund. The event’s organizer is The First Parish Church of Brewster.
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[1]
[2] [3] [4]
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Linda Bailey-Davies, a plaintiff in the Goodridge marriage equality case [LEFT] and Julian Cyr of Truro, candidate for the Massachusetts State Senate Jim McIlvain and Cris Morgan-Janes Ian Ryan and Mark Downey Tristan Williams and Scott Fitzmaurice, executive director of the Cape & Islands Gay & Straight Youth Alliance
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[5] [6] [7] [8]
[9]
Members of the Cape & Islands Gay & Straight Youth Alliance Honoree Rikki Lee Bates Honoree Dr. Basia McAnaw Robert Compton and David Wilson, plaintiffs in the Goodridge marriage equality case Olivia Masih White at the PFLAG of Cape Cod table
[10]
Three generations of proud lesbian women: Ella Hartley with her mother Marie Hartley and grandmother Kay Hartley [11] Members of the Cape & Islands Gay & Straight Youth Alliance [12] Drey Annachie [AT PODIUM] and Amy Mesirow [FAR RIGHT], vice president and president of PFLAG of Cape Cod
[13]
Honoree Lindsey Straus accepting her award from ball organizer Joanne Hush [AT PODIUM] , secretary of PFLAG of Cape Cod.
MAR|APR 2016 | 85
SCENE Networking PHOTOS Courtesy of Fenway Health
Fenway Board member Jennifer Jones welcomes attendees
Event sponsor Cathy Burgess with featured speaker Sarah Hodkinson
Tiffany Favers and Beth Molling
Network It Out Fenway Health’s Ansin Building | Boston | December 1, 2015
More than 75 women gathered for Network It Out: A Networking Event for LBT Women, an opportunity for professional networking and socializing. Sarah Hodkinson, senior director of Marketing at Paypal and local tech entrepreneur, was the featured speaker. The event was sponsored by Cathy Burgess, a long-time financial advisor who recently joined Wells Fargo as a Vice PresidentInvestment Officer.
Jean Vallon, Alice Lin, Helene Vincent, and Hala-Mary Hazar
Nicole Yonke, Diane D’Angelo, and Emma Jeffries
Marie-Andrine Constant, Amanda Annis, and, Martha Meilleur Pam Garramone, Deb Levy, and Beth Pilgrim 86 | BOSTON SPIRIT
SCENE Youth & Theater PHOTOS Ivy Maiorino
Beyond the Stage
For the 20th anniversary celebration of its True Colors Out Youth Theater, The Theater Offensive honored Robert F. Rivers, chief operating executive and president of Eastern Bank with its first-ever Champion Award. The event raised over $120,000 to help support The Theater Offensive’s True Colors Out Youth Theater program. True Colors uses a community-based theater approach to train and activate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied youth leaders ages 14-29. Youth of all experience levels engage in year-round theater workshops, classes and trainings to create, produce and tour original shows based on their personal experiences. The troupe tours to schools, groups and social service agencies within our community. For details, check out www.thetheateroffensive.org/true-colors/ youth-programming. True Colors: Out Youth Theater Troupe with Robert F. Rivers [STANDING], Eastern Bank’s chief operativing officer and president, and Abe Rybeck [KNEELING, RIGHT], founder and artistic director of The Theater Offensive.
MAR|APR 2016 | 87
Mayor Alex B. Morse
SCENE Politics PHOTOS Rob Deza Photography
Alex B. Morse Third Inaugural Ball Mayor Alex B. Morse’s third inagural ball was one for the books, with more than 450 supporters showing up to dance and celebrate another reeclection of the city’s first openly gay mayor. When first elected, at 22, Morse also became Holyoke’s youngest mayor. Among the accomplishments of Morse’s first two terms, noted during the evening, were the redevelopment of both the canal walk and the Dwight and Northampton Street city gateways, and a new train platform. Festivities included a five-course dinner, dancing to a deejay and live music. Wanda Marie Colón Cartagena, Marcos A. Marrero Rivera, Mayor Morse, and Jose Colon
Juan Carlos Dundi and Juan Anderson-Burgos 88 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Lew Robinson and Nickolas Alger
Ray Drewnowski, Mayor Morse, and Andrew Drewnowski
Sasha Em, Mayor Morse, and Helena Middleton
Holyoke City Hall Development Specialist Tessa Murphy-Romboletti
Priscilla Kane Hellweg and Lori Divine-Hudson
Billy Gliddon
Rachelle Houle, Isabel Ahlstrom, Jessica Morse, Elvin Bruno Jr., and Ali Puffer MAR|APR 2016 | 89
º
CALENDAR LGBT Executive Networking Night
Every year “Boston Spirit” brings together hundreds of LGBT corporate professionals from throughout New England for an evening of networking, conversation and special discussions led by some of the region’s most prominent figures in their respective fields. Whether you’re looking to grow your business connections or simply socialize with other LGBT professionals, here’s the perfect chance to clink glasses and rub elbows with the best of the best. Plus each year features a different keynote speaker: past headliners have included New England Patriot Julian Edelman, attorney general Maura Healey, and activist and author Chaz Bono. Visit bostonspiritmagazine.com to be the first to find out this year’s keynote speaker.
YES!
WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Wednesday, April 13, 6-9 PM
Boston Marriott Copley Place Ballroom, 110 Huntington Avenue
RSVP in advance ($10) at bostonspiritmagazine.com
This new monthly queer dance party is all about living “life in caps lock,” says founder Steve Dyer. The Somerville resident launched YES! at the beginning of the year, creating an “affirmative” and irreverent night when a rotating cast of DJs drops Top 40 to writhing crowds drenched in sweat. Plus: surprise drag shows during the second half of each party, which runs from 10 PM to 2 AM. For updates, follow @YESsteveYES on Twitter—or just swing by and get your YES! on. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
March 10, April 14, and the second Thursday of each month
Machine Nightclub, 1256 Boylston Street, Boston
$5 cover at door
Katie Boyd
The Men’s Event And The Dinner Party No, that’s not a misprint. This year, in honor of its 25th anniversary, the event previously known as the Women’s Dinner Party has reverted to its original name and is known (once again) as simply the Dinner Party. But here’s what stays the same: every year these two fundraisers rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars for Fenway Health, supporting programs and services at the country’s largest LGBT-focused research and health care facility. And they bring together hundreds of attendees who wine, dine, and dance the night away. This year the Men’s Event is co-chaired by Ryan Gosser, Stephen Martyak and Raul Medina. This year’s Dinner Party is co-chaired by Lauren Matysiak, Kendra Moore and Carol Roby. And you? You’re the lucky recipient of a fun yet elegant evening—and maybe, depending on your Chardonnay intake, an auction item or two.
“Kiss Me Kill Me”
Boston LGBT Film Festival
WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Saturday, March 19 (Men’s Event) and Saturday, April 9 (Dinner Party)
Boston Marriott Copley Place
mensevent.org and womensdinnerparty.org
It’s show time, movie geeks. Boston’s annual extravaganza of queer cinema returns for its 32nd year with yet another lineup of films that spotlight LGBT issues. In addition to film screenings, you’ll find evening soirees with stars and cineastes, plus exciting programs and panels that will bring you up close and personal to the creative process. The 2016 lineup of films has yet to be announced, but based on last year’s selections—which included the Golden Globe-nominated “Pride”—the team behind this festival sure knows how to pick ‘em. Now just grab some popcorn—and a date. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
March 31 – April 10
Various venues throughout Boston
bostonlgbtfilmfest.net
Tuesgays Normally, personal trainer Katie Boyd maintains her gym, the Miss Fit Club, as a women-only space. But on the first Tuesday of each month the (gay) boys get a chance to break a sweat with Boyd, who previously starred on the Style Network reality show “Wicked Fit.” Dubbed “Tuesgays,” the LGBT-friendly workout series pumps up muscles—and the Robynand Kylie-loaded workout playlist—with cardio, kickboxing, Zumba and other heart-racing classes built back to back. One night, one price and all the miss fits—and mister rights—your newly toned glutes can handle. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
March 1, April 5, and the first Tuesday of each month
Katie Boyd’s Miss Fit Club, 1 Winn Avenue, Hudson, New Hampshire
$25 for a day pass
Climacts! Underground Prepare for a big O. A standing ovation, that is. Boston’s eternally cuttingedge queer organization The Theater Offensive hosts its annual benefit, climACTS!, an always exciting, inevitably provocative extravaganza that fuses live entertainment with music, auctions and a hint of kink. This year’s co-chairs Ricardo Rodriguez and Suhail Kwatra will preside over festivities that include sexy live dance from Cuban-American artist Octavio Campos and his ensemble, plus the presentation of the “OUT on The Edge Award” to the Five Lesbian Brothers, including Lisa Kron, the Tony Award-winning playwright behind “Fun Home,” the first Broadway musical with a lesbian protagonist. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Thursday, April 28, 6-11 PM
Stage Nightclub, 19 Boylston Place, Boston
thetheateroffensive.org
Trash DJ Begbick (aka Nathanael Bluhm) has launched a new monthly party at The Alley, serving up aural guilty pleasures that run the gamut: from ’70s disco and funk to ’80s new wave and pop, from ’90s house to old-school hip hop. Throwbacks from Madonna to Missy Elliot dominate the sound system and artsy dudes with beards dominate the dance floor. Trash? More like treasure. WHEN
TK
Kathy Griffin
WHERE
The Alley, 14 Pi Alley, Boston!
This chatty Kathy has carved herself a niche as a gay favorite among comedians. (It doesn’t hurt that we love seeing her cavort with Anderson Cooper every New Year’s Eve.) Whether she’s lampooning pop culture or raking politicians over the coals, her stand-up shows are always uproarious—and her latest tour, dubbed #LikeaBoss, is no exception. Expect her two cents on everyone from Donald Trump to Caitlyn Jenner. Though knowing this flame-haired firebrand, you’re more likely to get a full dime.
HOW
No cover, 9 PM—2 AM º
WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Friday, March 11
Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut
ticketmaster.com
Saturday, March 12
Wilbur Theatre in Boston
Blindsided Prepare for something powerful. “Blindsided” is a documentary by filmmaker Lisa Olivieri that looks at the life of Patricia Livingstone, a blind and deaf lesbian who found herself in an abusive relationship. The film pieces together a sad but ultimately inspiring story, detailing how Livingstone learned to adapt to the loss of her sight and vision, poured her passion into art, accepted her sexuality, and moved from an unhealthy relationship to a happy marriage. The film will have its Boston premiere at the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers’ film series, accompanied by a panel discussion on topics like disability and same-sex partner abuse. WHEN
Sunday, April 3, 2 PM
WHERE
HOW
Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Road, lisaolivieri.com Belmont
Sage Francis
Stella Starsky
Glowberon What happens when you combine Oberon, the second stage of Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater and Afterglow, the Provincetown-based performance art festival founded by Quinn Cox and John Cameron Mitchell? You get Glowberon, a solo performance series featuring innovative artists. Among them is Sage Francis, a Providence native known for dominating rap battles across the country; in “Uncle Sage and Chill” he’ll combine song, poetry reading and narrative storytelling. Also part of the Glowberon series is Stella Starsky in “Birth of the American Baroness,” in which she considers the fantastic freedoms of childfree womanhood. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Thursday, March 24 (Sage Francis) and Friday, April 1 (Stella Starsky)
Oberon, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
cluboberon.com
Creating and Supporting your Healthy, Beautiful Smile
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Fertility Solutions
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The “boutique” styled all-inclusive fertility center allows patients to experience treatment in a smaller, more intimate environment, with absolute focus on the patient. Individualized treatment plans for each unique story and frequent physician contact at each visit is the exclusive difference for a patient at Fertility Solutions. The in-house, nationally recognized ART lab, ensures tighter controls and top-notch security for the best chance at successful treatment. We are “Your solution to Building a Family.” . 781-326-2451 fertilitysolutionsne.com
Osorio Dental Group
We offer exceptional dentistry in a caring, non-judgmental environment. Our LGBTQ supportive dentists and staff will ensure your comfort.
Friendly, personalized dental care
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SouthEndDental.com
1180 Washington Street Boston, MA 02118 617.451.0011
Seligman Dental Designs
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Personalized dental care; healthy, beautiful smiles; comfortable, caring service in our state-of-the-art dental facility in the heart of the South End. It’s no secret that healthy teeth and a radiant smile can improve your appearance, your self-esteem and your overall health. Whether your goal is to restore your smile or maintain good oral health, you can benefit from Dr. James R. Seligman’s comprehensive approach to dental care. 617-451-0011 SouthEndDental.com
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MAR|APR 2016 | 93
HOME | GARDEN Circle Furniture
Seasons Four 23
Furniture ... Made for Real Life Circle Furniture offers an eclectic selection of furniture for traditional and contemporary homes, fast delivery times for made-to-order items, corporate philanthropy, support of the regional economy, and most of all, fun. 31 St. James Ave. Boston, MA 617-778-0887 www.circlefurniture.com
Looking for a beautiful apartment with stunning views of the Boston Harbor, a building full of first-class amenities and a vibrant community to live in? Get it all at Portside at East Pier. Whether you want to relax in comfort at home, walk the waterfront, explore the outdoors or find some of the best food in Boston, there’s plenty of action to be had here. Plus, with convenient access to the T at Maverick Station, the rest of the city is just a short train ride away. Come experience a place where discovery lies around every corner. It’s East Boston. But when you live at Portside at East Pier, you’ll just call it home. GoEastPier.com
Dover Rug
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New Showroom Now Open Dover Rug & Home Dover Rug & Home offers the largest selection of fine floor coverings and window treatments in New England. Visit their BRAND NEW location at 721 Worcester Street in Natick (RT-9) As the “Best of Boston Home 2011” recipient, their larger showroom has something for every budget. Dover Rug & Home is headquartered at 721 Worcester Road (Route 9), Natick, MA 508-651-3500. Dover-Boston is located at 390 Stuart Street in the Back Bay, Boston 617-266-3600. 721 Worcester Street (Route 9) Natick, MA 508-651-3500 www.doverrug.com
Gardner Mattress
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Gardner Mattress Corporation A New England favorite for generations, Gardner Mattress has been manufacturing quality custom-sized, odd-sized and handmade mattresses in their Salem factory for over 70 years! Though their landmark location is North of Boston in Salem, they also service satisfied customers throughout New England. At Gardner Mattress, you’ll find mattresses including lacetufted, layered latex, pocketed coil, quilted cotton and ivory plush, all handmade with natural materials. Located in Salem, Woburn and Newton, MA and Rye, NH.
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617-345-3000 www.burnslev.com
Harvard University
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Harvard University Careers If you can work, you can work at Harvard! We are so much more than just students and professors. We are the 5th largest private employer in Massachusetts, with over 16,000 employees. Almost any job you can think of exists at the University. employment.harvard.edu
UBS Financial Services, Inc.
Peter Hamilton Nee and Robert S. Edmunds UBS is proud to support Boston Spirit magazine, and salutes Fenway Health for their faithful service to our community. Please contact us any time. Peter Hamilton Nee, AIF, CRPC, VP, Investments and Robert S. Edmunds, CFP, CRPC ubs.com/team/neeedmunds. Wellesley, MA 781-446-8918 or 800-828-0717 ubs.com/team/neeedmunds
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Great Location. Great Amenities. Boston Marriott Copley Place Located in the Back Bay and a few blocks from the South End, the Boston Marriott Copley Place is perfect for business or leisure travel. The hotel features deluxe rooms, Champions, Connexion Lounge, Starbucks, indoor pool, fitness center, 70,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and is minutes from top attractions. 110 Huntington Avenue (Boston) , MA 617-236-5800 goo.gl/soiy38
Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston
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Spectacular city views, luxury accommodations, regional cuisine, and contemporary art All of our 400 well-appointed guest rooms and suites offer guests the comforts of home with first-class amenities and overlook the Charles River, Cambridge or Boston's stunning skyline. The Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston features both casual and elegant dining and delicious inspired cuisine in two highly acclaimed riverfront restaurants with seasonal patios, ArtBar and Restaurant Dante. 40 Edwin H. Land Boulevard Cambridge, MA 617-806-4200 www.sonesta.com/Boston/
94 | BOSTON SPIRIT
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Burns & Levinson LLP, a leading mid-size law firm with a client-centric culture, has over 125 attorneys in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. We work with entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, private and public companies and individuals in sophisticated business transactions, litigation and private client services—family law, trusts & estates, marriage and divorce law.
Marriott Copley Place
bright ideas begin at lucia Lucia Lighting & Design Our unique lighting store features 12 showrooms in 8,000 square feet of a lovingly restored mansion staffed with certified lighting specialists who are both educated and customer focused. Whether you want to visit our showroom or have one of our team visit you at your location in the Boston area, lucÃa lighting & design is the answer. 311 Western Ave. (RT-107 Lynn, MA 781-595-0026 www.lucialighting.com
Burns & Levinson, LLP
TRAVEL | ADVENTURE
www.GardnerMattress.com
Lucia Lighting
1265 Massachusetts Avenue Lexington, MA 781-861-1200 seasonsfour.com
PROFESSIONAL | SERVICES
Portside at East Pier
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The Outdoor Living Store For over 40 years, Seasons Four has been a destination for everyone in New England that values outdoor spaces. We are a trusted source for quality, heirloom furniture for your sunroom, porch, patio, deck, and garden. We also provide unique plant material, statuary, fountains and garden accessories to complete your outdoor room.
WEDDING | EVENTS Accent Limousine
LGBT Owned & Operated Accent Limousine & Car Service We provide professional transportation services throughout Greater Boston and the Metro-West. We grow our client base every year because we care for our clients as only a ‘Family’ business can. Our chauffeurs are professionally attired, knowledgeable, reliable, and friendly, and their professionalism and driving abilities will immediately earn your trust and confidence. We look forward to driving you on your next special occasion.
ha c o M DJ
www.accentlimo.com/spirit
DJ Mocha
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Affordable great music for your party! Boston Spirit’s official Cruise DJ for four years. Bringing, Great Music and Fun to your Events! All genres: pop, jazz, techno, world beat, swing, disco & more! 617-784-1663 MochaDJ.com
Gourmet Caterers
Peace of mind. Now that’s a wedding vow. This is a day when only perfection will do. GourmetCaterers’ attention to detail means peace of mind, so you can enjoy your wedding along with your guests. Whether your dream wedding is a large event or intimate affair, Gourmet’s team of innovative planners, chefs, stylists and servers will be by your side to ensure that everything is perfectly, uniquely, your own. GourmetCaterers.com
www.mochadj.com
Konditor Meister
Konditor Meister—Voted #1 Wedding Cakes in Boston Extraordinarily Beautiful & Elaborate Wedding Cakes & fine European pastries. Delicious Custom Holiday & Party Cakes for all occasions. 32 Wood Road (Just South of Boston) Braintree, MA 781-849-1970 KonditorMeister.com
Lombardo’s
HAPPY PRIDE!
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Lombardo’s has been providing the highest quality of hospitality and cuisine for over 50 years. From innovative menus to an upscale atmosphere, Lombardo’s ensures every wedding will exceed their client’s expectations.
RELAX | RENEW | REFLECT
World-Class Luxury Guesthouse and Spa
781-986-5000 www.lombardos.com
Long's Jewelers
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Your Source for Diamonds, Wedding Rings, Fine Jewelry & Watches Long's Jewelers has been in the business of happy moments since 1878. We're honored to help our customers celebrate milestones like engagements, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and retirements and not to mention "just because" moments! Whether you're looking for diamonds, wedding rings, fine jewelry, Swiss watches, awards, or corporate gifts, Long's has you covered. Boston, Braintree, Burlington, Natick, and Peabody, MA 877-845-6647 www.longsjewelers.com
Ptown Parties
Catering | Events The premier caterer on the lower cape, Ptown Parties is a full service catering and event planning company. Let them cater your next cocktail party, clambake or wedding, in your home, inn, rental condo or yacht. Let Ptown Parties take care of all the hassles, so you can enjoy a carefree day in Provincetown, and a great party that night! 508-487-6450 Ptownparties.com
14 Johnson Street, Provincetown | 800.487.0132
www.carpediemguesthouse.com MAR|APR 2016 | 95
CODA Song STORY Loren King partnership with the League of Women Voters, performing with singer-songwriter and fiddler Sara Watkins, a founding member of the progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek, and singer-songwriter (and Vermont native) Anais Mitchell. Their show “Together on Stage” arrives at Sanders Theater on March 10 in a special “singers-in-the-round” style performance that features all three artists on stage together, sharing songs and accompanying each other for the entire evening. Griffin took the time while on tour to answer a few questions from Boston Spirit.
Patty Griffin PHOTO Big-Hassle
Patriotic Passion PATTY GRIFFIN USES HER VOICE TO GET OUT THE VOTE Even though singer-songwriter Patty Griffin hails from Maine, Boston has long claimed her. She moved to Boston in 1985, worked as a pizzeria waitress and a Harvard telephone operator, and recorded her first demo here which eventually became her first release, the acoustic masterpiece “Living With Ghosts.” Even though she’s lived in Austin, Texas since 2000, Griffin has always had a huge Boston—and a huge LGBT— fan base. Griffin’s musical diversity, poetic lyrics, accomplished guitar playing and singular voice have endeared her to other musicians including The Dixie Chicks, Bette Midler and Emmylou Harris, who’ve all recorded her songs, and to fans who greet each
new record as a cause for celebration. Griffin’s recordings have spanned the musical spectrum and earned her respect within the industry and appreciative listeners in many genres. “Children Running Though” won Best Album and led to her being named Best Artist at the 2007 Americana Music Awards. “Downtown Church” won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album in 2011. Her 10th and latest album, “Servant of Love,” is trademark Griffin as her songs travel various musical roads —folk and blues, rock and jazz, ancient sounds and modern—recalling the passionate, soulful sound of her ’96 debut “Living With Ghosts.” Griffin is currently on the ‘Use Your Voice’ tour in
[BOSTON SPIRIT] Could you talk a
bit about your large and loyal LGBT fan base? It must be rewarding that your music has connected so deeply to so many in the LGBT community.
[PATTY GRIFFIN] It is important
to me. Seems like artists are sometimes given a spiritual home in this community—so important because we are often set outside of things as well. Don’t know what I would do without that support—just in my life!
[SPIRIT] Please tell me a little
about why you embarked on the ‘Use Your Voice tour’ with the League of Women Voters. Why is this important to you and how did the partnership come about? Is there something significant about doing this in a year when we have a woman running for president or is it more about voter participation? [PG] It has nothing to do with a woman running for president. A few years back I heard some statistics about woman and voting in the U.S. One that I found very upsetting is that women, the largest voting group of all, are not coming to the polls in strong, reliable numbers.
The largest portion of women in this group are single. Issues that pertain specifically to women—for example, free public education—just aren’t
going to get their due in government until we are seen as a powerful voting force. It is so important that women are on it when it comes to democracy. Our experiences, values and concerns are different than men. There are so many reasons why voting isn’t a priority for women too, but it’s crucial that it becomes one. The goal is to make a little splash in this direction... do some consciousness raising. [SPIRIT] Have you performed in the past with Sara and/or Anais? How did they come to join with you on this tour? [PG] I have worked with both Anais and Sara on different things. I’m a big admirer of both! I asked and they said yes, thank goodness. [SPIRIT] What material will the three of you be performing together? Will you do any material from “Servant of Love” and, if so, will they perform with you? [PG] We had some rehearsals and will be sharing our songs with each other TBA. Yes, we’ll be doing some ‘Servant of Love’ stuff. [SPIRIT] Is performing with other musicians, particularly women, important and fulfilling for you? [PG] It is. You learn a lot. There is as much variety in how to go about making music as there are birds in the trees. It’s great inspiration especially with these two. [SPIRIT] As a New England native (although I know you have not lived here for some time), is there something special about playing in Boston? [PG] I lived in Boston for ten years—never went to school but it was my school in a way. My Irish grandparents worked and died here. There’s a connection for sure. [x]
www.celebrityseries.org
Boston Celebrates Design March 30 - April 10
Third Annual MARCH 30 - APRIL 10 12-Day Citywide Festival 80+ Events All Open to the Public + Most Free of Charge
BostonDesignWeek.com
Ninth Annual APRIL 7 - APRIL 10 50 Galleries & Dealers Gala Preview Thursday Weekend Show and Sale + Final Design Week Programs
AD2021.com
Paul Cadmus, MALE NUDE, NM 217 courtesy of Edward Pollack Fine Arts, (ME), one of 50 galleries in AD20/21.
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Produced by Fusco & Four/Ventures, LLC 617-363-0405 www.BostonArtFairs.com
Boston Spirit Magazine readers enjoy $5 off admission to AD20/21. Visit AD2021special.EventBrite.com