a e MULTIMEDIA

mark my lllnrds

BY EUAN BEAR

n a Friday night in early
January, the “elders” of
Vermont's lgbt community
saw the writing on the wall.
Literally. The Dialogue Project,
the brainchild of R.U.1.2? student
intern and master's degree
candidate Heidi Wagner and
Center Director Christopher
Kaufman, posted excerpts

of interviews with the elders
alongside artworks commissioned
for the project.

F‘ull disclosure: I was one of
the interviewees (age 53). Antara
(aka Ann Gatch), a community
songwriter and singer, wrote a
song (Queen-Sized Bed) based on
one part of my interview. It was
a good song. I teared up. Think
Phranc (for those of a certain
generation and women’s music
proclivity).

The story of how my parents
Ioaned me and my then-lover
money to buy a queen-sized
bed, the same make and model
as their own, stood out for
her, Antara said in comments

 

 

Left to right: Marie La pre Grabon's
”T he Other/the Community"; Don
Eggert's "Pulled Quotes"; and
Aurora's "We are Out in the Moun-
tains," with which she was unwilling
to part.

before her performance at the
reception.-Even though there was
Plenty of juicy tough political
material in the interview, Antara
explained, the bed was somehow
emblematic of an acceptance of
a lesbian relationship unusual for
the times. She said she connected

with a Joni Mitchell-style sound
for the song.
Nebulai performed a song he
"wrote from Bill Lippert's (age 55)
interview, about being a small-
town boy.
Marie LaPre Grabon
constructed a symbolic piece
in doll form (“The Other/'I‘he
Community”) for Eva Mondon’s
(age 64) interview.
Shawn Lipenski, a staff
member at R.U.1.2? and an actor,
performed two pieces, one (“To

Be Whole”) on behalf of poet Kim

Jordan, based on the interview
‘with transwoman Sarah Flynn
(age 67), the other an untitled
spoken-word performance piece
based on Vermont artist Robert
Hooker’s (age 55) interview.
Hooker had two art pieces

hi the show as well (“Out

There Parts 1 and 2”), both
combinations of acrylic and
collage: one with a blocky
humanoid figure with its cloth
body torn open to reveal a pink
triangle where its heart would
be, the other with a_dark, vaguely
United States-shaped object,

 

also with a torn piece of cloth
revealing a pink triangle at the
heart. '

Don Eggert, art director for
both Seven Days and Out in the
Mountains, and a co-founder
of R.U.l.2?, displayed"‘Pulled
Quotes: Queer Concerns and
Counsel from Tim Tavcar,” a kind
of photo album-joumal, with
evocative images Photoshopped
in next to pithy excerpts from
Tavcar’s interview.

Aurora, a Huntington-
based artist, contributed two
pieces, because, she said at

Nebulai (left) and Antara join for Nebuali's song from Bill Lippert's memories

 

2

of being a "small-town boy."

the reception, she “couldn’t —
bear to part with” the first one
she made, “We Are Out in the
Mountains," a construction of
wood, moss, and other woodsy
objects with old photographs.
Her second piece was a mixed
media collection of pieces of
torn black paper inscribed with

excerpts from Nancy Pike’s (age
54) interview wired to backing
paper. Other artists whose works
were displayed include Robert W.
Wolfi, a sound designer, potter
and artist (“Celebration of a
Tri-Cultured Life”) and Stacey
Thalden. Interspersed with the
interview excerpts and related
artwork were other items from
the Vermont Queer Archives,
including early newsletters

and posters, and a cover from
CommonWomyn from 1983. The
Archives Coordinator is Margaret
Tamulonis, who is also manager

 

of collections and exhibitions
at the Fleming Museum in
Burlington.

Fourteen elders (“elder”
defined as “over 50"), six women
and eight men, were interviewed
using a list of questions
developed by members of Free 2
Be, a queer student organization

at the University of Vermont, and
Outright Vermont, a support and
social organization for lgbtq youth
under age 22, but primarily made
up of high school-age students.
Among the elders not already

mentioned were Peggy Luhrs (age

60), Fran Moravcsik (age 71),
Jon Petrie (age 58), Tony Daniels
(age 52), Ryland White (age 54),
Brian Davis (age 51), and Alverta
Perkins (age 81).

Being asked the questions
and having the answers be part
of a public event showing the
art that was inspired by them

was unexpectedly moving. It felt
as if the history of oppression
I carry around in my memory
was suddenly a little lighter after
being shared and wil.r\essed.
Now what needs to happen is
for these elders — or others — to
ask questions we want answered
by youth. We need to hear them,

lt felt as if the history of
oppression I carry around in
my memory was suddenly

a little lighter a1'"ter:being
shared and witnessed.

they need to be heard. The young
are busy living what will become
their histories, but they have their
stories to tell, too. A dialogue

is not a one-way conversation.
Elders do not hold all the
wisdom.

The Dialogue Project was
displayed at the Rose Street
Artists’ Co-op weekends during
January. Its first opening was
at the Whittemore Center at
Marlboro College in November,
2005. Other showings around the
state are being planned. V