Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

LGBT HISTORY MONTH For museum curators, garments offer stylish storytelling
by Matthew S. Bajko
2019-10-07

This article shared 2873 times since Mon Oct 7, 2019
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Curators working with the Oakland Museum of California on its first major LGBT exhibition, dubbed "Queer California: Untold Stories," displayed a blue sequined jacket created by San Francisco designer Pat Campano and worn in 1985 by the gender-bending gay disco diva Sylvester.

The garment, on loan from the San Francisco-based GLBT Historical Society, provided a bit of glam and visual whimsy to the show, which closed in August. The coat is one of a number of costumes, antique gloves, jewelry, and personal items that once belonged to the "Queen of Disco" now housed in the society's archives. The Sylvester collection, in museum-speak, measures more than eight linear feet.

Among the items is a black and white blazer also by Campano, whose other design clients included the Supremes. One outfit, donated to the society in 1991 three years after Sylvester's death at the age of 41 due to AIDS complications, is a peach-and-silver-sequined ensemble that includes a top and jacket adhered via Velcro strips and snaps. It features an Asian-inspired design with a white phoenix made out of sequins.

"Unlike a lot of designer pieces these are performance pieces. You can see the sweat stains. This came in like this," said Kelsi Evans, director of the society's Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives & Special Collections, as she showed off the intricately made costume.

Society staff last year visited the home of Bernadette Hurd, one of Sylvester's younger sisters, to accession from her estate a number of her famous sibling's outfits to add to the archival group's collection. The pieces selected represent the fine craftsmanship that went into creating the outfits for the iconic performer, who famously corrected the late comedian and television host Joan Rivers that he wasn't a drag queen but simply "Sylvester."

"The detail of the work such as with the sequins, people don't bother with this kind of stuff anymore," said GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick. "It's not just an artifact that was sewn and used once. It was worn many times."

Yet to be shown publicly

Much of the society's Sylvester holdings have yet to be shown publicly. As it works toward one day erecting a permanent museum in San Francisco far larger than the jewel-box exhibit space it now operates out of a leased storefront in the heart of the city's Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, society staff envision one day being able to properly tell Sylvester's story in a multi-faceted way.

"I can see an entire gallery dedicated to Sylvester," said Beswick, "and not just about Sylvester but contextualizing his time and era."

The Los Angeles native, who was born Sylvester James Jr. in the city's Watts neighborhood, grew up in a large, middle-class African American family. He headed north to San Francisco in 1972 and soon fell in with the celebrated genderfuck performance troupe The Cockettes.

A year later Sylvester launched his recording career. His biggest hit came in 1979 with the release of "You Make Me Feel ( Mighty Real )." Last October, NPR declared it a national anthem, noting that the LGBT community in particular has embraced the song due to its lyrics openly celebrating liberation.

The song was one of the 25 American recordings inducted into the Library of Congress earlier this year. Sylvester bequeathed the royalties from his music to the benefit of AIDS charities in San Francisco, but it wasn't until 2010 that two local nonprofits selected by the executors of his will to be the beneficiaries saw any money. First the $350,000 in advances the singer had accrued needed to be paid off, then a number of legal issues had to be ironed out.

Scarce video recordings of Sylvester performing his music are part of the archival group's holdings, which also includes his personal memorabilia, photographs, and posters. The variety of objects preserved in the society's Sylvester collection provides curators an opportunity to create a compelling installation about the performer.

"It could be a multi-medium type of display, which is very compelling to visitors," Evans noted. "We have a lot of textiles we preserve because they tell a story in a way that paper artifacts wouldn't tell."

Fabrics of our lives

Costumes and garments not only add tactile, visual elements to historical exhibitions, the clothing is also a draw for museum attendees. One of the society's most revered articles of clothing in its collection is the suit the late gay Supervisor Harvey Milk was wearing the day he was assassinated in 1978.

Then there are the garments that evoke more joyous occasions, like the wedding dresses donated to the historical society by Emily Drennen and Lindasusan Ulrich, bisexual activists who have been together nearly 22 years and exchanged wedding vows three times over the span of five years.

Their first marriage was a private affair in 2003, followed by a public ceremony in 2004 during the "Winter of Love" in San Francisco when local officials defied state law to perform same-sex weddings. The state's supreme court annulled those marriages, so the women married a third time in 2008 following a legal ruling that California could wed same-sex couples. ( The decision was overturned that November by the passage of the ballot measure Proposition 8, though the marriages performed remained valid. Prop 8 was eventually struck down by the federal courts, leading to the resumption of same-sex weddings in the Golden State in the summer of 2013. )

Drennen and Ulrich, who moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2015, wore their wedding dresses on at least eight occasions, including at Pride parades and marriage equality protests, documented in photos that ran in the press. They were also decked out in the white garments for an "unVEILing injustice" action protesting LGBT leaders' usage of language that erased bisexual people out of the marriage equality movement.

The couple had bought the gowns embroidered with floral patterns and lined in toile off eBay, with Drennen's costing $250 and Ulrich's $79. Because the dresses had morphed from being bridal wear into activist garb, the women never had them dry cleaned, preferring instead to preserve the stained fabric and dirty hems for posterity.

It was how the pair of dresses was displayed during the special exhibit "Biconic Flashpoints: Four Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics" that opened in May 2014 at the historical society's Castro museum space. The women co-curated the yearlong show with fellow bisexual leaders Lani Ka'ahumanu and Martin Rawlings-Fein.

"There was something about them; they took on more meaning than just one couple's wedding dresses. And I think, especially because of the fact we ended up being so visible as two women who are bisexual, it brought a lot of visibility to a population that tends to be very invisible," said Ulrich.

Drennen, who was arrested in her dress for blocking a city street near San Francisco City Hall during one marriage protest, said over time the meaning imbued in their dresses changed.

"They became activism wear," she said.

Because the garments weren't worn solely for a few hours on their wedding day and then cleaned and boxed up, the women came to think of them as "working dresses," said Ulrich. "They did duty beyond just a party and a ritual."

The gowns struck a chord with attendees at the opening of the special exhibit, who either took photos of Drennen and Ulrich standing beside their dresses or asked to have their photo taken with the women and their garments.

"A lot of people were delighted to see them," recalled Ulrich.

The couple looks forward to the day where they can return to San Francisco, which they called home for two decades, and see their wedding dresses as part of a marriage equality exhibit in the historical society's future museum.

"It would be pretty awesome to see my wedding dress is in the museum," said Drennen. "We didn't need the dresses, so this is a way to contribute to history by donating them."

Their dresses, added Ulrich, are a visual reminder that bisexual people stood alongside their gay, bisexual, and transgender brethren fighting for marriage rights from the very beginning.

"We were there throughout the whole thing, even though we were so often left out," she said. "Our dresses are our way of saying don't erase us. We were there and we got the dirt on our hems to prove it."


This article shared 2873 times since Mon Oct 7, 2019
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Chicago History Museum announces "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s - 70s exhibition
2024-03-14
--From a press release - CHICAGO (March 14, 2024) ā€” The Chicago History Museum is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960sā€”70s." Set to open on Saturday, May 18, 2024, this exhibition is ...


Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


Gay News

SAVOR Eldridge Williams talks new concepts, Beyonce, making history
2024-03-08
One restaurant would be enough for most people to handle. However, this year Eldridge Williams is opening two new concepts—including one that will be the first Black-owned country-and-western bar in the Midwest. Williams, an ally of ...


Gay News

Pride 365 event emphasizes year-round support for LGBTQ+ employees
2024-03-07
Queer employees are queer all year-round. The need for employers to accordingly support and uplift them year-round was the core message at Howard Brown Health and Citywide Pride's Pride 365 "Out of Office to Out in ...


Gay News

SAVOR Let's Talk Womxn's 'More Than March'; Adobo Grill's tequila dinner
2024-03-06
I was fortunate enough to be invited to a culinary event that celebrates the achievement of women—and, fittingly, it happened during Women's History Month. On March 1, Let's Talk Womxn Chicago held its annual "More Than ...


Gay News

Without compromise: Holly Baggett explores lives of iconoclasts Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap
2024-03-04
Jane Heap (1883-1964) and Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), each of them a native Midwesterner, woman of letters and iconoclast, had a profound influence on literary culture in both America and Europe in the early 20th Century. Heap ...


Gay News

Anti-LGBTQ+ Republican McConnell to step down from leading U.S. Senate
2024-02-29
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) will step down from Senate leadership in November, having served in that capacity longer than any senator in history, The Advocate noted. McConnell has been a senator since 1985 and has ...


Gay News

ELECTIONS 2024 Raymond Lopez talks congressional run, Chuy Garcia, migrant crisis
2024-02-26
Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez has been a member of City Council since 2015, representing the 15th Ward and making history as one of the city's first LGBTQ+ Latine alderman. Now, he is setting his sights on ...


Gay News

Samuel Savoir-Faire Williams's violin stylings help COH mark Black History Month
2024-02-23
As part of its celebration of Black History Month, Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., presented a solo jazz performance by violinist Samuel Savoir-Faire Williams on Feb. 21. The two-hour long performance presented a showcase ...


Gay News

Center on Halsted to host trans youth & family summit
2024-02-19
Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., has announced that its Trans Youth & Family Summit 2024 will take place March 16. This year marks the sixth annual event, which partners between Youth Services' Pride Youth ...


Gay News

Lakeside Pride Wilde Cabaret Valentine's Day Feb. 17
2024-02-16
--From a press release - Lakeside Pride Wilde Cabaret puts their own spin on Valentine's Day with a show celebrating things done and sacrificed for love - not just romantic love, but love for pets, friends, family and art. Join the ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Raven-Symone, women's sports, Wayne Brady, Jinkx Monsoon, British Vogue
2024-02-09
In celebration of Black History Month, the LA LGBT Center announced that lesbian entertainer Raven-Symone will be presented with the Center's Bayard Rustin Award at its new event, Highly Favored, per a press release. She joins ...


Gay News

GLAAD, NFL host third annual pre-Super Bowl event 'A Night of Pride'
2024-02-08
On Feb. 7, LGBTQ+ media-advocacy organization GLAAD, along with The National Football League (NFL), hosted the third annual "A Night of Pride" at Caesar's Palace in Super Bowl LVIII's host city of Las Vegas, a press ...


Gay News

On 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Mayor Brandon Johnson reaffirms commitment to reproductive rights
2024-01-22
--From a press release - CHICAGO — Today marks the 51st anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which preserved the constitutional right to choose. Chicago has a long history of advocating for women's rights and is considered ...


Gay News

Chicago Fire FC announces 2024 theme nights; Pride Night will be June 1
2024-01-19
--From a press release - CHICAGO (Jan. 18, 2024) — Chicago Fire FC announced the club's theme nights for select home matches during the 2024 regular season, driven by Carvana. The Club's 2024 calendar features 11 theme nights, including the return ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.