Tracy Baim, Owen Keehnen and Richard Knight, Jr. will read from and sign their newly available books at Women & Children First Bookstore on Thursday, June 19, 7 p.m.
The books are:
Vernita Gray: From Woodstock to the White House, by Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen
Vernita Gray lived through some of the country's most riveting civil-rights dramas, as an African American girl from the South Side of Chicago. She came out as a lesbian soon after attending the 1969 Woodstock concert, where she heard about the uprising at the Stonewall gay bar in New York City. Her fight for lesbian equality, and the rights of the entire LGBTQ community, would be her passion for the remaining decades of her life.
She was also a poet and a writer, a key player in Chicago's gay liberation movement, and a lesbian separatist during the 1970s. She lost her long battle with cancer just months after becoming one-half of the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Illinois. Hear a bit about her life from the authors of this new book.
The Fight for Marriage Equality in the Land of Lincoln, by Kate Sosin and Tracy Baim
Windy City Times reporter Kate Sosin and publisher Tracy Baim take an in-depth look at the push for marriage rights in Illinois. The complicated route to equality required money, political clout and a lot of activism to push it over the finish line. Sosin, now a reporter in Boston, will not be at the signing.
The Best of Knight at the Movies by Richard Knight, Jr.
Windy City Times is marking the 10th anniversary of Richard Knight, Jr. as film critic for the paper with the publication of The Best of Knight at the Movies, a collection of Knight's movie reviews from 2004-2014. Written from Knight's queer perspective, the book includes more than 150 film reviews and essays. Gay icon Bruce Vilanch has said about the collection, "If Fred Phelps were alive he'd picket this book!" The book will be released in mid-June, just over a decade after Knight joined the paper, and Knight will be at the store to read from and sign copies of his book.