The August edition of OUTspoken! LGBTQ storyteller series takes place Tuesday, August 1, at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St. Doors open at 6 pm, stories begin at 7.
See www.outspokenchicago.com for more info .
Melvyna Gaynor is retired from the Chicago Board of Education. She play drums and shakers with the Drum Diva Percussion Ensemble. She has told stories at the Museum of Science and Industry, DuSable Museum, and Malcolm X Community College. She produced a number of shows on Chicago Access Network.
Deborah Goldstein is co-producer of the North Jersey Listen To Your Mother show, a national spoken word event showcasing original stories about motherhood. She sits on the board of North Jersey Pride and writes a medley of miscellany on her humor blog, Peaches & Coconuts. Deborah lives in South Orange, New Jersey with her lady-spouse and two man-children.
Moose Flores is a recent transplant from Michigan, and a cat dad. He works as a church Youth Director in Elmhurst, he speaks Japanese, and has been to all 50 states. If you ask him to dance, he will gladly say yes.
Jim Kelly was born and raised in rural Minnesota. After his 3 � year Peace Corps service in El Salvador, he joined a non-profit organization focused on community leadership development and helped initiate projects in small villages in Venezuela and Chile. He returned permanently to the U.S. in 1981, and shortly thereafter joined Oak Park-based CHP International, a private training company that, under contract to the Peace Corps, staffed and managed pre-service training programs for in-coming Peace Corps Volunteers in many countries. Jim is "stepdad" to husband Bruce Broerman's two adult children, and is "Papa Jim" to their five grandchildren.
Johnnie Martin is a Transgender MTF, Non Binary. He has been a Local Truck Driver/Trainer for 11 years. He's active in a Tran Fem group at Center at Halsted. Johnnie lives with his husband and their two cats. He is a past board member of the Lincoln Park Lagooners, a Chicago LGBT social group. He was a McHenry County PFLAG volunteer with his husband.
Gregg Shapiro is the author of Fifty Degrees ( Seven Kitchens, 2016 ), selected by Ching-In Chen as co-winner of the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBT and mainstream publications and websites, Shapiro lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his husband Rick and their dog k.d.
Zeke Thomas is a renowned Open Format DJ and Producer. Paper Magazine calls his single, Blackness featuring Chuck D & Jasiri X "the civil rights anthem for the EDM generation." As the son of NBA Hall of Fame player, Isiah Thomas, Zeke Thomas was born in the heart of Motown, Detroit, Mich. He is the first male spokesperson to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, an advocate and supporter for GLAAD.org .