|
|
WCT COLORS A Windy City Times LGBTQ History Coloring Book Series
2018-06-13
|
|
This article shared 1205 times since Wed Jun 13, 2018
|
|
This week we launch a multi-week Windy City Times coloring book page featuring past and present icons of LGBTQ history, as drawn by a wide range of artists around Chicago and the world. This week's drawing is by the Comic Nurse ( MK Czerwiec ), and the subject is late Chicago AIDS activist Danny Sotomayor. If you are an artist interested in drawing one of the images, contact editor@windycitymediagroup.com .
Daniel Sotomayor was born in 1958 and grew up in poverty in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago. Initially he wanted to be an actor and studied his craft at Center Theatre. He also graduated with a degree in graphic arts from Columbia College.
Sotomayor's life changed dramatically with his AIDS diagnosis in 1988. In autumn of that year, after experiencing the power of ACT UP/New York at the Food and Drug Administration demonstration in Rockville, Maryland, Sotomayor returned to Chicago transformed. Along with Paul Adams, Lori Cannon and many others, he helped create the Chicago chapter of ACT UP ( the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power ), and Sotomayor soon became a highly visible member of the organization. His colorful HIV-awareness and safe-sex T-shirts, buttons and protest posters helped give the fledgling organization a visual identity and raised needed funds.
Sotomayor also gained notoriety in the activist community for his tireless confrontation of Mayor Richard M. Daley on the issue of AIDS rights and funding. His relentless protests of the mayor's policies included frequent verbal challenges and even the unfurling of a banner at a black-tie gala that read, "Daley, Tell the Truth About AIDS." Daley once said of him, "Why is that man always screaming at me?" Sotomayor's unrelenting tactics are considered a major factor in Daley's significant increase in AIDS funding during the early 1990s.
In the midst of his ongoing struggle with outside forces, Sotomayor's own AIDS battle continued. Through much of 1991 and into 1992 Sotomayor and his partner Scott McPherson ( author of the acclaimed play Marvin's Room ) cared for each other with the help of Cannon and other close friends. Sotomayor eventually succumbed to AIDS at Illinois Masonic Medical Center on Feb. 5, 1992. McPherson died Nov. 7 that same year.
From the book Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community, edited by Tracy Baim ( 2008, Surrey ). More details here: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/AIDS-One-of-a-kind-Danny-Sotomayor-acted-up-and-fought-back-/31467.html . |
|
|
|
This article shared 1205 times since Wed Jun 13, 2018
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness 2024-03-26 City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 seasonwhich will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...
|
| | Jamie Barton brings nuances of identity to her Lyric Opera 'Aida' performance 2024-03-18 Chicago's Lyric Opera is currently featuring a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida starring Michelle Bradley as Aida, Jamie Barton as Amneris and Russell Thomas as Radamès. The opera runs through April 7, 2024, with Francesca Zambello ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15 Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...
|
| | 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) — The Chicago History Museum is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, "Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s—70s." Set to open on Saturday, May 18, 2024, this exhibition is ...
|
| | 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 ...
|
| | Center on Halsted celebrates Dreams of Drag 2024-03-11 On March 9, Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St., in partnership with the Ralla Klepak Foundation, presented the Dreams of Drag Spring Cohort Class of 2024. The event featured performances from a class of new ...
|
| | 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 conceptsincluding one that will be the first Black-owned country-and-western bar in the Midwest. Williams, an ally of ...
|
| | 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 womenand, fittingly, it happened during Women's History Month. On March 1, Let's Talk Womxn Chicago held its annual "More Than ...
|
| | 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 ...
|
| | Center on Halsted hosts 6th Annual Intergenerational Talent Show 2024-03-03 On the evening of Feb. 29, Center on Halsted held its 6th Annual Intergenerational Talent Show in front of a packed audience at the Hoover-Leppen Theater. The event brought together participants of the Center's youth and senior ...
|
| | 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 ...
|
| | 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 ...
|
| | 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 ...
|
| | 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 ...
|
| | TAWANI Foundation commits $25K to StartOut, supporting LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship 2024-02-08 --From a press release - CHICAGO — February 8, 2024 — The TAWANI Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that provides support in the areas of arts and culture, historical preservation, health and wellness, LGBTQ+ and human rights ...
| |
|
|