BLAZING TRAILS

WINDY CITY TIMES
Archivist talks
documenting leather,
S&M and fetishism history
by Charlsie Dewey
For more than four decades, Gayle Rubin has
been uncovering documents and artifacts pertaining
to leather, S&M and fetishism culture,
ensuring this important piece of history isn’t
lost to time.
Rubin—who is an archivist and associate
professor of anthropology and women’s studies
“Any kind of documentary material that is
produced in almost any situation on this planet
only survives partly by accident and partly because
there are resources available to preserve
it,” Rubin said.
“Even where materials are durable or there is
an institution to take care of them, there are
the problems of wars and fires. The library of
Alexandria burned and a lot of material is lost
April 20, 2016 25
of young gay people were under the impression
they were the first individuals on the planet to
ever have these feelings or to try to articulate
and express them, because the histories had
not been adequately preserved.”
By preserving the histories of the LGBTQ
community and its many subcultures over time,
Rubin said, “We could situate ourselves better
historically, intellectually and socially, and
have some understanding of who we were and
where we were in the world.”
That knowledge also provides a source of
power for present-day movements.
“Knowledge is a form of power and without
it, one is lacking some really key tools for functioning
in the world and certainly for certain
social and political and moral agendas,” Rubin
said.
Rubin will share her knowledge as an archivist
and anthropologist on Saturday, April 23,
in Chicago at the Leather Archives & Museum,
6418 N. Greenview Ave.
Rubin said she will talk about the challenges
early scholars faced in locating and assembling
source materials related to LGBTQ history as
well as about her specific collection of leather,
S&M and fetishism, which she has accumulated
through her projects.
The presentation, “Archival Fetishism:
Decades of Documenting Leather History,”
will begin at 3 p.m. n Saturday, April 23,
at the Leather Archives & Museum, 6418 N.
Greenview Ave. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m.
Member admission is free; general admission
is $10. Tickets will be available at the
door or at http://www.leatherarchives.org/
adminticket.html.
Queer Bollywood
dance party April 22
Trikone Chicago is hosting its bimonthly
Bollywood dance party Friday, April 22, 10
p.m.-2 a.m., at Big Chicks, 5024 N. Sheridan
Rd.
This event, which features South Asian
dance music and performances, is open to all;
attendees are encouraged to invite friends
and family. The venue will have all-gender
restrooms and nametags for pronouns.
A suggested $5 donation will go toward
helping Trikone raise funds to support programs
for the South Asian LGBTQI community
in Chicago.
See TrikoneChicago.org.
Gayle Rubin.
Photo by Michael Rosen
at the University of Michigan—didn’t set out
to become one of the country’s top archivists
of these materials. Instead, her work led her
down that path.
In 1978, while working on her dissertation
on gay male leather subculture in San Francisco
she found the source material necessary for
her work substantially lacking.
“The research institutions that normally
would collect archival materials on which
scholars could base their research just didn’t
collect this material,” Rubin said.
She noted that was the case for most LGBTQ
materials.
“I got involved doing research first on lesbian
history in the early 1970s, then on gay history
more generally, and then on leather history toward
the late 1970s, and at that time, there
were very few collections of primary source material
in any of these areas,” she said.
“When I first went to San Francisco to do research
there, the major research libraries in the
Bay Area didn’t even have copies of the major
gay newspapers. They just didn’t collect those
types of materials.”
As a result, Rubin and others doing similar
work began accumulating source materials
themselves.
Rubin said that accumulation proved challenging.
First, she noted, as with any attempt to
document history, many of the documents and
artifacts were naturally lost to time.
every time there is a war.”
Rubin said when it comes to sexual histories
or other stigmatized histories there are additional
challenges that come into play as well.
“A lot of people didn’t save material because
they thought it wasn’t important or they were
embarrassed by it,” she said.
She also noted the impact of the AIDS epidemic
in the early 1980s on material preservation.
“A lot of the people who were dying were
too young to have thought about making a will
or appointing someone to have legal authority
to manage their estate,” Rubin said. “A lot of
families came in and either didn’t know what
the stuff was or were embarrassed by it, so a
lot of it got thrown away.
“One organization with which I was involved
at the time was called the San Francisco Lesbian
and Gay History Project. We were out doing
salvage operations, trying to save what we
could from this wave of loss and destruction
that was happening, not just to the individuals,
but to the histories of the communities in
which they’d been a part.”
Rubin said it is particularly important for minority
communities to preserve their histories.
“If you don’t have that ability to produce,
preserve and make accessible the documentary
and artifactual remains of any human project,
it tends to vanish very quickly and then people
don’t know it ever happened.
“With gay history, a lot has been lost. A lot
Sheryl Swoopes.
Photo by Ross Forman
Loyola’s Swoopes
under investigation
Chicago’s Loyola University is launching
an internal investigation into the conduct
of women’s basketball coach Sheryl Swoopes
after 10 of the team’s 12 returning players
have transferred or requested releases from
their scholarships.
Loyola hired Swoopes, a Hall of Famer, in
2013.
In 2005, Swoopes came out as lesbian.
However, in 2011, Outsports.com revealed
that Swoopes was engaged to a man. She
is currently married to that man, ESPN has
noted.
‘Mudderella’ June 4
Mudderella, the five-mile-plus obstacle
course challenge designed for women by
women, will make its third return to Chicago
on Saturday, June 4.
Mudderella events are non-competitive
challenges designed to empower women to
work together while overcoming obstacles
and having fun. Each course includes 12-15
signature Mudderella obstacles designed to
test balance, agility, strength and teamwork
in a fun and social setting.
More than 5,000 participants took part
in the 2015 Chicago event, and this year’s
event is expected to be one of the biggest
yet. Mudderella is a partner of Futures Without
Violence, and its mission to prevent and
put an end to domestic violence by developing
educational programs and resources on
domestic-violence awareness.
See http://mudderella.com/events/chicago-2016/.
JD Glass concert
in Glenview April 21
A concert by JD Glass will take place Thursday,
April 21, 7:30-9:30 p.m., at Rock House
Glenview, 1742 Glenview Rd.
Glass—a musician and author who lives in
New York—is the lead singer and plays guitar
in The Charm Alarm, according to Lesbian
Reading Room. She has also written books
such as Red Light, Punk and Zen, and Punk
Like Me.
See “ JD at Rockhouse Glenview!” on Facebook.
New Tegan and
Sara songs out,
album soon
In anticipation of their forthcoming album
Love You to Death, Tegan and Sara have
launched their album pre-order and released
debut single “Boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend” and brand-new track “U-turn”
are available for sale and streaming now, and
Love You to Death is available for pre-order
via all digital service providers. Fans who
pre-order Love You to Death in advance of
its June 3 release will instantly receive “Boyfriend”
and “U-turn.”
Love You to Death—the follow-up to Tegan
and Sara’s 2013 album Heartthrob—was recorded
in Los Angeles with producer Greg
Kurstin (Adele, Sia, Beck) and features 10
new tracks. Among the songs are “BWU,”
“That Girl,” “Stop Desire” and “White Knuckles.”
‘The Piano Men’
April at Davenport’s
Beckie Menzie and Tom Michael is presenting
“The Piano Men”—paying tribute to
Barry Manilow, Michael Feinstein and Billy
Joel—every Saturday in April at Davenport’s,
1383 N. Milwaukee Ave., at 8 p.m.
Call 773-278-1830 or visit DavenportsPianoBar.com.
Also, see BeckieMenzie.com and
TomMichael.net.