By Erika Grumet (A note about the term “bisexuality”: some people find the term ‘bisexuality’ restrictive or uncomfortable because of its focus on the idea of “binary” or an either/or dichotomy. My personal interpretation, the way I use it, describes the idea of “a gender identity similar to mine” and “a gender identity unlike mine”Continue reading “Your Love is better than Ice Cream”
Tag Archives: Erika
We Dance to the Rhythm of 49 Heartbeats: The Pulse Massacre 5 Years Later
By Erika Grumet In December of 2012, the day after my youngest child turned 3, on what had begun as a typical Friday (with a little extra crankiness because there had been an extended evening of celebrations the night before) the Facebook News Network broke a story about a shooting at an elementary school inContinue reading “We Dance to the Rhythm of 49 Heartbeats: The Pulse Massacre 5 Years Later”
(Podcast Episode)Pride 2021: Queerness and Allyship- An Ivory Tower Boiler Room Round Table Part II
You couldn’t wait, right? We left you wondering more about our interaction with LGBTQ+ literature, and you like listening to us in the Ivory Tower Boiler Room so much that you couldn’t wait to come back and listen to the rest of what we had to say about queer literature, Pride, allyship, coming out andContinue reading “(Podcast Episode)Pride 2021: Queerness and Allyship- An Ivory Tower Boiler Room Round Table Part II”
#ActLoveGive-A Request from Erika
by Erika Grumet This weekend will mark the fifth anniversary of the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, an unimaginable and heartbreaking tragedy targeting our LGBTQ+ family, and in particular BIPOC members of our LGBTQ+ family. We’ll bring you a longer piece about that over the weekend, but I have a request this week,Continue reading “#ActLoveGive-A Request from Erika”
(Podcast Epiode)Pride 2021: Queerness and Allyship-An Ivory Tower Boiler Room Round Table Part I
(Erika, writing on behalf of the Ivory Tower Boiler Room team,) One of my favorite parts of being part of the Ivory Tower team is getting to sit around with my friends and have the kind of deep, intense conversations like the ones that happen in the middle of the night at summer camp, orContinue reading “(Podcast Epiode)Pride 2021: Queerness and Allyship-An Ivory Tower Boiler Room Round Table Part I”
The AIDS Epidemic: Fortieth Anniversary: A Personal History
By Erika Grumet Forty years ago today, the first reports of the “pneumonia” that we would eventually know was AIDS broke. As the most senior member of the Ivory Tower Boiler Room team, and the one with the most experience in HIV and AIDS related topics, (and the one who brought it up during planningContinue reading “The AIDS Epidemic: Fortieth Anniversary: A Personal History”
Podcast Preview: Queerness and Allyship
Hello, lovelies! We wanted to remind you to tune in with us tomorrow night for a stroll through some of the issues crowding our heads this week. One of the more intriguing ones is the recent prohibition of uniformed police from Pride parades. Another is the introduction of the phrase “Rainbow Capitalism” into our collectiveContinue reading “Podcast Preview: Queerness and Allyship”
June Preview-Welcome to Pride Month 2021: The Ivory Tower Boiler Room Celebrates, Reflects, and Memorializes
Book spines with different LGBTQ* Pride Flags This month is a big deal for us. We are keeping to the established pattern–a big think every Monday, a podcast every Saturday, and shorter content in between. But leading up to this, the 52nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, we will be using those established patterns toContinue reading “June Preview-Welcome to Pride Month 2021: The Ivory Tower Boiler Room Celebrates, Reflects, and Memorializes”
Antivax Racists are Trying to Repurpose the Yellow Star of David
By Erika Grumet When I was a kid, I would occasionally encounter people with numbers tattooed on their arms. I don’t remember a time when Nazis and what they had done to Jews (and by extension, my own family) weren’t a part of my consciousness. I heard the stories first hand from the survivors, inContinue reading “Antivax Racists are Trying to Repurpose the Yellow Star of David”
You Don’t Look a Day Over 200
By Erika Grumet It’s birthday time here. Mine is this week, although I am nowhere near 200, but we’ll also be celebrating Walt Whitman’s 202nd birthday with this weekend’s episode of The Ivory Tower Boiler Room. I think it’s hard to grow up where I did on Long Island and not have at least a Continue reading “You Don’t Look a Day Over 200”