Reflecting on the end of Pride 2021 By Andrew Rimby In the first part of my Pride month Big Think, I ended with a desire to ponder why Whitman’s “Song of Myself” spoke to my queerness so profoundly, and why it spurred the question “who is picking this text up and finding themselves reflected back?”Continue reading “Andrew’s Big Think #2, Part 2: “I am not the boy next door””
Tag Archives: lgbtq+
June Wrap Up: The First Pride was a Riot: Looking back at ITBR’s Month of Pride
It’s hard to imagine a more exciting month for our little team. At this time last year, The Ivory Tower Boiler Room was just some idea that Andrew and Adam were batting back and forth. Andrew and Mary had known each other since elementary school, but had not collaborated on anything since high school theater.Continue reading “June Wrap Up: The First Pride was a Riot: Looking back at ITBR’s Month of Pride”
Erika’s Big Think #2: The Orange on the Seder Plate
By Erika Grumet “That’s why her hair is so big. Because it’s full of secrets.” -Damian, Mean GIrls “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) -Walt Whitman, Song of Myself A hundred and fifty-ish years apart, and we queers are still talking about secrets and contradictions and theContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #2: The Orange on the Seder Plate”
Midweek Teaser
This week is a bit of a first in the almost-one-year history of the Ivory Tower Boiler Room: we were asked to do a book review of sorts. The editors of Broadview Press invited us to interview them on the occasion of their release of the new edition of the Broadview Anthology of British Literature,Continue reading “Midweek Teaser”
(Podcast Episode) This Saturday is Seriously Sapphic
(Erika Grumet on behalf of the Ivory Tower Boiler Room team) This episode (“Two Writers are Better Than One: Ula and Kathryn Klein talk LGBTQ+ Academic and Creative Writing”) is a true Stony Brook English department reunion. Adam and Andrew are joined by two PhD alums, Ula and Kathryn Klein who talk all things LGBTQ+Continue reading “(Podcast Episode) This Saturday is Seriously Sapphic”
(Podcast Episode) A Postscript to our Writers’ Round Table on Queerness and Allyship
As Andrew and I listened to the playback for parts I and II of this month’s Writers’ Round Table about queerness and allyship we both found ourselves exhausted from the emotional labor that we’ve been doing this month. We were both unprepared for the things we felt-trauma, disappointment, frustration, and for the homophobia we wouldContinue reading “(Podcast Episode) A Postscript to our Writers’ Round Table on Queerness and Allyship”
Adam’s Big Think #2: Performing at the Cringe Festival: Becoming an Ally
By Adam Katz Early on in my relationship with my very first girlfriend, she told me about how she broke the exciting news to her friends that she was dating someone new: this guy who has all these interests: he likes to knit and listen to opera and draw and play piano, and… To whichContinue reading “Adam’s Big Think #2: Performing at the Cringe Festival: Becoming an Ally”
Your Love is better than Ice Cream
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”
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”