just out ▼ may 1002 T 0
Third annual
OutWrite
conference
^Jlqiuirian
BENEFIT FOR NO ON F U IE PAC
Starrin
DANNO
To not tell the truth o f our lives is the worst crime we can put
to our writers ”
(in M Iiilm iim
q IU Donation
by Jan Nathan Long
he third annual OutWrite conference
for lesbian and gay writers was held
in Boston on March 20-22, drawing
over 1,500 participants and200 work
shop speakers. There was an aware
ness drawn to the racial and cultural
within the lesbian and gay community and our
need to address those concerns in our writing.
“When is an ending closure? When does
closure become a new beginning? Closure in
volves the will to remember, to pull disparate
threads and put them together,” spoke poet Melvin
Dixon at the close of the third annual OutWrite
conference to a crowd of over 1000.
Dixon was addressing how to deal with death
(“I may not be here next year for this conference
but I ’ll be somewhere, listening for my name”) as
much as he was writing. At OutWrite '92 there
were many reminders that lesbian and gay writers
needed to work through both.
One way for many o f those who spoke was to
simply make lists. As the world comes to us like
the rapid flipping of cable channels it’s no wonder
the most lucid reaction is to simply list what is
being said, and more importantly, what is not, in
the hopes that it will point to something clearer,
fuller, less schizophrenic.
Like Alan Bell’s initiation of the calling o f the
names : the audience standing one by one to list
the names of those who have died. One person
saying simply, “ Unknown.”
Like Mariana Romo-Carmona’s list of South
American and North American tribes, of people
never mentioned in her history class. “And so
with this we were taught that some lives were
important and others were not,” she said as those
with indigenous American ancestry performed a
blessing ceremony.
Like John Manzone's list of the 11 concentra
tion camps where over 120,000 Japanese-Ameri
cans were sent exactly 50 years ago.
Like Leslea Newman’s found poems: ‘T o m a
toes,” a list of sexually provocative words taken
from a seed catalogue; and “ Road Signs,” a sen
sual journey through orgasm using only words
found on signs (slow, proceed with caution, slip
pery when wet...).
The opening speeches were on survival, Romo-
Carmona beginning with a demand from the audi
ence of writers: “Every lesbian and gay writer is
faced with the truth. We cannot pretend not to
know. History is never so important except when
we have no access to it.” She then reviewed a
history of indigenous American people from the
time of the first European explorers. “If what we
are talking about is survival, it has to be for all of
us.”
Dorothy Allison, the second opening speaker,
began with a similar plea: “The world needs to be
remade. The world needs more people with large
ambitions. The world needs more revolutionar
ies,” Allison said to a packed auditorium opening
night. ‘T o not tell the truth o f our lives is the worst
crime we can put on our writers. I want to talk
about the truths in our lives. More than that, I
want you to do it. I want you to do more than just
survive.”
If the message was to write truth, and to write
that from the gut, there was also a message to
beware of false desires. There was much pub
lisher bashing at the conference, with sessions on
how to self publish, and how to create your own
zine. Rachel Pepper, publisher of'zines Cunt and
T
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QUEER
NATION
Essex Hemphill
Queer City, was leery of even mainstream lesbian
and gay magazines, such as the Advocate and
OUT ¡LOOK, as having “a lust for change [which]
changed to a lust for profit,” stating that only
“photocopied acts of terrorism” offer a relief from
“ the lobotomisation of culture.”
Roxxie, of Girljock, presented a history of her
'zine, and the power of'zines in the past few years.
“If you’re upset with [big publications], thanks to
desktop publishing and copying, you can make a
statement that they can no longer ignore us.”
Criticism also turned to one of the conference’s
sponsors, OUT/LOOK magazine, as well as queer
publisher Alyson Press, concerning the newly
formed Joseph Beam Award. Named after the
black gay activist and writer, the awards, spon
sored by Alyson Press, were designed to honor
any socially active gay or lesbian writer. Contro
versy arose when the first year’s nominations had
no writers of color. Six prominent lesbian and gay
writers o f color formed a caucus and prepared a
statement to address this.
Both Alyson and Jeff Escoffier, who selected
the nominees, delivered statements including
apologies, and what looked to be a major contro
versy quickly resolved itself primarily because of
Tongues United co-producer Essex Hemphill’s
insistence that the caucus concentrate on creating
an award that would honor black gay writers.
“I don’t want to beat these men,” Hemphill
said. “W e’re not an S/M group.” The question
Hemphill concentrated on instead was, “What are
we going to leave the young black gay and lesbian
writers when we are gone?”
The award by Alyson was canceled and plans
for a Joseph Beam Award, honoring black gay
activist writers is currently in progress. The
lesson it provided to the mixed audience was
more significant: Devote your energy toward a
solution rather than a reaction. Perhaps in this
light, Dorothy Allison’s comments, to write from
a place that demands resolution, solution, prove
to be a real challenge. Then you put things to
gether, then you arrive at closure.
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