MACT Information Bulletin Men of All Colors Together/New York, Inc. P.O. Box 237107, Ansonia Station, New York NY 10023-7107 (212)330-7678 http://www.mactny.org [email protected] October, 2014 October 10 Program MACT/NY Membership & BOD Meeting On October 10 MACT/NY will hold its annual membership meeting, at which our past year will be discussed, the new Board of Directors for the 2014-2015 year elected, and plans for the future made. Don’t miss this meeting!! This is your chance to contribute your ideas and energy to the organization The current Board of Directors consists of Patrick Harding and Tom Wirth, Co-chairs; Arthur McLean, Treasurer; Ted Freed, Secretary; Bill Burns; and Richard Jones. Our by-laws provide that we can have as many as 18 board members, so there’s lots of room for those who are interested in joining it! Anyone who has been an MACT/NY member for thirty days before the meeting is elegible. The duties of the board are to: • • • • Designate the officers of MACT/NY; Decide on future meetings and activities; Authorize expenditures; Act on all matters where formal action of the organization is required. Those wishing to become board members should plan to attend board meetings, which normally occur on the second Friday of each month. Following the membership meeting, the October BOD meeting will take place. All members are welcome to attend We hope that all members of MACT/NY will attend this meeting if they possibly can. We need to discuss how we can keep MACT/NY vigorous and relevant to our lives. Friday Night Meetings During our 33 years, MACT/NY has met once a week to work, to play and learn together. Our Friday night meetings at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street are the core of this schedule. Sessions begin at 8:00 P.M. During the evening we take up a collection ($5.00 recommended) for the room rent and organizational expenses. Refreshments are served. Below is the October schedule. All regular meetings are at the Center. Friday, October 3 @ 8:00 PM. Old Pictures, Old Boyfriends. It’s show and tell. Bring your pictures, share your past! Old romances—the bitter and the sweet—and the other important people in your life. Friday, October 10 @ 8:00 P.M. MACT/NY Membership Meeting at the Center, followed by the October BOD meeting. See the accompanying lead article. Friday, October 17 @ 8:00 P.M. Video: James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket. See the article on Page 3. Friday, October 24 @ 8:00 P.M. Newsletter Mailing. An evening of folding, envelope stuffing, stamping and socializing. MACT Information Bulletin -2- Submariner ©2014 Salih Michael Fisher YOU GREW FROM A FIFTIES CHILD TO A LATE-SIXTIES TEEN TO A MID-SEVENTIES GAY MAN AT THE END A SEVENTIES YOUNG ADULT WHOSE LIFE WOULD HAVE MANY TWIST AND BENDS IN THE EIGHTIES YOU BECAME A LOVER OF BLACK MEN BROTHERS WITH JHERI CURLS READY TO ROCK YOUR WORLD HE YOUR LOVER TWO YEARS LATER KIDNAPED IT BECAME AN EGYPTIAN AFRO NAPPYHEAD THEN LATER HE HAD BABY PLAITS THEN SHOULDER-LENGTH DREADS ALL THESE STYLES AMASSED AFROCENTRIC FLAVORS THAT WERE THE RAGE OF THE LATE EIGHTIES FINISHING IN AGE AGE NOW TURNS THE PAGE NOW IN THE NINETIES YOU HAVE BECOME A SUBMARINER CHARTING UNTRAVELED WATERS ENJOYING THE SAD SPOILS OF A WAR WITH AIDS THE HOUSE, AS A WIDOWER YOU INHERITED ON FIRE ISLAND THE BROWNSTONE IN FORT GREENE THE INSURANCE POLICY THE TWO CATS NOW GONE TONS OF PICTURES OF A LIFE ONCE LIVED YOUR DECEASED LOVER’S MOTHER CALLS EVERY NOW AND THEN ALWAYS GIVING INVITATIONS TO COME TO DINNER STILL TRYING TO INCLUDE YOU AS HER INNER FAMILY HIS SISTER YOU RUN INTO ON THE VILLAGE PIERS SHE HUGS YOU STILL WITH TEARS IN HER EYES YOU FEEL ENGULFED BY HER BLACK-SISTER DYKENESS ENDURE SLAPS ON YOUR AMPHIBIAN BACK YOU LOVE IT ALTHOUGH IT MAKES YOU NERVOUS BUT YOU EMBRACE HER BACK TIGHTLY LIKE A MOTHER’S LULLABY LULLABIES SOOTHING TO A LONELY HEART WHEN YOU ALL DEPART YOU FEEL SAD YOU FELT THAT WAY NOW YOU REALIZE NO ONE HAS REPLACED HIM NO ONE HAS LAIN BETWEEN YOUR CLAM SHELLS SHEETS ALL FRESHLY WASHED AND NEAT AND NO ONE HAS GOTTEN INTO YOUR HEAD TO BRING FORTH YOUR TREASURES ONCE WORN IN OLDEN DAYS AROUND EBONY NECKS SPECKS OF A LIFE ONCE LIVED FADE INTO THE MOONLIGHT TWINKLE IN YOUR GREEN EYES AS DISTANT UNIVERSES ONCE VISITED UPON OLIVE EUROPEAN SKIN AND NO LONGER CURLY PERMED HAIR NOW IT HAS BECOME A TATTOO TATTOOED ACROSS A BALD HEAD TAN NOW IT EXISTS AS STARDUST IN A GREYING BEARD MOUTH TAKING AIR IN AND OUT IN AND OUT ALL STARS DIE IN LIGHT OF DAY AND DOING WITHOUT YOU REALIZE IT’S REALLY ALL EXCEPT THE BLAZING SUN October, 2014 MACT Information Bulletin -3- October 31 October, 2014 October17 Video Halloween Parade Excursion “James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket” Instead of a regular meeting on October 31st (Halloween), we’ll organize a small excursion to view the Halloween Parade—a fabulous event that takes place every year in Greenwich Village. For gay men, black and white, coming of age in the 1950s and 1960s, James Baldwin was a singular public gay exemplar. He gave us permission to be gay; indeed he insisted that we acknowledge the lies about race and sex that we tell ourselves and that our society perpetrates. His books Giovanni’s Room, Another Country, and The Fire Next Time laid bare with surgical precision the ignorance of racial and sexual realities that white Americans insist on maintaining, and the terrible price everyone pays to keep these illusions—this fraudulant innocence—intact. We’ll gather at the Center at 7:15 P.M., and at 7:30 P.M. we’ll walk over to 6th Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets to view the parade, which starts at about 7:00 P.M. at 6th Avenue and Spring Street and marches up 6th Avenue to 16th Street, where it disbands. It should arrive at 14th Street about 8:00 P.M. After the parade we’ll move to the Good Stuff Diner, 107 West 14th Street, for refreshments. October 7 Theatre Excursion “Bootycandy” On Tuesday, October 7 some of us are going to see Bootycandy, a hilarious farce featuring scenes from the coming of age of a black gay man. Sutter is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms and even nursing homes. A kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnect to portray growing up gay and black, Robert O’Hara’s subversive, uproarious satire crashes headlong into the murky terrain of pain and pleasure and... BOOTYCANDY. As of this writing, a few tickets are still available for the October 7 show at $75 each . If you want to purchase one and join us, call Ticketcentral at 212-279-4200. In James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, the life, works and beliefs of the late writer and civil rights activist are recounted: what it is to be born black, impoverished, gifted, and gay in a world that has yet to understand that “all men are brothers.” James Baldwin tells his own story in this emotional portrait. Using rarely-seen archival footage from nine different countries, the film melds intimate interviews and eloquent public speeches with cinéma vérité glimpses of Baldwin and original scenes from his extraordinary funeral service in December 1987. His close friends and colleagues—even critics—illuminate the narrative, among them writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka and William Styron, plus entertainer Bobby Short. James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket was originally broadcast August 14, 1989 on AMERICAN MASTERS. Editor & Desktop Publisher: Tom Wirth. Contributors: Salih Michael Fisher. Contributions to the November Bulletin are due Tuesday, October 21. NOTE THE EARLY DEADLINE! Email final copy to: tw@ firepress.com. A Special Showing of “Before You Know It” A Film About Gay Seniors Featuring Our SAGE/HARLEM Friends Saturday October 18th at 7:30 PM at UNIONDOCS, 322 Union Avenue, Brooklyn. Free Admission! Dennis is a gentle-hearted widower in his 70s who begins exploring his sexual identity and fondness for dressing in women’s clothing under the name “Dee.” Ty is an impassioned LGBT activist who hears nothing but wedding bells once gay marriage passes in New York. Robert “The Mouth” is a feisty bar owner who presses on when his neighborhood institution comes under threat. Born before the Civil Rights era, these men have witnessed unbelievable change in their lifetimes, from the Stonewall Riots and gay liberation, to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and Queer Nation, to gay marriage and Lady Gaga, and have lived to become part of an unprecedented “out” elder generation. Before focuses on the lives of these three gay seniors, but reminds us that while LGBT elders face a specific set of issues, aging and its challenges are universal. An affirmation of life and human resilience told with a refreshing humor and candor, Before confirms that you are never too old to reshape society. MACT Information Bulletin -4- October, 2014 THE FIREBALL RETURNS AS A FUND RASIER FOR THE NEWARK LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER. MACT/NY AND ITS SUPPORTERS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR $30.00, TABLES FOR $50.00 (SEATS 10) FOR A JOYOUS EVENING OF DINNER, ENTERTAINMENT, AND AWARDS FEATURING SENATOR CORY BOOKER AND MAYOR RAS BARAKA (INVITED GUESTS) AND THE FIREBALL. THE DATE IS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25TH WITH DINNER FROM 5:00-8:00PM, ENTERTAINMENT FROM 7:00-9:00PM. THE GRAND MARCH FOR THE BALL STARTS PROMPTLY AT 9:00PM, THE BALL FOLLOWS UNTIL 3:00AM. CONTACT JAMES CREDLE FOR TICKETS AT 973/919-9926 OR [email protected]. Be there for the event of a lifetime!!!!......jcredle