Reminder: Queer North Beach and beyond 1930 - 1965 in @ Wed Jun 15 7pm - 10pm (queerthingssf@gmail.com)

more details » Queer North Beach and beyond 1930 - 1965 in The Beat Museum 540 Broadway San Francisco, CA Free Before Stonewall and before the Compton's Cafeteria riot there was a gay community in the bay area, much of if centered in North Beach. In many ways it was the blueprint for the communities which would spring up after it in the Polk, South of Market and the Castro. And while it is true that the gay community in North Beach benefited to a large degree by the influx of soldiers and sailors during World War II the community actua...lly preceded the war and can trace its beginnings to right after prohibition ended when Mona's opened in 1934. In the 50s there were two show bars in North Beach: Finocchio's and The Black Cat. And they also shared another thing in common - they both are places which represent connections between gay San Francisco and their straight allies. The performers at Finocchio's were performing to mostly straight audiences. And the Black Cat, as well as Mona's were bars that were started by straight owners. Sol Stoumen, the owner of the Black Cat, went all the way to the California Supreme Court for the right to serve gay men drinks - and he didn't do it simply because he got along with gay people, but because it made good business sense to him. After all, he had a performer (Jose Sarria) who was packing customers in with his comic interpretations of operas - so why not fight for his business? Why North Beach? Why San Francisco? How did the North Beach gay scene interact with the rest of the city? How does this relate to the history of eccentrics (like Emperor Norton) in our city? What role did the colleges (U.C. Berkeley, Stanford and the San Francisco Art Institute - then the California School of Fine Arts) play in drawing LGBT people to the area? What role did heterosexuals (such as Sol Stouman and Mona Sargent, owner of Mona's) play in the development of the scene? Why did San Francisco become such a center of gay life that many students from Black Mountain College moved here in the 50s? And why did the scene move away in the 60s? On June 15 at 7:00pm at the Beat Museum Michael Flanagan will trace the history of queer North Beach from its beginnings to the period in the 60s when the community moved (in large part) to other parts of the city and answer these questions. By reading from the biographies and memoirs of Jack Spicer, Sam Steward, Elsa Gidlow, Allen Ginsberg, James Broughton and Jose Sarria as well as "Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965" by Nan Boyd and "Robert Duncan in San Francisco" by Michael Rumaker he will recreate a vibrant world which has disappeared and tell the story of how bohemian San Francisco and Beat San Francisco blended (and didn't) into one another. Michael Flanagan has been a reference librarian at Menlo Park Public Library for over a decade and has been involved in reference and bookselling since the 70s. He has been the research assistant for the musician Diamanda Galas since the 80s and was president of the AIDS archival organization 'Documentation of AIDS Issues and Research' from 1987 through 1995. He wrote for the Bay Area Reporter and has works published in "Life Sentences: Writers, Artists and AIDS" (edited by Thomas Avena) and "Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century" (edited by Joe Bonney). In 1998 he worked with Hal Willner (producer of recorded works by William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg) by editing the texts of the Marquis De Sade for a 'Night of De Sade' at St. Mark's Church with musicians like Eric Mingus and Karne Mantler and readings by Lily Taylor, Penny Arcade, Diamanda Galas and others. In the last 5 years he has facilitated 14 book group discussions online on books as diverse as Denis Johnson's 'Jesus Son', Ann Patchett's 'Magician's Assistant', Tom Spanbauer's 'Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon' and T. J. Parsell's 'Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison.' When Wed Jun 15 7pm – 10pm Pacific Time Calendar queerthingssf@gmail.com Who • larrybob@gmail.com - creator

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