What are the unique considerations for LGBTQ+ people as we age? How has that changed over your life time? As Boomers enter elder status, what lessons do they want to share with other generations? How has your LGBTQ+ identity affected your access to housing and health care? How do you create a support system while extra isolated by Covid-19? How has the language around your LGBTQ+ identity changed and what do you want to learn from younger generations?

We acknowledge that race, class, geography, and much more affects one’s chances of aging, the blessing of a long life. We are having this conversation and holding space for those that have survived and those that have not.

Join us for a virtual conversation about aging, co-hosted by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT).

RSVP IS REQUIRED so we can send you a zoom link.

This event will be recorded for Telling Queer History’s archives and may be released as an audio podcast.

ASL interpreted. All ages. Free to attend but donations appreciated. https://www.givemn.org/organization/Telling-Queer-History-1

Please contact us if you have any specific accessibility requests at [email protected]

Announcing our four featured storytellers: T Mychael Rambo, Harry Hartigan, Pat Nelson, and Venus de Mars.

Rambo: Regional Emmy Award-winning actor, vocalist, arts educator and community organizer T. Mychael Rambo has made an indelible mark in the Twin Cities performing principle roles at such theaters as Penumbra, the Guthrie, Ordway, Illusion Theatre, Mixed Blood, Park Square Theatre, Children’s Theatre and Minnesota Opera, to name but a few. Nationally and internationally his stage credits include Carnegie Hall and performances abroad in Africa, Europe and South America. He has appeared in local and national television commercials, feature films, HBO mini-series, and other television programming. T. Mychael is an accomplished residency artist and an affiliate professor in the College of Liberal Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota.

Nelson: Patricia (Pat) Nelson has been lending her voice to make sure that all voices are heard. Through working with the Racial Equity Initiative of PFund (and later becoming a Fellow with the 2009-2010 REI Cohort), KFAI – Fresh Air Radio, Rainbow Health Initiative, Community Health Project (NY), Training for Change (PA); and having served on the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the League of Minnesota Human Rights Commissions, she continues to reach wider still. Pat is the owner/principal of NelsonWorks, LLC, a business that provides computer support for homes and small offices. She has also served as a health care and an academic administrator. She is also experienced in consensus and team building, including facilitation with diverse populations, She is currently serving on the Board of UCare. She has served on the One Yoga, Hennepin Healthcare Patient Partner Circle, and the KFAI -Fresh Air Board. Pat is also a licensed Amateur Radio person (aka a “ham”, KE0QXD), serving as an Area Director of OMIK (primarily for African American folks), and is a member of RARA (Queer Amateur Radio enthusiasts).

Hartigan: When you meet Father Harry Hartigan, you realize why he closes each email with “This isn’t your Grandmas Catholic Church.” The founder of the Order of Mychal, LGBTQ+ advocate, and prison outreach pastor is a parent, foster-parent, grandparent, volunteer, and the list goes on. He helped create the Boomer Town at TC Pride, getting AARP to sponsor that section. Hartigan also participates in Primetimes (a social group for Bi and Gay men), Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, and a support group for LGBTQ+ sex offenders. Hartigan is currently volunteering with Phil Durant at JustUs Health on creating a LGBTQ+ community center.

Venus de Mars is a multidisciplinary artist and musician, best known as a singer-songwriting transgender rock star and leader of the band Venus de Mars & All the Pretty Horses. Venus is also one of the foundational artists for Rifle Sport Alternative Art Gallery, creating it’s iconic big blue doors which fronted Hennepin Avenue and installations that included a Honda Civic art car parked halfway up the main staircase. A chance tax audit transformed her into a champion of artists’ tax rights, after which the Venus de Mars Fund with Springboard for the Arts was established. Venus along with her wife Lynette Reini-Grandell, are the subject of rock-doc Venus of Mars [2004] by filmmaker Emily Goldberg. Venus came out as transgender at a time when identifying as trans meant being classified as having a mental perversion and living as an outcast. Her refusal to live a shadow existence, instead embracing her uniqueness, complicated her musical and artistic career paths. She is now mid-process in writing a memoir reflecting her thirty-year trans journey and place in this fast changing, trans-embracing-backlashing world where we now find ourselves. Venus is the recipient of multiple grants and awards, among them a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, a Bush Fellowship, a Minnesota Music Award, and is the subject of the award-winning rock-documentary Venus of Mars. She toured with Laura Jane Grace and Against Me in 2014. She has released multiple albums over her career. Her last release, an acoustic album produced by longtime collaborator Barb Morrison (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters, etc.), is titled Flesh and Wire. She and her band are currently working on an EP to be released in 2020.

TELLING QUEER HISTORY is a series of gatherings based on sharing stories in an open, informal, and participatory format. It’s about connecting queer communities, queer history and generations so that we can learn from our shared past, present, and future.*

*Allies are welcome to join, listen and volunteer. Hearing our stories is a great way to be an ally, allowing and assisting us in having the space to tell our stories is a way to be an advocate. Thanks!