Kristiania Presents: The Queer Gaze
On 83 Hester St. just beyond the grips of Chinatown, nestled into a quiet block sits BGSQD. Bureau of General Services Queer Division, a bookstore. But more than that, a shared space with CAGE – a place where queers – all included for simplicities sake – literary queers at that, can sip wine, beer, and stuff into varying pockets, chairs and crannies for such a unique experience as a collective group of people. Thursday May 1st, the Bureau hosted Kristiania Presents: The Queer Gaze. Kristiania is described as a, “an international anarcho-literary collective of politically minded writers.” I was terribly misinformed and expected to sit down and listen to some people read queer poetry perhaps with a political twist. Hosted and moderated by local New York poetry, prose and theatre writer, the Lonely Christopher. Instead of a mildly political approach to a queer topic, I witnessed a wonderful discussion between several multi-oriented/gender identifying folk that live the queer life and wished to speak on behalf of actualized LGBTQ experiences and to dismantle the consumer created idea of queer that has infiltrated mass media. A heavily political conversation about the ins and outs of society, our past, present intertwined with personal stories and some crowd participation, which solidified the very complex nature of encapsulating such a varied, inclusive term, that is “queer.”
On our panel was Samuel R. DeLaney, whom has authored several science fiction books including, Dhalgren and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. In addition to that, DeLaney wrote Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. The latest offering of his is, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. DeLaney served as an invaluable contributor to the discussion, surely piping in with the historical context for our culture and presented the order in which queer and gay recycle themselves out generationally. Lambda Book Report chose DeLaney as one of the fifty men and women whom helped shape our vision of gay and lesbian identity over the past 100 years. DeLaney offered very insightful, intelligible and unbiased opinions, views and suggestions for living under the blanket idea of queer.
In addition, we had Ana Božičević. She was born in Croatia in 1977 and since then has earned numerous awards and recognitions for her work. This includes an award from the Feminist Press called “40 Under 40 – The Future of Feminism,” and is also a two time Lambda Literary award nominee in addition to receiving the PEN American Center/NYSCA grant for translating Snow on Fire by Zvonko Karanović. Trace Peterson, I will concisely recognize solely as the co-editor of “Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics” (Nightboat Books). This anthology is the first of its kind to showcase transpoetry as it was referred to throughout the night. Peterson has also authored the poetry book “Since I Moved In,” in addition to many chapbooks. Troubling the Line is currently a finalist for a Lambda Literary award. Saeed Jones was our fifth participant. Jones is the author of the chapbook When The Only Light Is Fire, published by Sibling Rivalry Press and coming September 2014 published by Coffee House Press is his first full length work, Prelude To Bruise.
Lonely Christopoher began the Q &A with this: How do you define queerness?
For simplicities sake and to cram in a lot of text, I will simply appropriate the notes I have and leave out attributing quotes to any one party. We heard it is an idea that cannot be defined, yet should be described. One should describe one’s interests for it is only then that we would be able to connect with others, and engage those who would share those interests with us. An undefinable identity that includes all parts – queerness is the place (an idea or other) where the individual feels like they are able to be all of themselves, rather than gender, usurping race or class or any of the combination of those power sturggles. “Queer” is an inclusive term. All folks can claim it. As Frederico Garcia Lorca sought to capture the duende of a poem, it seemed to me that queerness could be likened to the duende. Either you have it or you don’t and it will make itself known and visible to those whom are aware or seek to be so. It was determined that class, race, orientation and identity are included under one term. This being said, that makes minority, feminist, and inequality a huge bulk of the queer idea. Somehow it seems appropriate to say that these issues are all equally sitting on the bottom rung of the ladder, they are all interconnected. They are all attributed to varying inequalities, and often contribute to various types of discrimination and oppression.
The complexities grow out of this first question. What is then brought up are the faux created lived experiences of gay individuals that are projected through mass media and public culture. These experiences that are crafted and used to normalize homosexuality are inadequate. They are limited to the typical formula that is crafted and enacted throughout popular culture, having very little actual content to lived experiences of LGBTQ individuals. And yet it is at this crossroad, where the expectations of our experiences are crafted (mostly) through outside perspectives and used as labels to define us. Sometimes those labels are helpful in the assertion of one’s own identity, but when used by outsiders to classify and make sense, they are oft incorrect, biased, or lack any real knowledge to the lived experince of the individual. It is peculiar that these ideas are not recognized as fiction – but in this situation, to have any kind of visibility is a blessing but also a curse. In terms of visibility, it is still incredibly frustrating that mainstream ideals fall along the lines of heteronormative culture. The expectations of all people tend to be similar depending on the crowd one is with, but fail miserably to speak for all of us as individuals.
I feel it is very important to tell our stories. Firstly that our realities are documented, and upon that foundation one can attract others who share similar experiences. I remember just ten years ago when I came out, the resources available to me were primarily gay materials, or heterosexual materials. One can use one’s imagination and replace pronouns or plug in correct alterations to the text, but now it is so much nicer to delineate specifically queer lesbian materials, or butch culture, or femme butch dynamics (speaking personally for myself). But what is the most important is to fuel and feed that gray area, bulk it up from the starved quiet animal it is and make it lean. It is necessary to defy the gender binary. It is imperative because those of us that push and pull on all of the strings need a place to rest, a place to speak and mostly an audience to hear us explicitly as we are.
As the conversation heated up it suddenly was time to wind down. Several members of the crowd spoke up and one term that was introduced was called, “lesbian erasure.” This is apparently the aftermath of queer trumping all other identities of an individual. Queer is an idea that is inclusive and meant to harbor a place of us that are of the third gender, a combination of the two, a transition or any other various combinations and representations. It was asked how we are supposed to form community when the culture is being appropriated, inclusive to all and shifting constantly. Well that is complex, but in utopia could be simple. Perhaps people could stop policing gender, or realize that the constructs associated with various identities are inadequate. We could remember that the exterior of a person in no way attributes to their private acts that occur in the bedroom. That one’s preferred sexual attraction should be revealed by the individual themselves, rather than being a game, a contest, or trivia to box everyone into the language barrier boxes that are a byproduct of society and its relationship to language. It is only my hope that with this dialogue, these lived experiences and the radical identity shifts of any individual can someday be viewed as a shape-shifting norm that exist on their own.