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From the Interview Archives: Robin Tyler, Activist, Author, Comedian
Editor’s Note: One of the best things about putting out lgbtSr for nearly five years is the archives! From interviews, to podcasts, to columns, the library is full. I’ll be treating you to some of the best from the vault. Following is an interview with Robin Tyler from January, 2012. Enjoy! – MarkBy Mark McNease
Robin Tyler has been an LGBT activist for many years and it was a real treat to have the opportunity to ask her some questions. It was Robin who called for the first National March on Washington in 1979, as well as the fourth, and who served as the stage producer for the first three. She’s been honored as the first comic to come out on stage and in her comedy career, opening the doors for many to follow.
Robin is currently producing a comedy documentary about her life called “Always A Bridesmaid, Never A Groom” (which was the name of her first solo comedy album), and (yes, there’s more) she operates Robin Tyler International Tours and Cruises. Amidst all her activities she still found time for the following interview.
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6 Questions for Author, Publisher and Talk Show Host Liz McMullen
Liz McMullen I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Liz McMullen, whose newest publication, Through the Hourglass – Lesbian Historical Romance: A Lizzie’s Bedtime Stories Anthology has just come out and gathers together some of the best writers you’ll find, as well as voices that may be new to you.
Liz is an author, publisher and talk show host. You can find her shows on YouTube and her website: www.thelizmcmullenshow.com. Her debut novel, If I Die Before I Wake, was a Rainbow Award Finalist. She co-authored Finding Home, a paranormal novel where the foster kids have magical gifts. Liz’s first romance novel, Unspoken, will be out in spring of 2016. Below you’ll find Liz’s answers to a ‘6 Questions’ interview, where you’ll read more about Liz, her projects and her passions.
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6 Questions for Author and Columnist Dave Hughes
Dave Hughes I met Dave Hughes in the vast meeting place of the internet sometime last year and have been reading his columns at RetireFabulously.com ever since. A new column in the email inbox means more great information from the perspective of someone who’s been there and done that – in this case, designed and lived his retirement, discovering both the expected and the unanticipated along the way.
Dave’s new book, Design Your Dream Retirement: How to Envision, Plan For, and Enjoy the Best Retirement Possible, just came out. I’ve read it and can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone who is living their renaissance or planning to. There’s so much we don’t know about the realities of retirement, both exciting and challenging, and Dave is an expert at providing that information in easy-to-understand language, with concrete examples that can help you form and design your own dream retirement.Following are ‘6 Questions’ Dave found time to answer. Enjoy them, and be sure to check out his book, for yourself or as a gift for a friend or loved one. It’s invaluable.
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6 Questions for Author and Storyteller David Hardy
I recently posted about the story collection BOLD, which is launching in just a few days on November 27. A treasure trove of personal stories and experiences revealing the lives of older LGBTI people, the book presents its subjects with intimacy, poignancy and vibrancy. We are alive, it says, and we matter.
“More than 50 older LGBTI people share their stories and images – of first love and family, of struggle and defiance and resistance and pride. They include prominent activists including Bob Brown, Sally Goldner and the Hon. Michael Kirby. Many of the stories are by ordinary and extraordinary people who may be Indigenous, born overseas, or live in cities or small towns across Australia, New Zealand, UK, US and Ireland.”
I had the opportunity to interview the book’s creator, story collector and driving force, David Hardy, for this ‘6 Questions’ feature. His extensive answers follow. You can also learn more about David and the Associate Editor for the book, Elizabeth Whiley, at the end of the interview.
MM: David, thanks for taking the time to answer ‘6 Questions.’ Let’s start with your background, which is extensive. You’re a storyteller, singer and performer in Brisbane’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, Doctorate of Philosophy in Indigenous Knowledges, and an ex-Diplomat. What does it mean to have a Doctorate of Philosophy in Indigenous Knowledges?
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One Thing or Another: The Exuberance Principle
By Mark McNease
Here’s a challenge: Try to recall the experiences you had as a child exploring a world that was constantly presenting you with new sights, sounds, tastes, places and people. Then try to re-experience that excitement, that sense that you have never been in this moment before and if you don’t live it right this instant you’ll never have that chance again. It’s very difficult. Our lives’ accumulations of responsibilities, disappointments, obligations, and sheer repetitive behaviors make that long-ago feeling of wonder as hard to reclaim as youth itself. Life can seem, after thousands of days matched by nights that bridge them one to the next, anything but exciting. Unless …
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One Thing or Another: The Joys of Being a (Almost) Halloween Baby
By Mark McNeaseOctober has always been my favorite month. It’s the month when autumn really makes itself felt, especially if you live where the seasons are discernible. (It recently went from air conditioner weather at the tail end of a relentlessly hot summer, to a sudden and unexpected freeze with a 30-degree drop). It’s flu season, which is always good for a sick day or two spent lying on the couch taking over-the-counter cold remedies that do nothing to stop you from feeling like you’re dying. Honey, is the healthcare directive in place? You’re sure you’ve still got your copy? And, How about the will? Can I change it by tomorrow? My sister forgot my birthday, I’m not sure she deserves the belt buckles.
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Senior Pride Initiative’s Troy Johnson Joins the Live Mic Podcast
Later this month, October 23 & 24, Senior Pride Initiative will be hosting its 2015 conference in Lexington, Kentucky. With the goal of improving the lives of LGBTQ people by raising and addressing issues related to aging, Senior Pride Initiative’s Growing Older Growing Bolder conference offers a full agenda of speakers, music, a screening of the film Gen Silent, and special guests. You can see more details HERE and register HERE. In the meantime, listen as I chat with Director Troy Johnson about the organization’s history, mission and its aims for our communities. -
One Thing or Another: From The Wheelchair’s Perspective
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.By Mark McNease
Some days just feel longer than others. They seem to deliberately stretch out an extra few hours so we’ll have more time to dwell on all our dissatisfactions, insecurities and complaints. And it doesn’t help to think that each day is irreplaceable, that the box of days I’d been given when I first screamed my way into the world in some delivery room in Mississippi is now about three-quarters empty. Why would the urgency of lives spent in a flicker reach my consciousness when I was busy ruminating on all the things that bothered me?
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One Thing or Another: The Vision Thing
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.By Mark McNease
One thing you can say about aging is that it offers something for everyone. If your knees aren’t buckling yet, you might have stiffness in various joints; if your joints aren’t betraying you after decades of an intimate relationship, it might take you twice as long to get out of bed in the morning as it did way back in your 40s. Between the added weight most of us take on like an unwanted passenger and the silent creaking of bones that would rather stay on the mattress another twenty minutes, rising and shining can sound like the command of a drill sergeant.
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One Thing or Another: The O-Word
It’s always One Thing or Another … a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.By Mark McNease
The late George Carlin once lamented in his stand-up routine that no one gets old anymore. We’re all just “older.” It’s one of those word games we play with ourselves, masking, and in some cases burying, truths we find inconvenient or unpleasant. After all, we can be older indefinitely; getting and being old has the sound of finality, or at least of an end approaching faster than we’d anticipated.
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One Thing or Another: Laughing Matters
One Thing or Another is a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNease
What’s funny can be very subjective, unique to each of us as we find some things to be laughing matters and quite a few others not to be. But how often do we stop and think about our sense of humor itself, and what it does for us? Laughing lets off steam, certainly. It releases tension—most clearly in nervous laughter. He didn’t kill me after all! Ha! Or, I was just kidding when I said you were a narcissistic prick! Don’t fire me! Ha! It provides communion. It even distorts faces and occasionally sends us into paroxysms of uncontrolled guffaws. But have you ever considered that it saves lives?
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6 Questions for Author Michael Graves
Michael Graves By Mark McNease
I recently had the pleasure of asking author Michael Graves ‘6 Questions.’ Michael is the author of Dirty One, a collection of short stories that was both a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and an American Library Association Honoree. His new novel, Parade, is set for release by Chelsea Station Editions October 1. Described as “a tour-de-force, comic tale of religion and government,” the book tells the story of Reggie Lauderdale in the midst of his crisis of faith. His cousin, Elmer Mott, dreams of becoming their hometown mayor. Both boys are doing their best to be adults in suburbia, but have yet to learn to be fully themselves.
Read on for Michael’s answers, some advance praise for Parade, and stay tuned – he’ll be a guest soon on the Live Mic Podcast in early October.
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One Thing or Another: I Was Telling Me Just the Other Day …
One Thing or Another is a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
By Mark McNease
It’s been a little alarming to observe myself in conversation with me more openly and regularly these days. What I’d once considered a trait of people who meander sidewalks aimlessly or decline to take medication, I now see as a sign I’m either not quite right, or I’ve lost the ability to keep my inner dialogue private—just between the two of me, so to speak.
