#  ORAL HISTORY INITIATIVE: On the Fag Rag Collective - with WGS Professor Michael Bronski 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 14, 2024** 

 06:00PM - 06:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Carpenter Center**  



 

 



 

 See WGS Professor Michael Bronski in the [Woodberry Poetry Room](https://library.harvard.edu/libraries/poetryroom?_gl=1*1xnefc4*_ga*MTY0ODU3MDU2Ni4xNzA2MTIzNDU1*_ga_3CXC97RWEK*MTcyOTc3OTExOS4xLjEuMTcyOTc3OTExOS42MC4wLjA.) for a celebration of the radical Boston-based collective, [Fag Rag (1971-1987)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fag_Rag), and the inimitable constellation of poets, writers, activists, anarchists, and thinkers--including founding members **Charley Shively** and **John Mitzel** and such contributors as **John Wieners, Allen Ginsberg,** **Hakim Bey, Neeli Cherkovski, Gore Vidal,** and **Steve Abbott**--that galvanized around Fag Rag and its provocative vortex.

 As the first post-Stonewall gay national gay male political/ literary journal, *Fag Rag* helped profoundly shape debates about sexuality for decades to come and helped launch the careers of many important poets and writers.

 Moderated by curator and writer **Raymond Foye**, the oral history conversation will include vivid first-hand accounts from early *Fag Rag* contributors (**Michael Bronski and Aaron Shurin**), as well as in-depth insights from **Jim Dunn** (poet and friend of Shively and Wieners) and UK scholar **David Grundy** (author of *Never By Itself Alone: Queer Poetry, Queer Communities in Boston and the Bay Area*). "Fag Rag, according to Michael Bronski, 'conceptualized a new way to be gay'—feminist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist and intent on challenging conventional understandings of family, private property, and the State," thus spake Grundy.  
  
The event will also include **a brief video by John Mulrooney** (commissioned for the occasion), featuring rare archival images, footage, and recordings. And, as with all of our [Oral History Initiative](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDtBhamUEttGEeWJtTSSGm1cKpHeT3TTG) events, our finale will offer the opportunity for audience members to contribute their own Fag Rag/Good Gay Poets stories. Come one, come all.

 **In-Person Attendance:**  Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts,  
Lower Level, 24 Quincy Street. *Free and open to the public.*

 **Online Attendance:** Livestreaming available via the [WPR YouTube Channel.](https://www.youtube.com/WoodberryPoetryRoom)



 

 



 

 

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