Artist's Reception, "Living in Limbo: Lesbian Families in the Deep South Exhibit", Andrew Campbell, Abbe Land, Lara Embry, Carolyn Sherer, Ann Huckstep, Carol Misner, 2013/06/01
[caption: Carolyn Sherer’s Living in Limbo: Lesbian Families in the Deep South Exhibit on Display through July 10, 2013 West Hollywood Library 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard]
[caption: Andrew Campbell, WeHo Cultural Affairs Administrator]
Campbell: I would like to present the honorable Abbe Land, Mayor of West Hollywood.
[applause]
[caption: Abbe Land, Mayor of West Hollywood]
Land: Thank you! So can people hear? Okay, because I’m a little louder than Andrew I’m afraid to say. Anyway, on behalf of the city council, I really want to welcome all of you to our One City One Pride and this event really kicks off a month–a month plus of activities. But what a way to kick it off here in our beautiful library with “Living in Limbo.” We couldn't have asked for a better, better way to kick it off. Give them a hand.
[applause]
And, I’m standing here representing my colleagues Mayor Pro Tem John D'amico, council members; John Heilman, Jeff Prang, and John Duran, we are all so excited to be able to be hosting this incredible exhibition. A couple of days ago we had a press conference, and we got to hear a lot about the exhibition. And, tonight you will be really privileged to hear from the photographer, Carolyn Sherer, and some of the families who are here today from Alabama and they will tell some of their stories. And, we actually as a city have some proclamations, but I guess we were so busy with One City One Pride we didn’t get them all done. Just know that from Ann and Carol you’ll be getting yours, and for Sylvia and Maria and Luchita, you’ll be getting yours. It will be a memento to remember us after this wonderful weekend.
But I want to tell you that Living in Limbo was first presented at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which really when you think about it, what a great, great testament to that Institute that they were willing to put on this incredible exhibition. Because honestly, here in West Hollywood, it’s great, but this is the kind of the thing that we do all the time [laughter] and so it was really amazing that Birmingham did it and it was amazing how the city came together and the people came together and, we’ll hear a little bit more about that from Carolyn. But this is the first exhibit out of Birmingham and really what I love is that it’s not only in West Hollywood, a city that celebrates our diversity, and honestly it’s all about that. We all get to show up being who we are and so embracing of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community, but it’s in a library. And the public space that’s all about knowledge and knowledge is the power that we have to make change, so I’m so glad that we have this incredible exhibit. And I hope as you walk around you just don’t rush through it.
I was here a couple of Saturdays ago because it’s been up for a little bit longer and I got to spend some time in front of each of the pictures, and so you feel the family, you feel the love, you feel the bravery, you feel the defiance. And I want to tell you for many of the people that are in these pictures, I mean, this was and is, the most courageous and brave thing because it’s Alabama. It’s the Deep South, it’s a place where people who show up as they are can get fired. They can lose their jobs, they can lose their houses, it’s not like West Hollywood. And so, I just have so much respect and admiration for Carolyn, for your vision, for the women and the families that posed. It’s really something and it’s something you really need to understand because we’re in a little gay bubble here, and we have to understand it’s a bubble that’s popped in many many places. So again, I thank you all. I want to acknowledge Andrew and Michael from our Arts and Cultural Affairs Department.
And it's my pleasure to bring up a woman who actually hails from Alabama and has been active in civil rights and human rights for a long time. She’s been involved in Equality California and coincidentally she just joined the board of the Trevor Project, which is an organization that I run in my daytime job, and she is a woman who truly understands the challenges that many of these women in the pictures have understood as she came out and started her own family. I’m delighted to present Lara Embry to talk a little bit.
[caption: Lara Embry, Psychologist and Activist]
[applause]
Embry: I have to say for me, this is a tremendous honor. I grew up in Alabama. I used to say I escaped and went to college in Massachusetts and as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized how much I left behind. And, part of why I left it behind was because it was very hard to be a young, gay person in Alabama. Even though it's my home and it will always be my home, I didn’t really feel like I could really be at home there. And having left, and moved to other places, I realized the importance of that sense of home and frankly, Alabama is just a beautiful place. It’s got a bad rap in some respects, but I am thinking about what I wanted to say this evening. I have to say to Carolyn that I’m so appreciative that you did this project and that you are making Alabama a place where, through having done this project, where young people don’t have to leave their home to feel at home. And, what that will give the younger people growing up in Alabama as the slow tide of change does sweep across the southern states is a tremendous gift. So, you know, sometimes I feel like fighting for gay rights in West Hollywood or in California is kind of like fighting for extra ketchup on my burger.
[laughter]
It feels slightly gratuitous, even though I know it's not. But what you are doing and what the people who have appeared in these photographs are doing is fighting on the frontlines, and fighting with a very real danger of–as Abbe said, losing your job or your home, or your children, or your loved ones. And the gravity of the choice to come out in that situation has to be celebrated. So, I am honored to be a part of that celebration. I want to say thank you Carolyn as I introduce you, the photographer, the maker of all of these beautiful photographs. Thank you.
[caption: Carolyn Sherer, Photographer]
[applause]
Sherer: Thank you both for what you do to advocate for the LGBTQ community is amazing and you’re my role models. I really appreciate what you do and most of all I appreciate is your standing aside in solidarity today. I can't tell you what this means to all of us that came across the country to be here today. I'll tell you a little bit about the concept for the exhibit. The portraits represent forty families who are lesbians with Birmingham, Alabama roots. They were– the participants–they were allowed to choose whether they faced the camera or not, whether they touched or not, or what they wore. So they were given complete control. And I did photograph them in my studio to protect their privacy.
As I photographed them, I asked them to reflect on their relationships and consider three words that I delivered in series: “lesbian,” “pride,” and “prejudice.” The purpose of this exhibit was to put a face on a part of our community in Birmingham that had been previously invisible, and to honor the complexity of those relationships and the diversity. There was a specific incident that inspired me to do this work. A very dear friend was in the hospital dying of cancer and her partner was by her side. While she was in the hospital, her family changed the locks on their home and moved in. So when my friend died–she had to get the police to let her in to get a change of clothes to go to the funeral. So, it does get worse than that. At the funeral, we were talking to their heterosexual friends who really loved these women, but they said that they didn’t know that they were lesbian even through they had been living together for 20 years. And they didn’t know that gay people could be treated that way in Alabama. So, I really had an epiphany, and for me it was very important to start advocating for change in Birmingham.
So that’s how I got started with this, and then I had to figure out where we could hang it, who in the world in Alabama would let me take their picture. Second of all who would want it hanging on the wall, and third, what gallery or museum would allow me to put these pictures up? So, Birmingham was gearing up for the 50th civil rights anniversary celebration. The whole city was gearing up for it. And so for me, the proper place, the only place, was the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. I was told by friends that was crazy; they’ve never partnered with the LGBT community in the past, but I submitted my proposal and showed them some work and they looked at me and said, “You know, this is the right project and the right time, let’s do it.” Now, it's important to understand that this was in 2011, and we were talking photographs and getting the contract. And it was early 2012 when the show was hung, and so that was before President Obama and the NAACP stepped up and endorsed gay marriage. And before the national media was really dominating–there was so much coverage about people coming out, so as you can imagine it caused quite a stir in Birmingham, Alabama.
We had over 17,000 visitors to the exhibit. It was the largest opening reception that the Institute had ever had. So, we do, it’s true, we live in the most conservative state probably in the United States, but, I mean, there is Mississippi that’s true.
[laughter]
But what I will tell you, is that there’s not a single law or ordinance in Alabama that protects the civil rights of the LGBT community. It’s perfectly legal to discriminate against us. Women lose their children on a regular basis just because somebody said they’re a lesbian and there’s no law against that, no protection. So that’s kind of where we’re coming from, but we do want to be part of the national conversation about equality for everyone. So the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has chosen to host the travel of this exhibit as part of their mission to promote human and civil rights. We’re very pleased about that. Even more pleased that the first stop is the gayest city in the country.
[laughter]
We’re really happy about that and I have to acknowledge my friend, Dory. If you would, would you mind coming up here–
[Dory joins]
[applause]
Dory saw the exhibit catalogue and flew specifically to Birmingham to see the show on the wall and met with the officials at the Civil Rights Institute–and this is before they had decided to travel–and she said we want this to come, we want this to come to our town. So then she came back home and networked and made it happen and next thing I know, Michael and Andrew were working out the logistics and promoting the show and it’s just been amazing. Now Dory’s wife, Jane Stewart–where are you? I know you want to come up here. Jane did a lot of the graphic artwork for us, and she also supervised the installation. So it was a family affair and I really appreciate you both making this happen.
[applause]
I also want to thank Angela and I'm just going to slaughter your last name, I’ll just say Angela B. from the June Mazer Foundation for setting up an artist panel tomorrow here at 2 o'clock. I’m excited about that. And Orbitz for providing some assistance for travel. And most of all, I want to thank my participants that came all the way across the country to celebrate with us. I’d like to introduce them. Starting with my partner of thirty–how long have we been together–thirty four years; come up here.
[partner joins]
As I like to say, honey thank you for letting me out you on the morning news. Seriously, we have had a long conversation about whether you do this or not because Jeannie has a job in a very conservative environment. She’s the Associate Dean at a Dental School and we didn’t know what the consequences would be but it’s been fine. So it’s all been good, this seemed to be the right time for everything and things have been going well.
The next family I want to introduce, would you come on up Maria. Maria Calhoun who is an elementary school teacher. [applause] Sylvia Martin who is a professional photographer. [applause] I’ll call them my pioneers, because I’ll tell you that most of my friends absolutely did not participate in this. Even after we got the momentum, they just weren’t going there, mainly because of the risk of loss of livelihood. So Maria and Sylvia are my heroes because they have been living largely out for a long time. And just really just kind of taking the risk, so they were the first people that stepped up and said, “Yeah, I'll do it. You can take my picture, and yes, I’ll face the camera.”
[applause]
[caption: Maria Calhoun, School Teacher]
Calhoun: As we say in Alabama, “Hey.” Thank you for coming. Really, I’m deeply moved you would have our show here. I think we live our lives as you all do, you live your lives. Yes, we’re in Alabama, but I really am moved and thank you for inviting us to come out here and I want to thank Carolyn for giving a face to invisible families in Alabama. I’m a schoolteacher kind of out, kind of not, you know when you read your stories. And I have a daughter who will be going to public school next year, rock on, and my partner Sylvia, so yes on behalf of my family, thank you.
Carolyn Sherer: The last family that I photographed–if you all wouldn’t mind coming up–was Carol Misner in the beautiful yellow top. This is Carol Misner and she’s an accomplished artist and owns a gallery in Birmingham and her partner Ann Huckstep, who is a prominent attorney and businesswoman in the city. And what I have to say about them is not only did they step up and took the risk of loss of livelihood by being in the photograph and facing the camera, but they also took on the responsibility of being the presenting sponsors, raising a lot of money. Enough money to frame these photos, get them on the wall, have a first class reception, build crates so we could ship them around the country. So, and beyond that, there was social networking that went into it. I’m going to give Ann a few minutes to talk to you about that. But before that I’m going to introduce Carol’s daughter. Where is she? There she is.
[Carol’s daughter joins]
[applause]
She’s not in her photograph because she lives in West Lakewood but Carol’s son, Clint Humphrey, did live in Birmingham and he’s in their photograph which is on the wall over here. I’ll just turn it over to Ann. Thank you so much for everything.
[caption: Ann Huckstep, Attorney/Businesswoman (Left) and Carol Misner, Gallery Owner/Artist (Right)]
Huckstep: Thank you. I’ll be brief but there are just a couple of things that I was asked to cover and so I’d like to do that. When Carol and I got a little flyer, you might ask how did Carolyn get people to have their photographs made? How did she communicate and it was by word of mouth, because we are largely underground and so it’s by word of mouth. And there was a flyer that went out and and Carol and I got that flyer and we said how nice and we put it in the garbage can. And so, we began talking with some of our friends about it and we have a lot of friends who are gay, lesbian and we found out that none of them were going to have their photographs made. None of them would be willing to face the camera or even have their back to the camera, “They will know who I am from my back.” And the reasoning was because of the potential loss of economic gain or opportunity, and the potential loss of social opportunity. Because most of the people were talking about are professional people and they assumed that no one would say anything to their face necessarily. It was not really about that. It was about that their contacts would dry up. And their business would dry up and so Carol and I began talking about that and said, “You know, we have to do something. We have to have our photograph made. And so we did, we called Carolyn and asked her if she would reopen. She had finished at that time. We asked if she would reopen and take our photograph and she did. And we were very excited about that. But as I began thinking about it, and Carol and I began talking about it and we began talking with Carolyn, we realized there were some other things that could come out of this exhibit, besides what she’s already told you about, which is to put a face on lesbian families in Birmingham. Because if that went on the wall and people came to the exhibit, they would–we hoped that they would see that these individuals looked just like everybody else. That these are families and how wonderful that would be. It occurred to me that something more could happen and the more that could happen is this. What if our business community got behind this and endorsed it? What if the gay and lesbian community then saw that that had happened? Would they be more willing to come out and participate in activities in our city? Because you know what, because I know you’ve found this in West Hollywood. That the more diverse you are, the more you embrace your diversity, the stronger you are as a community, and that diversity is not just gay and lesbians and straight people, its people of every color, of every religion, it's the rich, the poor, the old, the young. And so if everyone has a place at the table then doesn’t that make for a stronger community? So what we did is that we began talking–I began talking with community leaders and business leaders. I said “You know I want you to support this, not just your company to make a contribution, but you personally, to make you and your wife and your husband make a contribution to this, because your name on the wall. And that a lot of those names on the wall over there, your name on the wall will make a difference. It will stand out as a powerful statement to the gay and lesbian community that it’s okay to be who you are. You don’t realize your own sphere of influence, your personal sphere of influence, but it’s pretty big and it would really help us if you would do this and so you know what, they did. A lot of them did, they did that.
And the second thing–and it has had that impact–and the second thing that I told Carolyn that I thought was–that this could do–is that we were entering the period were in right now in 2013–this is the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham that we’re celebrating right now. The Freedom Riders were in 1961, but there were three significant events that occurred in 1963, which we are now celebrating. One is–the first was in April, which was the letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King, in which he outlined the cause, his vision for the cause, and the justification for the cause. The second was in May, we’ve just celebrated this month, what you saw, what the world saw, the hoses and the dogs being brought out on the African American population in the march to downtown. And, then I’ll come back to that in a second. But the third one then in September, was the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and the four African American girls who were killed.
Well, it occurred to me that we’re celebrating that and we have potential to be a part of the national conversation as a result of that. Because who cares that Birmingham, Alabama is putting on the walls, pictures of lesbians? How is that going to get in the news? How can we be part of the national conversation? But the story could go like this–Guess what? In Birmingham, Alabama they’ve got lesbians on the walls of the Civil Rights center– [applause] 50 years ago, this is the same place where 50 years ago they were turning the hoses and the dogs loose on a group of people who were also invisible at that time. Wonder what’s happened in the last 50 years? And maybe that is the way that we could be a part of the national conversation. What you may not know about the march and the hoses and the dogs, is that it was a four-block march. They were marching from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to the downtown area which is four blocks. They never made it farther than a block. It was a children’s march. There were a thousand children; they were all children. It was not adults, it was children. And so, what occurred to us is that we could be a part of the national conversation that way and guess what we were. Washington Post, all the national publications put that story in the news. And as Carolyn said, it was before a lot of the things that occured in the last year or so, and I’m not saying that we made that happen, but I'm just saying–
[laughter]
So this is what it illustrates to me, it illustrates the power and influence that one person can have. And this year we’re celebrating as we celebrate the children’s march–we had a three day symposium in which we had children there and talk to them about the power of one. Tiananmen Square, who can forget the power of one? Arab Spring, when we collaborate and we bring our power of one, our influence of one together, it becomes an exponential power.
The power of one, as Carolyn shared, if she did not have this vision, this would not have occurred. That’s what happens when one person takes their vision out. So I hope that when–as you look at these photographs that you will certainly see the courage of these individuals who had their photographs made, but I hope also that you will see the power of one and the power we have collaboratively when we come together to make change. So thank you for coming, thank you for hosting this exhibit.
[applause]
[caption: Michael Che, One City One Pride Coordinator]
Che: I just want to thank Carolyn again for allowing West Hollywood to be the first City to host this wonderful exhibit outside of Birmingham, Alabama.
[END OF VIDEO]
Carolyn Sherer's photography book, "Living in Limbo: Lesbian Families in the Deep South", portrays the "invisible families" living in Birmingham, Alabama. It documents the lives of lesbian led families who are living undercover in bible belt states, like Alabama, where LGBT people are severely stigmatized and local and state government do not provide or recognize legal protection for LGBT people. This exhibit first went on display at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in 2012.
This reception is recorded on May 31st, held at the library where the exhibit is on display thru July 10, 2013. West Hollywood Mayor, Abbe Land welcomes Carolyn. Additional speakers include Lara Embry and Ann Huckstep.
http://www.LivinginLimbo.org
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: http://www.BCRI.org
City of West Hollywood: http://weho.org
Interviewee: Andrew Campbell
Interviewee: Abbe Land
Interviewee: Lara Embry
Interviewee: Carolyn Sherer
Interviewee: Maria Calhoun
Interviewee: Ann Huckstep
Interviewer: None
Transcriber: Elena H.
Transcriber: Mikhail Z.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date: May 31, 2013
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Location: West Hollywood Public Library in West Hollywood, California
Interview Length: 00:27:05