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The Gayest Generation Ep. 6 - Annie Wolock
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ Elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. It is time we let their voices fill the room.
In this episode, we hear from Ann Arbor's own Annie Wolock. We learn what is was like growing up Jewish in Detroit, Ann Arbor's forgotten Disco scene, and we remember Michigan Womyn's Music Festivals. Due to adult language, listener discretion is advised.
AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!
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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for March 2021: Martin interviews Reuben Jonathan Miller, author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration.
Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of twenty million people who live with a felony record.
Reuben Miller, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. What his work revealed is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison. The idea that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledge member of society is one of America’s most nefarious myths. Recently released individuals are faced with jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast.
Halfway Home shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate, and that parole is structured to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they’ve paid their debt to society.
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 5 - Carol E. Anderson
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ Elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. It is time we let their voices fill the room.
In this episode, we get to know Ann Arbor's own Carol E. Anderson. You will hear about her experiences growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist home, what it was like to live in Ann Arbor during the freewheeling 70's , and how to make your relationship last. Due to adult situations and language, viewer discretion is advised. This is the Gayest Generation.
We want to give a special thank you to Carol for speaking with us. Be sure to check out her memoir, "You Can't Buy Love Like That: Growing Up Gay in the Sixties."
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 4 - Maxi Chanel
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ Elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. It is time we let their voices fill the room.
In this episode, we get to know Washtenaw County drag legend Maxi Chanel. We’ll hear about her experiences growing up in Nigeria, what it was like to be a part of Ann Arbor’s soon-to-be-forgotten gay club scene, and the purpose of drag, which is all the more important during these grim times. Due to adult situations and language, viewer discretion is advised. This is the Gayest Generation.
We want to give a special shout out to Maxi Chanel and the Boylesque drag troupe. To keep up with their events, be sure to follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/boylesque.michigan.
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 3 - Bob Enszer and Rick Farrand
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ Elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. It is time we let their voices fill the room.
In this episode, we sit down with Bob Enszer and Rick Farrand. We’ll hear about what it is like to be a closeted parent raising a lesbian child, the magic of falling in love later in life, and how small town communities came together to support those suffering with HIV/AIDS. Due to adult situations and language, viewer discretion is advised. This is the Gayest Generation.
Special thanks to Bob and Rick, as well as everyone who makes The Gayest Generation a reality.
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 2 - Randy Hasso
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ Elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. It is time we let their voices fill the room.
In this episode, we speak with Randy Hasso. He shares his experiences in Tunisia as a member of the Peace Corps, growing up on a pickle farm, and what it was like to care for AIDS patients in small town America during a time where even the President wouldn’t say the word AIDS publicly. Due to adult language and situations, viewer discretion is advised. This is the Gayest Generation.
This episode features the following music:
Prospects by Chris Juergenson
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 1 - Pat Buerkel
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where hear LGBTQ elders speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Stories—their stories—make noise where silence has lived for far too long. What if who we call The Greatest Generation, also happens to be the gayest?
In this episode, we speak with Pat Buerkel. She shares her experiences working on the line at GM in the 70’s, her lifelong friendship with a transgender trailblazer, and crossing “going to jail” off her bucket list. Viewer discretion, due to adult language and situations, is advised. This is The Gayest Generation.
This episode features the following music:
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Exploring the Mind | That's the Power of Love: Compassion, Love and Transformation in Urban America
Join Professor Jacqueline S. Mattis of the University of Michigan's Department of Psychology for a presentation on her research into the transformative power of everyday encounters with love and human goodness, including the impact of altruism, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, and optimism among urban-residing African American people.
The words "urban" and "inner city" typically conjure up images of densely populated neighborhoods, crime, mean streets, isolation, and human struggle. Popular media plays on these representations. Missing from this familiar story are the everyday stories of goodness that occur in cities. This presentation draws on interviews with people who live in urban areas, including highly under-resourced urban areas, to explore how the human capacity for love, forgiveness and compassion emerges in everyday life in urban America.
Jacqueline S. Mattis, Ph.D., focuses her research on the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of African American and Afri-Caribbean youth and adults, and on the factors that are associated with positive psychological development of urban residing African Americans and Afri-Caribbeans.
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Legacies Project Oral History: Chuck Warpehoski
Chuck Warpehoski was born in 1978 and graduated from Grinnell College with a BA in sociology. He worked in Washington D.C. for the Nicaragua Network and Latin America Solidarity Coalition before moving to Ann Arbor in 2003. He directed the Ann Arbor nonprofit organization Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) for sixteen years, focusing on issues such as nuclear disarmament and affordable housing. He also served on the Ann Arbor City Council from 2012 to 2018. He and his wife Nancy Shore have two children.
Chuck Warpehoski was interviewed by students from Skyline High School in Ann Arbor in 2015 as part of the Legacies Project.
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Legacies Project Oral History: Titus McClary
Titus W. McClary was born in 1937 and spent his childhood in Georgetown, South Carolina. After moving to Detroit, he attended Highland Park High School and worked at his uncle’s North End restaurant. During his time in the army in the early 1960s, he picketed a segregated theater and restaurant in Killeen, Texas. In 1965 he became the third Black police officer in Highland Park. McClary ran the juvenile division and helped found a Black officers’ organization. He served as mayor of Highland Park and remained a city council member until he passed away in 2017.
Titus McClary was interviewed in partnership with the Museum of African American History of Detroit and Y Arts Detroit in 2010 as part of the Legacies Project.