Duke University Press Log

Making a Splash at Figure Skating's Adult Nationals

This week US Figure Skating's Adult National Championships take place outside Chicago. In her new book Red Nails, Black Skates: Gender, Cash, and Pleasure On and Off the Ice, Erica Rand describes how she came to be a competitive figure skater in her mid-forties. As Rand writes, "adult" in the world of figure skating does not refer to sexual content, but rather "to people skating after an age when they might reasonbly expect to become the next Brian Boitano or Peggy Fleming." Rand attended several Adult Nationals both as a competitor and as an observer of the rules, gender conventions, fashions, and behind-the-scenes friendships. Here's an excerpt from her chapter on how she challenged some of those conventions at the 2009 competition:

"I made a little splash at the 2009 Adult Nationals. It wasn’t for skilled skating. Besides competing in the lowest freestyle level at an, I botched most of my spins and jumps. Instead, I stood out for violating the unwritten rules of music, dress, and gender presentation for women. My music, harder edged than most, came from the Pink Floyd song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” as well as an instrumental version of Nine Inch Nails’s “Closer,” which is better known by its primary lyric 'I want to fuck you like an animal,' although people familiar with the song might not have placed my excerpt. Unlike my competitors’ costumes, which involved skating dresses and skin- colored tights, my costume featured black leggings under a short, pleated black skirt from Hot Topic that had silver- colored studs and chains. Besides accenting the music with a bit of mainstreamed bondage fashion, the metallic elements provided the requisite skating- costume sparkle ordinarily met by jewel- like stones. My hair, instead of the common bun or ponytail in natural, or natural looking, hair color, had red chunks dyed into a relatively short bluish black.
  I hadn’t considered the costume or music to be so outrageous; neither had my coach. So I was surprised when people sought me out later to praise my refreshing deviation from the norm. 'We don’t think the judges liked it,' someone tracked me down in the parking lot to say, 'but we did.'"(page 117)

For a chance to win an advance review copy of Rand's book, leave a comment here or on our Facebook page about why you love or hate (or love to hate) figure skating. We'll notify the two winners later this week.

 

 

 

GL/Q Caucus Awards

On January 7, 2012, the GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association met to announce its annual award recipients.  Congratulations to the winners!

 

THE MICHAEL LYNCH SERVICE AWARD

The Michael Lynch service award goes to Luz-Maria Umpierre.  In addition to her impressive scholarly record, which includes seven collections of bilingual poetry, two books of literary criticism, and more than forty scholarly articles, Professor Umpierre has been a tireless advocate for the rights and aspirations of marginalized people, including those with AIDS, the homeless, battered women, disabled children, and members of the GLBT community both on and off campus.

THE CROMPTON-NOLL AWARD

The recipient of the 2011 Crompton-Noll Award is Mun-Hou Lo, for his essay "Backs Unbroken: Ang Lee, Forbearance, and the Closet." The essay appears in the collection The Brokeback Book: From Story to Cultural Phenomenon, ed. William R. Handley (U of Nebraska Press, 2011).

The award committee admired Lo's nuanced distinction between repression and forbearance - especially as the author contextualized the latter in Lee's film oeuvre and in the Chinese language.

THE ALAN BRAY MEMORIAL BOOK AWARD.

The winner of this year’s Alan Bray Memorial Book Award is Darieck Scott’s Extravagant Abjection: Blackness, Power, and Sexuality in the African American Literary Imagination (New York University Press, 2010).

An elegantly written and thoroughly researched study, Extravagant Abjection helps push queer studies in exciting and imperatively new directions.


Thanks to the award committees for their work and especially, the committee chairs: Scarlett Bowen, Ricky Rodriguez, and Kenneth Kidd.

Jimmy Creech Returns to Omaha

It's National Coming Out Day and Jimmy Creech returns to Omaha today to speak at an interfaith rally to support gay, lesbian, and transgender rights. In 1999, Creech's 29-year career as a minister in the United Methodist Church ended in Omaha when, following a UMC trial, a jury of pastors found him guilty of performing same-sex marriages and removed his credentials in the Church. The Omaha World-Leader reports that Creech's return to the city is creating some controversy among Methodists. But Creech, no stranger to controversy, is not backing down. He'll speak at 7 p.m. on the lawn of First United Methodist, 70th and Cass Streets. He will also be signing copies of his recent memoir, Adam's Gift. Since leaving the Methodist Church, Creech has been a passionate advocate for the rights of LGBT people, particularly their right to marry. He and his wife, Chris Weedy, recently started a Facebook campaign against the proposed amendment to the North Carolina constition that would ban same-sex unions. Creech has several other events in Nebraska, which you can see on his Facebook page.

GL/Q Caucus Annual Awards

The GL/Q Caucus of the MLA invites nominations for each of our three annual awards:

 THE MICHAEL LYNCH SERVICE AWARD

This award serves not only to honor a GLBT academic activist every year, but also, in Eve Sedgwick's words, "to publicize and celebrate—and as widely as possible—the range, the forms, the energy, and the history of queer activism by academics." Michael Lynch wanted to honor those whose activism is academic in context but not limited to work for the Caucus or Division. This activism might consist of activities including (but not limited to) direct service to, or administrative advocacy on behalf of, LGBTQ students; action that results in non-discrimination clauses in contracts; working to establish domestic partner benefits, awareness of transgender issues in housing and health services, or other LGBT-friendly campus policies; facilitating connections between campus and LGBT community activists; or other forms of campus, public, or media activism. Lynch also wanted the award to offer a way that, in Eve Sedgwick's words, "the achievements and struggles of each of the generations of lesbian/gay scholars who are currently active could become more visible to the others."

 Nominations for this award, including a summary of the nominee’s qualifications, may be submitted to Committee Chair Scarlet Bowen at Scarlet.Bowen@Colorado.EDU no later than November 1, 2011.

 THE ALAN BRAY MEMORIAL BOOK AWARD

Named in honor of a scholar whose two landmark books have been profoundly influential in gay and lesbian studies, the Bray Award will be given to the best book in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer studies in literature and cultural studies, all broadly construed.

Eligibility: all books must bear a 2010 copyright date.

Deadline: all books must be received by November 1, 2011.

 To nominate your own book, contact your editor and have him or her email Committee Chair Richard T. Rodriguez at rtrodrig@illinois.edu

To nominate someone else's book, contact the author with this info (or, if necessary, email the nomination to Richard T. Rodriguez).  Direct contact from an editor is preferred.

 THE CROMPTON-NOLL AWARD

The Crompton-Noll Award for best essay in lesbian, gay, queer studies in the modern languages/literatures pays tribute to Louis Crompton, who passed away in 2009, and Dolores Noll (Kent State University), two early scholar/activists who helped found the gay and lesbian caucus of the MLA. The award recognizes the important work of lesbian, gay, and queer studies in the modern languages and the history that has helped make this current work possible.

 Essays published between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 may be submitted by email attachment to Committee Chair Kenneth B. Kidd at kbkidd@ufl.edu no later than November 1, 2011.

 Winners will be announced at the GL/Q Caucus cash bar during the MLA Convention in Seattle.

 

Three Podcasts for Your Weekend Listening Pleasure

Heading out for a bike ride, a car trip, or just cleaning your house this weekend? We offer you three great podcasts with our authors to accompany whatever you might be doing.

First, check out EddyFest 2011, a three part interview with famed music writer Chuck Eddy on RockCritics.com. Eight rock critics interview Eddy about his new book Rock And Roll Always Forgets: A Quarter Century of Music Criticism.

Then, turn your attention to film with this interview with Robert J. Corber on New Books in Pop Culture. Corber is the author of Homosexuality in Cold War America and In the Name of National Security. In his latest book, Cold War Femme, Corber reads Hollywood films of the 1950s and 1960s demonstrate how Cold War homophobia focused on the femme as the lesbian who posed the greatest threat to the nation.

Finally, look at where law and music intersect: in the realm of copyright. In a podcast interview for New Books in Law, Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola, co-authors of Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, talk the about legal and the cultural implications of digital sampling in the music industry and how hiphop has changed as copyright law enforcement has become stricter.

After you listen, we hope you'll decide you want to learn more by reading the books!

Gay Marriage: Continue the Fight for Equal Rights, Says Creech

Congratulations to the thousands of gay couples getting married in New York this week! We loved this series of beautiful portraits of the couples in the New York Times. But it's important to remember that gay couples in most states are still not allowed to marry, and that clergy continue to be condemned when they perform same-sex marriages. Jimmy Creech was an early crusader for the rights of same-sex couples and lost his credentials in the Methodist Church over the issue. He recounts this story in his recent book Adam's Gift. In this interview with Gay.com, he explains that the Bible does not condem homosexuality. People had no understanding of sexual orientation at the time the Bible was written, he says, and the book condemns specific acts that might apply to heterosexuals as well. Creech is optimistic about the future of gay marriage, saying, "mainline Christian communities will fully embrace the LGBT community with equal standing and participation in the near future. Christian communities actually have come a long way toward this goal in a relatively short time." Creech adds that we all have a responsibility to fight bigotry: "those of us who are straight must challenge anti-gay bigotry and malice whenever we encounter it and challenge elected officials who perpetuate persecution. An unjust world belongs to all of us, and all of us have an obligation to end the injustice."

Upcoming Author Events in the Triangle

On Friday, July 8th from noon-1:30pm (free, no ticket required, BYO lunch) stop by Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC for "Lunch with the Author: Jimmy Creech, former United Methodist minister discusses his memoir Adam’s Gift."  

Note: Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lunch or call Foster's Market next door and they'll make up a boxed lunch for you. Call in advance or the day of event: 919-967-4383.

 

On Saturday, July 16th at 2pm (open to the public) stop by Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, NC. Author Jimmy Creech will lead a discussion (book club format) of his book, Adam's Gift: A Memoir of a Pastor's Calling to Defy the Church's Persecution of Lesbians and Gays. How often do you have the author (and subject) of a book lead your club meeting?

 

On Sunday, July 17th from 3-4:30pm stop by the Durham County Library in Durham, NC for "Meet the Author: Karla Holloway." Dr. Karla FC Holloway, James B. Duke professor of English at Duke University, will read from her book, Private Bodies, Public Text: Race, Gender and a Cultural Bioethics. A book signing will follow the reading.

 

Gay Marriage Stays in the News

As New York state legislators are debating legalizing same-sex marriage in their state, the issue makes news in other venues, too. The New York Times reported this weekend that President Obama's views on the issue are "evolving." He plans to host a Gay Pride reception at the White House later this month and has been raising money in the gay community. But Jimmy Creech, author of Adam's Gift and a former Methodist minister who lost his credentials for performing same-sex marriages, recalls meeting with Obama's staff when he was a senator. Creech expected Obama to be sympathetic to gay marriage. "But he said the conversation turned frosty when same-sex marriage came up. 'We talked about this as an expression of bigotry, using religion to justify discrimination,' Mr. Creech said. 'They did not like that; the word 'bigotry' was inflammatory to them."

Just as President Obama's views are evolving, the Associated Press reports that "a growing number of pastors in the United Methodist Church say they're no longer willing to obey a church rule that prohibits them from officiating at same-sex marriages, despite the potential threat of being disciplined or dismissed from the church." Jimmy Creech plans to attend the trial of Reverend Amy DeLong in Wisconsin this week. She faces the loss of her credentials for admitting to being in a lesbian relationship herself and for marrying a lesbian couple. While the outcome of the trial is far from certain, clearly the Methodist church has come a long way since Creech's own trial. The AP reports that "hundreds of pastors from states including Illinois, Minnesota and New York have signed statements in recent weeks asserting their willingness to defy the rule."

And in one last sign of changing times, ministers of various denominations in Omaha, Nebraska, where Jimmy Creech was pastor when he was tried by the United Methodist Church in 1999, unveiled a proclamation callling for an end to religious and civil discrimination based on sexual orientation. KETV reports, "Rev. Eric Elnes, pastor of Countryside Community Church, said the proclamation was created because, 'we were just fed up with the popular notion that the Christian point of view is anti-gay.'" Creech will be preaching in Omaha in October.

In his book, Creech describes the struggle against discriminiation in the church and in society as ongoing. He is ever hopeful that progress is being made. "What gives hope its power is the confidence that whatever the present situation is, it is not final. Injstice and evil are temporary, not eternal. The future is always open to change and new realities (p. 336)." Clearly change has come since Creech's 1999 trial, thanks in no small part to activists like him.

Presbyterians Allow Gay Ordination

Yesterday, after 33 years of debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to allow openly gay and lesbian people to become ordained as ministers. They join several other mainline Protestant churches, including the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church, in allowing the ordination of gay people. Jimmy Creech, a former Methodist minister, and author of Adam's Gift, is pleased by the decision, saying, "Yesterday’s vote by the Minnesota Presbytery of Presbyterian Church, USA is major step forward for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender person in mainline Protestant churches.  I’m especially happy that three of the five presbyteries in North Carolina voted for inclusion, with only one voting against.  The fifth presbytery, which has voted for inclusion in past years, will vote this weekend.  The movement to end the church’s persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is progressing!" Creech's ordination credentials were revoked by The United Methodist Church after he performed same-gender commitment ceremonies. His book is a memoir about how he came to suport the right of gay people to marry and what happened when he fought the church. The Methodist Church continues to forbid gay and lesbian people from becoming ordained and from marrying. They will vote again on the issue at their General Conference next year, but as for the outcome of the vote, Creech says simply, "I anticipate no change." Read Adam's Gift to learn about the history of the fight for gay and lesbian recognition and rights within faith communities. It is an eye-opening and inspiring read.

Book Launch Party for Jimmy Creech

On Sunday, April 17, Le Roy King and Elliot Engel hosted a lovely garden party to launch Jimmy Creech's new book, Adam's Gift: A Memoir of a Pastor’s Calling to Defy the Church’s Persecution of Lesbians and Gays. Many thanks to them and to all who attended to celebrate Jimmy!

 

Jimmy Creech and his wife, Chris Weedy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hosts LeRoy King and Elliot Engel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duke University Press Associate Editor Miriam Angress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former Executive Editor Reynolds Smith (in beige jacket), who retired from Duke Press in 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duke Press Sales Manager Michael McCullough (seated) sells books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Cake!