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.org. Sorid, welcome back! Yes, welcome back
to this week's episode of the Inspired Insights
podcast. And we have guests. I love having guests.
I'm going to let you both introduce yourself
and then we'll learn more about what we want
to talk about. We're going to start? Yeah. I
am Sam White. My pronouns are she, her. I'm a
medical case manager for people living with HIV
and AIDS in the northernmost, the northernmost
counties in Maine. And I'm also one of the lead
organizers for Bangor Pride. Yeah. And thanks
for doing what you do, both in your work life
and in your volunteer. My name is Emma. I work,
do accounts receivable. So not the most exciting
job, but outside. Important. Important. Important
nonetheless. But outside of work, I've been helping
with Pride. We have the art committee and the
history committee. Hard to keep track. But, yeah,
besides that, just, yeah, that's about it. Yeah.
Thank you for doing what you do. Thank you. So
we'll get to your inspired insights because I
know you came really prepared. I'm going to start
inspired insight this time. Yeah, I'm trying
to remember what we planned for. Chris, it's
all you. It's all me. So my inspired insight
has nothing to do with Prague, or maybe it does.
We'll see how the conversation goes. But I was
thinking about language. And I was thinking about,
partly because of your mom, I was thinking about
how in other languages, they have words that
summarize entire concepts that we might not have
in the English language. And the example was
the word... And I might not be saying that right,
but it's Swedish, and it means just right. Not
too hot, not too cold, not too hard, not too
soft, just right. It's a word that I don't think
we have an equivalent for in the English language.
And I just think that's kind of cool and beautiful
that these other languages have developed that
take entire concepts that take us 14 words to
describe, and they just do it in one. Six letter
word. And yet we still have those same experiences
that they're attempting to articulate. Right.
Which really attaches to my inspired insight
that I was interested in sharing. And that inspired
insight is simply how universal art is. I think
we as moderns tend to view art and eras of it
as very time period distinct. However, I think
the emotions that art attempts to articulate
are extremely universal. And what has sort of
put this at the top of mind for me is recently
reading Shakespeare. I've had the opportunity
to read As You Like It in class for my AP Lit
class. And at first, I thought of it as highly
derivative, as Shakespeare draws most of his
tropes from Greek New Comedy, a field of playwriting
that I... think myself quite familiar with, like
writers such as Menander and such. And then obviously
you have Roman writers. But as I've started to
read more Shakespeare, I have sort of gained
greater appreciation for it rather than viewing
it as derivative, which broadly it is. I view
it as a more intentional pursuit of these universal
human concepts, right? I think all art is attempting
to articulate feelings, thoughts, conflicts that
we all have internally. We are all the same specimen,
broadly speaking. And all art is trying to do
is articulate some of or rather show some of
these sort of idiosyncrasies of the human species.
I've never read. Period. I know. I've never read.
Was it As You Like It? Yeah. I've never read
As You Like It. What are the what would you say
are the universal themes? I think in As You Like
It, we see a really big conflict between rationality
and human emotion. That being sort of the conflict
between making a responsible decision in love
and the brutish, raw emotion inspired by love.
And I think that's a very universal human concept,
this sort of battle that we have internally between
our pathos and logos. Oh, you lost me again.
They'll owe it to you. And you lost me again.
Pathos being our more, like, emotional side and
Lobos being our highly logical side. Okay, yeah.
And I sort of see this development of this idea
of, like, the Aristotelian ethic. That being
that virtue lies in between two conflicting vices,
yet exists on a continuum, right? Like, in the
play As You Like It, The forest and the court
are strongly contrasted as the court is highly
superficial and the forest is very raw. However,
sort of the rawness and brutishness of the forest
is vilified on one end and the highly superficial
hierarchy of the court is vilified on the other.
And we see Shakespeare attempt to sort of weave
together a idea of virtue that exists in between
those two conflicting ideals. I think it's really
beautiful that I can read classical works and
then see the exact same ideas be articulated
by works of the 1500s and modern works today.
So it is something that I find really exciting
about the humanities, although I don't intend
to pursue them. It is something that I like spending
my time on. And it will always be a passion of
yours, whether you get a grade for it or not.
Indeed. I love that. Thanks, Soren. And Emma,
Sam, you are going to share an inspired insight
with us. Yes. Sure. I think that off of what
Soren said, especially throughout time, I think
historically we're kind of history project inspired.
Part of it is all of the elder LGBTQ people that
we've met and all their stories really do. they
cross space and time and and it doesn't matter
you know where you are in country or in the world
or time you know it's this kind of this connection
of love um that we see and i think it's important
to to preserve that story because if we don't
they're they're going to secure yeah so we're
just being spirited i'll scoop one they live
to know guys yeah anything you want to add to
that emma did a great job add on it um Working
with a bunch of elder queers, I get to hear their
stories, and it's more ogus on the 80s and 90s
and the pandemic that the younger generation
were over it. I was younger in the pandemic,
too, so it's inspiring to hear their stories.
In your work world. Yeah, in my work world. Yeah,
so in the context of meeting clients, it is inspiring
you to... Do something with those. Their stories.
Their stories, yeah. I have a question. Do you
guys feel that stories are valuable because of
their social utility and their teaching aspect
or inherently valuable as they are part of sort
of the human experience, right? That's a good
question. I think both. I think both. Yeah, I
think both as well. Is there a ratio that you
would assign? Or, like, why do you guys value
these stories in particular? And why have you
guys taken it onto yourself to elevate these
stories? I know that, personally, going through,
you know, trying to figure out who you are and
growing up and everything like that, I think
that there's value in the universality of it.
I know that, personally. I actually, when I grew
up, I personally was an elder. So I was the youngest
by like 50 years. By then all and we play games
and it's great. But it's sort of hearing all
their stories and sort of hearing, you know,
like they went through their first marriage and,
you know, figure out who they were until after
or whatever. Sort of makes you feel a little
more human and that life isn't perfect. There
are errors, but there are errors. There are misjudgments
that actually help you find the right path. And
I think that there's there's value in that as.
wow, I can identify with that, but then I think
there's also value in it as like, wow, I'm a
person who did this and I'm able to share this
with someone. Yeah. I think when we first chatted
about your project and thinking about Pride and
how this project kind of ties in to Pride, because
I know you're actively recruiting folks who might
be interested in sharing their stories as part
of this project. Can you talk a little bit about
how you plan on collecting? What are your thoughts
on how you're going to gather those stories?
I just want to hear from you what your plans
are. So we're doing basically how people want
to share. So we've reached out to you both where
you're more familiar with collecting audio of
videos that people are comfortable with that.
Some people might have photos to share or just
prefer to write down their showery. We're letting
people do anonymous shows. Yeah. And now that
you've seen how the sausage gets made, are you
regretting absolutely reaching out? Now that
the high -tech studio... The minute we chatted,
I was like, yep, this is important. And Sorin
and I talk about these different generational
perspectives and how much has changed, but also
how much has stayed the same. That's a theme
that keeps coming up over and over again. And
just recognizing that there's so much power in
the sharing of that story, both... As the teller
of the story, maybe there's some healing or some
just coming to terms with some pieces of our
stories that that process can bring about. And
they're being open to learning from it. And so
there's the validation that might come up in
other folks who can resonate with the pieces
of the story that maybe for the storyteller brought
some pain. But for the listener, it might bring
some healing or some growth opportunity. Yeah,
absolutely. I think that's a really important
way to learn. I mean, just culturally, I think
that we've spoken word and learning from each
other's histories has always been something that
we've done. And I think that it can get muddled,
potentially, especially how we're hearing stories
and whether they're true or not. So I think that
getting out from the sources of people who have
lived these experiences is really, really important.
Yeah. And what I... know now, and Sorin and I
talk about current events all the time, is it
feels like there is such an intentional, coordinated
effort to erase members of our community, members
of our country, our planet, our world. And so
I think the word preserving is a really important
word that you used in describing a project that
By preserving stories, you're really allowing
those voices to carry on in spite of all these
attempts to silence that are happening. And for
me, that's beautiful and so essential that we
provide people an opportunity to be heard and
make sure that those voices, regardless of what's
happening around us, stay. in the conversation
yes uh for our listeners how are you guys going
to be distributing uh these stories uh and this
is sort of a separate question but do you guys
have any uh particular anecdotes in your quest
to collect uh queer history um that were particularly
striking to you um so i don't know if we have
like an official plan yet to share it we're gonna
hopefully have stuff on our website I know that
we're also potentially maybe going to be collaborating
with some other groups who have been collecting
stories already, especially Southern Name and
then Seacoast in Hampshire has also been doing
some stuff as well, which we're already collaborating
some stuff with the Charlie Howard Vigil that
we're going to be doing. And I think that looking
at it, I don't know, I get excited. I get excited
thinking about it on a grand scale because like
thinking years from now, like what if we could
do like a whole New England collective? Weird
history. And I just, I think that's so... That's
really inspiring to me to think about. So we
might not know the exact platform yet. But I
do know that we've had some interest already.
I know that Jim, with the Gay Men's Chorus, he
has some memorabilia and some stories that he
wants to share. So we're trying to figure out,
you know, maybe we can house that at some point
or have the historical societies figure that
out. But just sort of all over preserving the
history, whether it be, you know, stories, the
actual, you know, buttons or anything like that.
Yeah. And I love the multimedia approach to it.
Like it might be audit. audio it might be written
it might be poetry it might be um art like soren
was chatting about too like i just i love that
you are providing a venue for people to share
that piece of themselves um in any way that feels
authentic for them yeah and how important that
is and you've started the process right you've
started collecting some stories yeah so i love
soren's question about Obviously, without naming
names or giving too much away, what are some
of the themes you're picking up on already? So
somebody reached out. They have a bunch of photos
of old protests and stuff. We do have to get
permission to use them because of the owner.
I'm hoping some of my clients will be fine sharing
their stories because when I first started, I
wanted to actually get to know them. And one
of them told me his address book had to start
keeping it at pencil because he was going to
so many funerals a week. Oh, wow. And some of
you believe in race. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That would
have been like the early to mid 80s. He wasn't
diagnosed until the early 90s. Yeah. Yeah. And,
you know, I. You mentioned permission and obviously
consent is a giant aspect here. And knowing you
both, you're having those conversations with
people and people know what they're kind of getting
into. And there's choice, right? There's the
ability to participate or not. And maybe it's
never going to be done. But when it feels done
-ish for the two of you. What comes next? Like,
what is your thought around? And maybe it's never
going to be done. Probably volume two. I tend
to like thinking of it as like this sort of like
living documentary, ongoing, ongoing thing that
I think, yeah, just growing. Like I said, like
maybe not even just Maine or New England or whatever.
Maybe it becomes a big, giant historical collective
that we might be able to preserve somehow. Yeah.
Pressure's on now. Yo, Maurice. But you've already
mentioned a couple groups that are actively doing
this work in northern New England. And I have
to believe there are efforts going on across
the country that maybe as our listeners are tapping
into this particular episode, like if folks have
suggestions or ideas to reach out to us and share
information. I know for me. Growing up and I'm
trying to like think about what ages that would
have been probably my early 20 ish as I was coming
in to terms with all of this stuff. One of my
go to sources of validation and comfort maybe
was anthologies of whether they were writers
or just average folks telling their story. And
one of the books that stands out to me that is,
I have had it for decades now, was a book called
Queer 13. And it was writers writing stories
about them being 13 and just how awkward and
painful and exciting and exhilarating. Being
13 is for any human. And then you add this dimension
of sexual orientation or gender identity or a
feeling of a lack of gender and what that adds
to that 13 -year -old experience. And for me,
it was so powerful to read words of other folks
who maybe knew a little bit of what I was feeling.
Yeah. I feel like we as humans understand the
world through narratives. We understand the world
through stories and interpersonal dynamics. And
I think what's really powerful about what you
guys are trying to do regarding history is you
are approaching queer history not as a concise
narrative in which there were like broad, large
plot points and like looking at it more microscopically
rather than macroscopically. And I think that's
an extremely, as Chris said, extremely impactful
tool for like social agitation and convincing
individuals to stand up for others is utilizing
empathy. And the stories of individuals can utilize
empathy so much more than a bunch of aggregated
statistics. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, it's powerful.
Like, I just keep coming back to that word of
power. There's power in community. There's power
in feeling of belonging. There's power in knowing
you're not the only one. And I think also it
cannot be underscored enough that in the times
we're living in, that it is essential. to remember
that there is a human behind every one of these
stories. There's a human there. And I know the
four of us around this table believe in the value
of every human, their life as every human. And
maybe three of us around the table of ours. But
there's value in every human. And we cannot forget
that with everything happening around us, every
story matters. every story matters in this tapestry
of humanity that we're all kind of some of us
are more threaded through it than others but
we're all upon this giant tapestry right and
and giving people voice in a world that's trying
to silence that voice is giant yeah it's giant
Regarding the modern circumstances, which we
found ourselves in, do you guys think that some
of your motivation to start this project was
reactionary? That's a great question. For me,
no. I think it was a little bit of both. I definitely
think it's been something that I've been interested
in doing for a long time, but I think my efforts
have been increased in everything with the community.
As reactionary, yeah. So I don't think it's necessarily
the preserving of the stories because I think
that's overall important. But I do think that,
yeah, trying to be more involved with the community
and just as much support as possible. Yeah, that's
true. I've heard that Pride has been a lot more
out there the previous years. But the History
Project itself is my reaction. You've been thinking
about this project for a while, it sounds like.
Yeah. Yeah, and you've been working professionally
with older folks for a while in the queer community.
Yeah, for me, the word that comes up.