The Woodberry Poetry Room invites you to join us for a celebration of the radical Boston-based collective, Fag Rag (1971-1987), 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 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.
 

We welcome you to contact us with any questions about this event. We can be reached by email at poetryrm@fas.harvard.edu or via phone at (617) 495-2454. Persons with disabilities who would like to request accommodations or have questions about physical access may contact Houghton Library's Administrative Coordinator Le Huong Huynh by email or at 617-495-2443 in advance of the reading.

IMAGE: Photograph of John Wieners and Charley Shively, Fag Rag, Issue No. 44 (circa 1987).