DIRELAND ARTICLES

BELARUS QUEERS SPEAK OUT DESPITE KGB PRESSURES

The following is being posted simultaneously today by DIRELAND, UK GAY NEWS, and GAY RUSSIA, at the initiative of Andy Harley, editor of UK Gay News. It is hoped that some attention will be paid to the plight of courageous queers in Belarus:

Belarusian Gay Activist: “If Everyone Sits at Home Will Things Ever Change?”

An Interview With Sergey Yenin (photo right)

MINSK, April 20, 2011 (GayRussia/UK Gay News)  –  Fighting for democracy is a real challenge in Belarus, to say the least.  Fighting especially for gay rights is even more difficult.  In a country where homophobia is widespread, LGBT activists hardly get any support to their cause.  Despite the risk it creates for their safety, they still believe that if being visible is a risk, it is also the only chance to change things.

Last year, the first Gay Pride to be held in Minsk was marred with violence from the police and 11 participants were arrested.

In January, a group of activists formed IDAHO Belarus, a local branch of the French-based LGBT NGO.  A month later, they scored their first success with the organisation of the first ‘gay-labelled’ rally sanctioned in Minsk.

Hazard, or change of attitude?

The group is still struggling to get their organisation registered by the government – and some of its members have been pressured to spy for the notorious KGB, the local secret service.

In less than a month, they still plan to hold the first Equality Festival which will include a March to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17.

The co-chair of IDAHO Belarus, Sergey Yenin – a young Belarusian activist  who was ‘sacked’ from his university over political activism and arrested at last year’s Minsk Slavic Pride rally, answers our questions.

Only one month after you formed IDAHO Belarus, the City Hall authorised your first rally for gay rights while all previous attempts were banned.  Can you tell us more about it?

Sergey Yenin: It’s true that it’s the first ever picket for gay rights to be authorised in Minsk.  But we submitted dozens of applications before this one was authorised.  Honestly, we still do not really know why they authorised this one and not the others.  We were positively surprised.  The picket was dedicated to Valentine’s Day and therefore took place on February 14.  The City Executive Committee allowed it, but they put some limitations.

We were not allowed to use rainbow flags and instead we prepared posters against homophobia.  But we could live with that.  For us, it was very symbolical to have this public action authorised.  We were even protected by the police.

We showed that it is possible to have such actions conducted in our capital.  There was no problem.  It did not last long because the temperature was very low.  The thermometer showed minus 20C!  We were completely frozen – but so happy!

But despite the big hopes that this rally created, you are still facing troubles to get your organization registered.  Why?

Firstly you must know that there are no LGBT organisations registered in Belarus and this is why we are trying to get IDAHO Belarus officially registered.  Secondly, you also need to know that according to our laws, activists of non-registered organizations can be prosecuted.  All the different LGBT groups which have been operating in the last years did so illegally. The government is not interested in registering those organisations which fight for the rights of minorities and demand equal rights.  By not registering us, they keep a way to pressure us.  Also, the process of registering was made especially complicated and bureaucratic.

We’ve been trying to register since January and all the time we try to apply, there is a new difficulty.  For example, twice in a row, the agreement we had to rent our office was called off at the last minute – as if the landlord was pressured by someone.  And without a judicial redress, there is no registration possible.  But we are not giving up and I hope we will get it at the end.  We are registering as a local branch of the French IDAHO Committee.

Most recently, your members have triggered the interest of the KGB?  Are you pressured to stop your activities?  Are they spying you?

One of our outstanding activists, Varvara Krasutskaya, was pressured by KGB.  They identified her as she was beaten and arrested while taking part to a peaceful public action against the falsified result of the Presidential election on December 19.  The authorities used the same trick against her than they did with me in the past.  The Dean of her University told her that she would not be expelled from the University but she will not be given any diploma.  They often do that because they know that if they sack you officially from the University, it is often easier to go and study abroad.  But if you are not sacked, it is much more difficult to prove your case.  Later, she was contacted by KGB to cooperate with them.  They even offered her a contract and a salary!  Her job would be to collect as much as possible information on the activities of our organization and our activists.  Of course, she denied.

In this context, is it safe to continue your activities?

We are not going to surrender.  If everyone sits at home, will things ever change in this country?  On our side, everything is going according to our plans.  KGB interference always existed.  We know that they listen to our home phones and mobiles.  We know that they follow our internet traffic.  And we know that when we want to organise some actions we are being followed.  This is something we have to live with – and we need to adapt.

For example, recently, we launched our new website.  We use a server based outside Belarus and we purchased several extensions (.org, .com, .net, .info, .eu) which are beyond the control of the Belarusian government.  They cannot shut down our site and cannot cancel our domain names.  We also do not discuss important matters by phone, but via other different means.

Last year’s Slavic Gay Pride in Minsk was banned and met with police violence.  What do you expect this year?

A year ago, we were all part of the Slavic Gay Pride.  The rally was banned by the city authorities and 11 of us were arrested.  I was beaten and insulted during the two days I spent in custody.  Ultimately, seven of us were sentenced to pay a fine.  It could really have been worse but we were ready.

We knew what we were doing and this is why there were not so many of us in the streets.  It was a much tensed situation, really hard to manage but we got a lot of support from Moscow and St Petersburg Gay Pride organisers, who were already experienced in this kind of action.

Next month, we plan to commemorate the first anniversary of what we call our ‘Stonewall’ by organising an ‘Equality Festival’.  Our aim is to get all the discriminated social groups together – and to march together, thus, exercising our right to freedom of assembly.

The festival will last several days and include events in the area of culture, education and human rights.  We truly hope that the festival will be authorised by the authorities, as no country has a right to be called “democratic” until it fulfils all the aspects of human rights – and the right to freedom of expression is one of them.

The Equality March will be the main action of the whole festival.  Human rights are a problem today in Belarus and it’s even more difficult for discriminated groups such as LGBT, religious minorities, HIV+ and others.  Achieving equality can only be obtained if you are visible.  You have to show yourself, explain, convince.  It does not work immediately though, and we have to go through all these issues of opposition but I believe that on the long term this is the only strategy.  We could also sit at home and discuss homophobia in our closet but that would not help advance equal rights.

Still, are you not scared to go in the streets again if the march is banned?

The activists of IDAHO Belarus are determined.  Most of us took part to the first Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow in 2009, but also in Prides in Moscow and St Petersburg last.  They were arrested in Moscow and in Minsk for exercising their right to freedom of assembly.

Read more from IDAHO Belarus on the organisation’s Website available in English, Russia, Polish and Belarusian: [ www.idahobelarus.org –url on “Website”]

SEE ALSO

Brave Gay Activists Stage Pride March in Minsk but Were Met By Violent Police Action.  Belarus had its first Gay Pride March this afternoon.  But after some 200 metres, it was broken up by the riot police, with twelve participants arrested after scenes of reported police violence.  (UK Gay News, May 15, 2010)

No Restriction on Private Gay Events, Belarus MPs Tell French Parliamentarians.  By Teo Valenti in Paris.  MPs from Belarus have told their French counterparts that the decision to ban the Baltic Gay Pride parade in Minsk tomorrow was taken by the city authorities.  (UK Gay News, May 14, 2010)

Arrested, Beaten, Threatened, Jailed and Sent for Trial Just for Taking Part in Slavic Gay Pride.  By Sergey Yenin.  This is an account of the most dramatic 48 hours in my life as a gay activist in Belarus.  There were four of us in the taxi.  Myself, Logan (an Australian filmmaker), Jack (his boyfriend) and Chad (a photographer working on a project Walk with Pride).  I couldn’t help shivering in anticipation of the upcoming Pride march and the possible extreme few hours that I would probably face.  But I couldn’t let my friends worry as well.  The taxi driver noticed that something was really wrong with the place he had to drop us off.  (UK Gay News, May 19, 2010)

Gays and Lesbians Given Permission to Stage First-Ever Sanctioned Rally in Belarus.  City authorities in Minsk have given gay activists clearance to stage a rally against homophobia in the Belarusian capital on Monday.  Previously Belarus authorities have always banned public events by LGBT community, which sees this permission as a “first” in the country.  (UK Gay News, February 12, 2011)

No Incidents as Gays, Lesbians Staged First-Ever Authorised Rally in Minsk.  There were no reported incidents at the officially-approved rally against homophobia staged in the Belarus capital today.  A dozen LGBT activists took part in the rally in a park close to the Ministry of Justice, one of the locations that were approved last Friday by both the Minsk City Executive Committee and the police.  (UK Gay News, February 14, 2011)

Journey With a Movie Camera Through ‘Gay’ Eastern Europe.  By Logan Mucha.  I’m gay, have a boyfriend and live in a country where a lot of LGBT people my age consider defending their rights secondary to going out and picking up.  It’s these sentiments that drove me to begin developing East Bloc Love, which has turned into something bigger than I ever imagined.  (UK Gay News, March 17, 2011)

 

 

Malawi Gay Couple at Center of World Outcry Split--Homophobic Outrages in Ghana and Zimbabwe

I wrote the following report for Gay City News:

In most of Africa, where 36 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality, being gay and out is fraught with danger. This was underscored when the news broke on June 7 that a Malawi gay couple who had been imprisoned under a 14-year sentence for holding a marriage ceremony, then released after an international outcry, had split up under homophobic pressure and threats of re-arrest.

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20 (left), had been arrested in December in the commercial hub of Bantyre after having conducted a symbolic marriage. Homosexuality is illegal in Malawi, a landlocked southeastern African country known as Nyasaland when it was a British colony, during which time a sodomy law had criminalized same-sex conduct.

The couple had spent five months in prison under brutal conditions, deprived of adequate food and medication. But less than two weeks after their release following their pardon by Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika, the couple announced their separation.

“I am no longer in love with Tiwonge Chimbalanga,” Monjeza told Agence France Presse. “I am in love with a woman called Dorothy Gulo. We are planning something for the future with Dorothy.” He added that he had “learnt my lesson from my prison experience and I don’t want to do anything with homosexuality.”

According to the pro-government newspaper Daily Nation, “Mr Monjeza said he was no longer interested to be associated in what he called ‘gay trash,’ accusing ‘hidden hands’ of engineering their marriage. He could not mention the names behind their engagement. He said on the day of their engagement, he was drunk and he could not know what was going on, claiming that he was offered to be taken outside the country as a token for the engagement.”

But Chimbalanga gave a completely different version of the wedding and the breakup. He told AFP, “What you should know is that nobody forced him when we did our symbolic wedding in December.”

Chimbalanga said Monjeza, who lives in Kameza village — six miles outside Bantyre — had been “pressurized by his uncle” and relatives to leave him and instead seek a woman as a lover.

The uncle, Khuliwa Dennis Monjeza, said, “I will make sure that Chimbalanga does not seek a reunion with Monjeza,” adding that same-sex marriage was “alien and unheard of in our culture” and that his family had warned Chimbalanga “not to set foot in the village... They threatened they would deal with him.”

Britain’s best known gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell, leader of the militant gay rights group OutRage!, who played a leading role in the campaign to free the couple, confirmed Chimbalanga’s account.

“I was in communication with Steven and Tiwonge for over four months, via prison visitors who I arranged to deliver them food, medicine, shoes, and clothes,” said Tatchell. “In messages passed to me by the prison visitors, the couple affirmed their love. I believe it was genuine affection and commitment.” (“Prison visitors” is a term used in the UK and its former colonies for individuals empowered by the government to look in on prisoners, whether or not they are allowed to see their family and friends.)

Tatchell, who has been involved with human rights in Malawi since he visited the country in the late 1970s to launch a campaign against inhumane exploitation on British plantations there, added, “It is a tragedy that homophobic threats and abuse have forced this couple apart. They were deeply in love. The pressure has got to Steven. Very understandably, he wants a quiet, safe life. This would not be possible if he remained with Tiwonge. Both would be at risk of violent attack. Some people have threatened to kill them. I respect their decision to split. It is up to them.”

The extreme 14-year prison sentence meted out to the two men provoked an international outcry from human rights groups and from donor countries to aid-dependent Malawi, including statements by European political leaders and President Barack Obama.

Weeks after the sentencing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “The United States strongly condemns the conviction and harsh sentencing. The criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity is unconscionable, and this case mars the human rights record of Malawi. We urge Malawi and all countries to stop using sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for arrest, detention, or execution.”

President Mutharika eventually pardoned Chimbalanga and Monjeza following a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who personally appealed for their release. But after doing so, Mutharika declared, “These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion, and our laws,” and said he had issued the pardon on “humanitarian grounds only, but that doesn’t mean I support” homosexuality.

In a June 2 interview with Agence France Presse during a Franco-African summit meeting in Nice, Mutharika acknowledged he had issued the pardon only because of concern about preserving international aid for his country. “I am looking at our donors now... what they will say about the pardon,” the Malawian president said. “Is it possible to stop aid to Malawi because of two people who are insane?”

Malawi’s minister of gender and children, Patricia Kaliati, was quick to point out that the pardon related only to the specific charges for which Monjeza and Chimbalanga had originally been sent to jail. She was quoted on the BBC website saying: “It doesn’t mean that now they are free people, [that] they can keep doing whatever you keep doing.” She warned that the couple could be arrested again if they “continue doing that.”

Britain’s Tatchell, now in his fourth decade as a human rights activist, said after the couple’s breakup, “I feel sorry for these star-crossed lovers. Like Romeo and Juliet, their love has been destroyed by prejudice and hatred.”

“Tiwonge and Steven never set out to be political,” Tatchell emphasized. “Their engagement ceremony was not staged. No one was coerced and no one pressured them to do it. They did it solely out of love for each other. It was their idea. They did it themselves, without outside help. There was no payment to anyone involved. No one has gained financially from this case.”

Tatchell argued that while there was no political premeditation in the couple’s marriage, the fallout has created enormous progress.

“Malawian and international human rights groups had no contact with the couple prior to their arrest,” he said. “We did not encourage them. The only role of human rights organizations was to support them after they were arrested and jailed… Whatever their feelings for each other now, Steven and Tiwonge have done more for gay and transgender rights in Malawi than anyone else. I salute them. They are lions of Africa. They have helped continue the unfinished African liberation struggle by pursuing freedom for gay, bisexual, and transgender Africans. Thanks to them, same-sex love is now visible in Malawi. There has been a huge public debate. This awareness and discussion is positive. It has helped break down homophobic ignorance and prejudice.”

Reflecting the fact that official government homophobia is a relic of the nation’s colonial past, Tatchell explained, “Not all Malawian people are anti-gay. Many are just curious, some believe in live-and-let live, and others support the couple’s right to love. Steven and Tiwonge harmed no one. They defended the right to love. In the long run, all Malawian lesbian and gay people will benefit from the trail they have blazed.”

Even as the Malawian situation has grabbed most of the attention, other parts of Africa are suffering through yet another wave of public homophobia.

In Ghana on June 4, the country saw its first-ever anti-gay march when more than 1,000 demonstrators braved a downpour to express their condemnation of recent reports of gay and lesbian parties in the oil city of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.

In reporting the demonstration, AfricaNews said that it was organized by “the Muslim community in Takoradi with support from other religious groups and concerned citizens... The leader of the demonstrators, Saeed Hamid, told AfricaNews that the demonstration was meant to draw government’s attention to the conduct of the gays and lesbians in the country, particularly in the Western Region.”

Hamid was quoted saying, “How would you feel, if someone puts his penis into your anus?” and claiming that most of those involved “have health problems and wear Pampers.” AfricaNews reported that Western Regional Minister Paul Evans Aidoo promised protesters that the government would “address their concerns.”

On June 7, a member of Ghana’s Council of State, the Reverend Dr. Nii Amo Darko, warned that “Ghanaians will incur the wrath of God if homosexuality is not checked.” In an interview with radio station Luv FM, the minister “expressed surprise at how gay clubs are springing up in the country, and said the situation calls for immediate government attention to curb it.”

In Zimbabwe, a trial was set to begin on June 10 for two gay activists arrested in a May 21 police raid on the headquarters of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ). In the raid, the police arrested a GALZ staff member, Ellen Chadenama, and a visitor to the offices, Ignatius Mhambi, charging them with possession of “dangerous drugs” and “pornographic material.” The authorities also confiscated educational material. On May 27, the Magistrate Court in Harare granted bail to Chadenama and Mhambi after they spent six days in detention.

According to The Zimbabwean, a daily newspaper, “The police returned to the GALZ offices on May 23 and tried to force their way into the office but the guard did not have keys. They later went to the house of the acting GALZ director Chesterfield Samba on May 26 and confiscated his birth certificate as well as magazines, books, and business cards.”

The two defendants facing trial now also face charges of “undermining authority of or insulting [the] president” because the GALZ office displayed a placard making a critical reference to Robert Mugabe, the nation’s octogenarian dictator who has ruled for three decades. Mugabe is a notorious homophobe who has said lesbians and gays are “sexual perverts” and “lower than dogs and pigs.”

“We don’t believe they have any rights at all,” the president has said of gay men and lesbians. Speaking at a ceremony marking International Women’s Day earlier this year, Mugabe said, “Those who engage in homosexual behavior are just crazy.”

Unfortunately, the two sides in that nation’s currently dormant but long-running civil strife have been engaged in something of a homophobic slinging match in recent months. Accused by Mugabe’s Zanu PF Partyof wanting to insert gay rights provisions into the new constitution being drafted under a power-sharing agreement between the president and the MDC Party’s Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister, the MDC responded with a denial, then added, “It is well-known that homosexuality is practiced in Zanu PF, where senior officials from that party have been jailed while others are under police probe on allegations of sodomy. It is in Zanu PF where homosexuality is a religion.”

Five human rights organizations — the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch, Arc International , JASS-Just Associates, and Protection International — have in the past several weeks called on the UN to investigate the raid on GALZ, the arrest of its activists, and charges that they had been tortured while in custody.

The groups’ release said the raid was “politically motivated” and that “other GALZ staff members, including some who were out of Zimbabwe at the time of the arrests, are afraid to return home or to the GALZ office, and the work of the organization has effectively been halted. GALZ, the only organization of its kind in the country, provides critical HIV/AIDS and psychological support and services to the LGBT community in Zimbabwe.”

The website of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) is at galz.co.zw/.

A forgotten French gay publication: MAGAZINE

A FORGOTTEN MORSEL OF GAY HISTORY

For those who are interested in the history of gay publishing (and can read French), here are two recent articles about the influential French gay publication Magazine, which was published between 1980 and 1987. Co-founded by the journalist and well-known gay activist Didier Lestrade (who later
founded ACT-UP Paris and has written numerous books on gay subjects) --ABOVE LEFT, a photo of Lestade from the 1980s which appears on the cover of his book about the history of ACT UP Paris --   and by Misti Gris, the nom de plume of the artistic director of the French gay newsweekly Gai Pied (which appeared from 1979-1992), Magazine was a rebellious, sexy, underground art publication-cum-fanzine dedicated to celebrating homosexuality and somewhat inspired by both Warhol's Interview and Boyd McDonald's Straight to Helll:The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts.

Magazine was particularly famous for its unusual photographs, often by photographers who were or later became famous. I lived in Paris for most of the 80s, and remember Magazine with pleasure. It published irreverent interviews with those who helped shape the gay artistic and cultural sensibility of an era, with lasting effects on the larger culture; Magazine should not be forgotten. The first article on Magazine is from Les Inrockuptibles, a sort of French imitation of Rolling Stone; the second article is from the web site of an art gallery which recently held an exhibition of photographs from Magazine:

http://www.lesinrocks.com/medias/numerique-article/article/revue-oh-gay-magazine/

Revue : Oh gay magazine

Une expo permet de redécouvrir Magazine, fanzine gay et arty qui a insufflé une vision positive et décomplexée de l’homosexualité, en pleines années sida.

C’était une revue très marginale, mais j’ai été étonné de réaliser, avec le temps, que beaucoup d’artistes la connaissaient. Je crois que Magazine fut un tremplin pour de jeunes photographes et pour beaucoup d’illustrateurs gays qui étaient très peu connus. Les derniers numéros étaient bilingues, avec les interviews traduites en anglais. Mais tout ça reste très humble : on ne publiait que 5 000 exemplaires, dont 2 500 à l’étranger.” Ainsi parle Didier Lestrade, journaliste, activiste, grand défenseur de la house music, cofondateur d’Act Up-Paris et du mensuel gay et lesbien Têtu, personnage de roman chez Tristan Garcia, et accessoirement tête de mule de l’intelligentsia gay.

Et, ce que beaucoup ne savent pas encore, à l’origine, dans les années 80, avec une bande de copains fidèles, du désormais mythique Magazine. Un fanzine gay, plus proche de la revue que du zine proprement dit, qui n’aura duré qu’une poignée d’années, mais dont les rares exemplaires se dealent aujourd’hui à prix d’or sur eBay.

Magazine, né en plein dans les années 80, fric et frime, alors que l’hebdo Gai Pied monopolisait l’attention des homos, ne fut pas un magazine comme les autres, mais une zone de confluence où artistes émergents, journalistes nouvelle école et jeunes photographes étaient pressés d’en découdre avec l’homosexualité et ses représentations.

Fortement inspiré par le mensuel Interview de Warhol, ou des revues plus anonymes et gays, comme Folsom ou Straight to Hell, Magazine fut ainsi tout au long de ses sept années d’existence le point de collusion et le rendez-vous des intellos gays qui aujourd’hui revendiquent ses lettres de noblesse. Pierre et Gilles débutants, Yves Mourousi avouant à demi-mot ses frasques nocturnes, le dessinateur Tom of Finland à une époque où ses cakes n’étaient pas encore entrés au musée, Brion Gysin chopé dans la rue…

L’ensemble de ces collaborations, sorte de Who’s Who à filer le tournis à n’importe quel directeur artistique, semble résumer la ligne éditoriale telle qu’édictée par Lestrade : une esthétique frontale, dure, sans concession, des interviews-fleuves du même acabit, une place de choix laissée aux illustrations et la police Typewritter élevée au rang d’héroïne des années 80 !

Après des années d’immobilisme créatif, le mouvement gay s’est aujourd’hui réapproprié l’héritage du fanzine gay, esthétique porno 70’s dans la poche et Butt, le fanzine amsterdamois so chic en tête, il ne reste qu’à résumer ce que Magazine a apporté à la presse moderne, mais surtout à l’homosexualité. Une décontraction certaine face à “la problématique homosexuelle” et l’idée obsessionnelle du “solarisme” qui anime le parcours de Lestrade.

“C’est le seul truc qui me gêne avec certains fanzines aujourd’hui qui s’inspirent de Magazine, le côté “garçons à problèmes”. Il y a une raison sociale à ça. Ils parlent de problèmes et de trucs compliqués parce que ce sont des folles bourges, à la base. Je crois qu’ils pensent encore que le drama est en soi arty et que ça met les choses en valeur, un peu comme dans les années 70, où tous les films gays de Pasolini ou Fassbinder devaient finir par la mort. A l’époque, s’il n’y avait pas de déchéance, on criait au scandale. Magazine était contre ça. Notre vie était difficile, mais nous avons toujours pensé très fortement que le positivisme était une position très avant-gardiste. Ce n’était pas du déni, c’était un statement.”

http://www.12mail.fr/2010/03/magazine-un-fanzine-underground-1980-1987/

MAGAZINE, Un fanzine underground (1980 – 1987)
12Mail du 29 avril au 18 juin 2010
Vernissage le jeudi 29 avril de 18h à 21h
12 rue du Mail, 75002 Paris.

Crééen 1980 par Didier Lestrade et Misti Gris, Magazine est sans nul doute la revue séminale des années 80, le blueprint qui a servi d’inspiration à de nombreux fanzines gays modernes comme Butt. Même typo American Typewritter pour les textes, même interviews intégrales inspirée par le magazine d’Andy Warhol, Interview, même importance des portfolios de photographes inconnus, même impression sur papier de couleur (Butt, La Revue Monstre). Au milieu des années 80, Magazine faisait partie du trio des plus beaux fanzines gays internationaux, avec Folsom (à San Francisco) et Straight To Hell (à New York). Le renouveau du support papier dans l’édition des fagzines modernes est un phénomène absolument surprenant à l’époque de l’omnipotence d’Internet.

Pendant ces sept années, Didier Lestrade s’est promené dans la rue et a photographié les célébrités interviewées dans la revue. Ses snapshots, à l’aide d’un Instamatic Kodak de moyenne qualité, n’ont pas la prétention d’être de beaux objets. Ils sont le reflet d’une curiosité à l’endroit de stars en devenir ou appartenant à un underground gay sur le point de devenir universel. Parmi ces photos : Tom of Finland, Erwin Olaf, Pierre & Gilles, Paul Morrissey, Erté, David Hockney, Michael Clarke, Keith Haring, Adolfo Arietta, Paolo Calia, Bastille, Federico Botana, Copi, Bronski Beat, Baby Ford, Mikado, Sylvester, Shazz, les Redskins and many more. Ces snapshots seront accompagnés de détails de maquette et de documents d’archives de cette époque.

Un CD mixé par Patrick Vidal sera édité et numéroté à 300 exemplaires à l’occasion de l’exposition. Une after party prolongera l’esprit de Magazine le soir même au Rex Club avec derrière les platines quatre fers de lance de la diversité disco : Morgan Geist, Daniel Wang, Patrick Vidal et Nick V. Cette soirée sera enregistrée et rediffusée sur www.rbmaradio.com.

« Chroniques du dancefloor – Libération 1988 – 1999″, un livre regroupant les chroniques house de Didier Lestrade dans Libération sortira fin avril chez l’Editeur singulier.

Contact : [email protected]

More :  http://www.facebook.com/didier.lestrade
Didier Lestrade parle de l’exposition Magazine dans Vice ce mois-ci

om Magazine.