Woodstock, queer role models, and passing...
Welcome back to Memoir Monday—a partnership between Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Longreads, Tin House, Granta, and Guernica. It may be the start of a new work week, but at least we have this great new writing to get us through it.
Woodstock: My Queer Love Story
by Kate Walter (art by Mark Wang)
Three years after Woodstock, Joe and I were walking through the woods when he told me he liked men and didn’t want to keep stringing me along. He explained how he’d gotten out of the draft by telling a shrink he was gay. (I’d wondered about that.) He apologized for the deception and said he hoped we could be friends after I got over being mad at him.
I was upset about losing my boyfriend, but we remained close. A few years later, when I came out, having gay male pals made the transition easier. Joe escorted me to gay bars and was my queer wing man, hooking me up with my first lesbian lover.
Day Trip
by Sophia Moskalenko
I used to cry on this drive. Now I don’t. I don’t seethe anymore, either. And I’ve stopped hoping. Everything that could go wrong already did. No more detours are possible around the scorched landscape of our life. All I can do is witness. Every bump in the road. Rain, splashing on the windshield. The rhythmic swishing of the wiper blades. I am barren of feeling beyond the resistance of the gas pedal, the smooth surface of the wheel, and the ache in my lower back that will grow as hours of driving go by.
How I Found My Long-Lost Cousin, the Queer Role Model I Always Needed
by Sarah Emily Baum
I wish I’d known Molly years ago. I wish I had known her when I was twelve years old, wondering who in my life would still love me if they knew my secret, when I daydreamed people to look up to, built role models from dark windows and locked doors and overgrown grass.
Confessions of a Professional White Asshole
by David Henry Sterry
I dedicate myself to becoming the best token White Asshole I can be. I audition for and win roles as White Asshole Cop, White Asshole Record Producer, White Asshole TV Producer, White Asshole Book Editor, White Asshole Con Man and White Asshole Dad. My versatility is staggering. Eventually I become convinced that there is no White Asshole beyond my grasp. I see myself playing White Asshole celebrities, congressmen, maybe even a White Asshole Supreme Court Judge.
Parts of Us Not Made at Home
by Jess Row (art by Xia Gordon)
Amy Brazil, the face in the frame so much like my face, became white by powdering her skin. Every day, all day. Through artificial means, that is, she passed. She found herself to be unacceptable and chose to do something about it. She reinvented herself. If I had to guess, I would say that was what my grandfather hated most about her. Through marriage, she passed, and passed down whiteness to her only child, my grandfather, and through him to me.
Writers’ Resources
4-week online writing course with Catapult: Writing Personal Essays with Substance, starting October 8.
Don’t forget to RSVP for the September 16 Memoir Monday reading (an official Brooklyn Book Festival bookend event) so we know how much wine to bring!
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Until next Monday,