MACT/NY Membership & BOD Meeting MACT Information Bulletin

MACT Information Bulletin
Men of All Colors Together/New York, Inc.
P.O. Box 237107, Ansonia Station, New York NY 10023-7107
(212)330-7678 http://www.mactny.org secretary@mactny.org
October, 2014
October 10 Program
MACT/NY Membership
& BOD Meeting
On October 10 MACT/NY will hold its annual
membership meeting, at which our past year will be
discussed, the new Board of Directors for the 2014-2015
year elected, and plans for the future made. Don’t miss
this meeting!! This is your chance to contribute your
ideas and energy to the organization
The current Board of Directors consists of Patrick
Harding and Tom Wirth, Co-chairs; Arthur McLean,
Treasurer; Ted Freed, Secretary; Bill Burns; and Richard
Jones. Our by-laws provide that we can have as many as
18 board members, so there’s lots of room for those who
are interested in joining it! Anyone who has been an
MACT/NY member for thirty days before the meeting is
elegible.
The duties of the board are to:
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Designate the officers of MACT/NY;
Decide on future meetings and activities;
Authorize expenditures;
Act on all matters where formal action of the
organization is required.
Those wishing to become board members should
plan to attend board meetings, which normally occur on
the second Friday of each month.
Following the membership meeting, the October
BOD meeting will take place. All members are welcome
to attend
We hope that all members of MACT/NY will attend
this meeting if they possibly can. We need to discuss
how we can keep MACT/NY vigorous and relevant to
our lives.
Friday Night Meetings
During our 33 years, MACT/NY has met once a
week to work, to play and learn together. Our Friday
night meetings at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th
Street are the core of this schedule. Sessions begin at
8:00 P.M. During the evening we take up a
collection ($5.00 recommended) for the room rent
and organizational expenses. Refreshments are
served. Below is the October schedule. All regular
meetings are at the Center.
Friday, October 3 @ 8:00 PM. Old Pictures,
Old Boyfriends. It’s show and tell. Bring your
pictures, share your past! Old romances—the bitter
and the sweet—and the other important people in
your life.
Friday, October 10 @ 8:00 P.M. MACT/NY
Membership Meeting at the Center, followed by
the October BOD meeting. See the accompanying
lead article.
Friday, October 17 @ 8:00 P.M. Video:
James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket. See the
article on Page 3.
Friday, October 24 @ 8:00 P.M. Newsletter
Mailing. An evening of folding, envelope stuffing,
stamping and socializing.
MACT Information Bulletin
-2-
Submariner
©2014 Salih Michael Fisher
YOU GREW FROM A FIFTIES CHILD TO A LATE-SIXTIES TEEN
TO A MID-SEVENTIES GAY MAN AT THE END
A SEVENTIES YOUNG ADULT WHOSE LIFE WOULD HAVE MANY TWIST AND BENDS
IN THE EIGHTIES YOU BECAME A LOVER OF BLACK MEN
BROTHERS WITH JHERI CURLS READY TO ROCK YOUR WORLD
HE YOUR LOVER TWO YEARS LATER KIDNAPED IT
BECAME AN EGYPTIAN AFRO NAPPYHEAD THEN LATER HE HAD
BABY PLAITS THEN SHOULDER-LENGTH DREADS
ALL THESE STYLES AMASSED AFROCENTRIC FLAVORS
THAT WERE THE RAGE OF THE LATE EIGHTIES FINISHING IN AGE
AGE NOW TURNS THE PAGE
NOW IN THE NINETIES
YOU HAVE BECOME A SUBMARINER
CHARTING UNTRAVELED WATERS
ENJOYING THE SAD SPOILS OF A WAR WITH AIDS
THE HOUSE, AS A WIDOWER YOU INHERITED ON FIRE ISLAND
THE BROWNSTONE IN FORT GREENE THE INSURANCE POLICY
THE TWO CATS NOW GONE TONS OF PICTURES OF A LIFE ONCE LIVED
YOUR DECEASED LOVER’S MOTHER CALLS EVERY NOW AND THEN
ALWAYS GIVING INVITATIONS TO COME TO DINNER
STILL TRYING TO INCLUDE YOU AS HER INNER FAMILY
HIS SISTER YOU RUN INTO ON THE VILLAGE PIERS
SHE HUGS YOU STILL WITH TEARS IN HER EYES
YOU FEEL ENGULFED BY HER BLACK-SISTER DYKENESS
ENDURE SLAPS ON YOUR AMPHIBIAN BACK YOU LOVE IT
ALTHOUGH IT MAKES YOU NERVOUS BUT YOU EMBRACE HER BACK TIGHTLY
LIKE A MOTHER’S LULLABY LULLABIES SOOTHING TO A LONELY HEART
WHEN YOU ALL DEPART YOU FEEL SAD YOU FELT THAT WAY
NOW YOU REALIZE NO ONE HAS REPLACED HIM
NO ONE HAS LAIN BETWEEN YOUR CLAM SHELLS
SHEETS ALL FRESHLY WASHED AND NEAT
AND NO ONE HAS GOTTEN INTO YOUR HEAD
TO BRING FORTH YOUR TREASURES
ONCE WORN IN OLDEN DAYS AROUND EBONY NECKS
SPECKS OF A LIFE ONCE LIVED FADE INTO THE MOONLIGHT
TWINKLE IN YOUR GREEN EYES AS DISTANT UNIVERSES ONCE VISITED
UPON OLIVE EUROPEAN SKIN AND NO LONGER CURLY PERMED HAIR
NOW IT HAS BECOME A TATTOO TATTOOED ACROSS A BALD HEAD
TAN NOW IT EXISTS AS STARDUST IN A GREYING BEARD
MOUTH TAKING AIR IN AND OUT IN AND OUT
ALL STARS DIE IN LIGHT OF DAY
AND DOING WITHOUT YOU REALIZE IT’S REALLY ALL EXCEPT THE BLAZING SUN
October, 2014
MACT Information Bulletin
-3-
October 31
October, 2014
October17 Video
Halloween Parade
Excursion
“James Baldwin: The
Price of the Ticket”
Instead of a regular meeting on October 31st
(Halloween), we’ll organize a small excursion to view
the Halloween Parade—a fabulous event that takes
place every year in Greenwich Village.
For gay men, black and white, coming of age in the
1950s and 1960s, James Baldwin was a singular public
gay exemplar. He gave us permission to be gay; indeed
he insisted that we acknowledge the lies about race and
sex that we tell ourselves and that our society
perpetrates. His books Giovanni’s Room, Another
Country, and The Fire Next Time laid bare with surgical
precision the ignorance of racial and sexual realities that
white Americans insist on maintaining, and the terrible
price everyone pays to keep these illusions—this
fraudulant innocence—intact.
We’ll gather at the Center at 7:15 P.M., and at 7:30
P.M. we’ll walk over to 6th Avenue between 14th and
15th Streets to view the parade, which starts at about
7:00 P.M. at 6th Avenue and Spring Street and marches
up 6th Avenue to 16th Street, where it disbands. It
should arrive at 14th Street about 8:00 P.M.
After the parade we’ll move to the Good Stuff Diner,
107 West 14th Street, for refreshments.
October 7 Theatre Excursion
“Bootycandy”
On Tuesday, October 7 some of us are going to see
Bootycandy, a hilarious farce featuring scenes from the
coming of age of a black gay man. Sutter is on an
outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his
church, dive bars, motel rooms and even nursing homes.
A kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnect to portray
growing up gay and black, Robert O’Hara’s subversive,
uproarious satire crashes headlong into the murky
terrain of pain and pleasure and... BOOTYCANDY.
As of this writing, a few tickets are still available for
the October 7 show at $75 each . If you want to purchase
one and join us, call Ticketcentral at 212-279-4200.
In James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, the life,
works and beliefs of the late writer and civil rights
activist are recounted: what it is to be born black,
impoverished, gifted, and gay in a world that has yet to
understand that “all men are brothers.” James Baldwin
tells his own story in this emotional portrait. Using
rarely-seen archival footage from nine different
countries, the film melds intimate interviews and
eloquent public speeches with cinéma vérité glimpses of
Baldwin and original scenes from his extraordinary
funeral service in December 1987. His close friends and
colleagues—even critics—illuminate the narrative,
among them writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka and
William Styron, plus entertainer Bobby Short. James
Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket was originally
broadcast August 14, 1989 on AMERICAN
MASTERS.
Editor & Desktop Publisher: Tom Wirth. Contributors: Salih
Michael Fisher.
Contributions to the November Bulletin are due Tuesday,
October 21. NOTE THE EARLY DEADLINE! Email final copy
to: tw@ firepress.com.
A Special Showing of
“Before You Know It”
A Film About Gay Seniors Featuring Our SAGE/HARLEM Friends
Saturday October 18th at 7:30 PM at UNIONDOCS, 322 Union Avenue, Brooklyn. Free Admission!
Dennis is a gentle-hearted widower in his 70s who begins exploring his sexual identity and fondness for dressing in
women’s clothing under the name “Dee.” Ty is an impassioned LGBT activist who hears nothing but wedding bells once gay
marriage passes in New York. Robert “The Mouth” is a feisty bar owner who presses on when his neighborhood institution
comes under threat. Born before the Civil Rights era, these men have witnessed unbelievable change in their lifetimes,
from the Stonewall Riots and gay liberation, to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and Queer Nation, to gay marriage and Lady Gaga,
and have lived to become part of an unprecedented “out” elder generation. Before focuses on the lives of these three gay
seniors, but reminds us that while LGBT elders face a specific set of issues, aging and its challenges are universal. An
affirmation of life and human resilience told with a refreshing humor and candor, Before confirms that you are never too
old to reshape society.
MACT Information Bulletin
-4-
October, 2014
THE FIREBALL RETURNS AS A FUND RASIER FOR THE NEWARK LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER. MACT/NY AND ITS
SUPPORTERS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR $30.00, TABLES FOR $50.00 (SEATS 10)
FOR A JOYOUS EVENING OF DINNER, ENTERTAINMENT, AND AWARDS FEATURING SENATOR CORY BOOKER AND
MAYOR RAS BARAKA (INVITED GUESTS) AND THE FIREBALL. THE DATE IS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25TH WITH DINNER
FROM 5:00-8:00PM, ENTERTAINMENT FROM 7:00-9:00PM. THE GRAND MARCH FOR THE BALL STARTS PROMPTLY
AT 9:00PM, THE BALL FOLLOWS UNTIL 3:00AM. CONTACT JAMES CREDLE FOR TICKETS AT 973/919-9926 OR
jwcredle1@hotmail.com. Be there for the event of a lifetime!!!!......jcredle