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The Gayest Generation - Episode 13: Thomas McCauley

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today.

In this episode, we speak with Thomas McCauley. We discuss his surviving conversion therapy, gay kismet, and the journey to self-love.

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The Gayest Generation Ep. 11 - Curtis Chin

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today.

In this episode, we speak with Curtis Chin. We discuss his childhood growing up in Detroit’s legendary Chung’s Restaurant, “The Gay Agenda”, and what it’s like to meet Vanna White (and the Obamas).

Curtis is the author of the forthcoming memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, which is currently available for pre-order. To learn more about Curtis Chin, visit www.curtisfromdetroit.com

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JCC Conversations | Ed Surovell and his passion for books

Listen to Chuck as he interviews Ed Surovell and explores his passion for books and his career as the founder of Edward Surovell Realtors. His amazing collection includes rare books about Ann Arbor, Michigan, Native Americans and some even dating back to the 1800s.

“I was destined to buy books – I couldn’t escape the things. I was born to them and married them. They come whispering to me in the middle of the night.” – Ed Surovell.

 

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Friends of the Sixties: The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals 1969-1970

This is a rough-draft of some footage Stephen Erlewine took back in 1970 at the second pivotal Arbor Blues Festival, where his brother Michael was in charge of food and drink for the blues artists, and also served as interviewer for scores of the performers. This was a life-changing experience and led some years later to Michael founding the All-Music Guide (AMG).

This video originally appeared here.

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The Gayest Generation Ep. 12 - Kathy Kozachenko

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Their stories make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. 

In this episode, we speak with Kathy Kozachenko, the first openly LGBTQ+ person to be elected to public office in American history. We talk about her time on the Ann Arbor City Council, the importance of voting, and hear her advice for queer politicians today.

AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!

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The Gayest Generation Ep. 10 - Michael Walling

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Their stories make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. 

In this episode, we speak with theater director and educator Michael Walling. We discuss growing up in Portland during the 70's, being a New Yorker during the AIDS crisis, and the staying power of Tom Selleck's moustache.

AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!

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The Gayest Generation Ep. 9 - Lisa Middleton

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Their stories make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. 

In this episode, we speak with Lisa Middleton. We learn about what it’s like to be one of first openly transgender people elected to an American city council, how libraries played a role in her quest to live authentically, and how true love can look like driving around the same roundabout for three hours.

AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!

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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for October 2021: Martin interviews Charles Casillo, author of Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story of Their Intimate Friendship.

Violet-eyed siren Elizabeth Taylor and classically handsome Montgomery Clift were the most gorgeous screen couple of their time. Over two decades of friendship they made, separately and together, some of the era's defining movies--including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Misfits, Suddenly, Last Summer, and Cleopatra. Yet the relationship between these two figures--one a dazzling, larger-than-life star, the other hugely talented yet fatally troubled--has never truly been explored until Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story of their Intimate Friendship.

When Elizabeth Taylor was cast opposite Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun, he was already a movie idol, with a natural sensitivity that set him apart. At seventeen, Elizabeth was known for her ravishing beauty rather than her talent. Directors treated her like a glamorous prop. But Monty took her seriously, inspiring and encouraging her. In her words, "That's when I began to act."

To Monty, she was "Bessie Mae," a name he coined for her earthy, private side. The press clamored for a wedding, convinced this was more than friendship. The truth was even more complex. Monty was drawn to women but sexually attracted to men--a fact that, if made public, would destroy his career. But he found acceptance and kinship with Elizabeth. Her devotion was never clearer than after his devastating car crash near her Hollywood home when she crawled into the wreckage and saved him from choking.

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The Gayest Generation Ep. 8 - Stephanie Byers

Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Their stories make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long. It is time we let their voices fill the room.

In this episode, we speak with Kansas State Congresswoman Stephanie Byers. We learn about what it’s like to be one of first openly transgender people elected to a State Legislature, growing up as a member of the Chickasaw Nation, and what it means to live life authentically.

AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!

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Martin Bandyke Under Covers for September 2021: Martin interviews Jonathan Taplin, author of The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life

Martin Bandyke Under Covers for September 2021: Martin interviews Jonathan Taplin, author of The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life.

Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band in the ’60s, producer of major films in the ’70s, an executive at Merrill Lynch in the ’80s, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service in the ’90s, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts―from the folk scene to Woodstock, Hollywood’s rebellious film movement, and beyond. Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground.

With cameos by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Martin Scorsese, and countless other icons, The Magic Years is both a rock memoir and a work of cultural criticism from a key player who watched a nation turn from idealism to nihilism. Taplin offers a clear-eyed roadmap of how we got here and makes a convincing case for art’s power to deliver us from “passionless detachment” and rekindle our humanism.