Arts & Entertainment
Queery: Michael Rawson
The local painter answers 20 gay questions
Longtime Dupont Circle resident Michael Rawson has always been interested in painting, but his retirement a few years ago has given him more time to get serious about it. And the dedication is paying off — the 64-year-old Quakertown, Pa., native has seven of his oil paintings in the new exhibit “Beyond Words: The Symbolic Language of Plants” which opens this weekend at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington and runs through April 8.
Rawson is a member of Studio 155, an artists group that formed after its 17 members took classes together at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and collaborated on the 2006 exhibition “Botanical Treasures of Lewis and Clark.” Together their work is featured in the large Delaware exhibit. They work “to realistically capture the natural world while expanding the boundaries of botanical art.”
“I always loved plants,” Rawson says. “My mother is a good gardener. … And trees are our tallest and biggest plants. They are what give us life — the air we breathe, the food we eat, the shelter, our clothes. So that was my inspiration.”
Rawson spent most of his career as a pre-school teacher and says he “always worked well with young children.”
He came to Washington in 1966 to attend George Washington University. He and partner Gordon Binder, a senior fellow at the World Wildlife Fund, have been together 38 years. They attribute the longevity of their pairing to “companionship, intimacy, friendship, common interests and enough differences to keep it lively.”
Rawson enjoys water aerobics, reading, watching TV, quiet evenings at home and, of course, painting, in his free time. Go to delart.org for more information on the exhibition. The museum is at 2301 Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington.
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
In my head, since sixth grade. But in fact not until I met Gordon, and then we fell in love. My father. I learned how upset he was when he recognized that I was gay (I had left home by then). Years later, at Christmas, when Gordon gave me our paid mortgage in a box, my father said, “He’s a smart man,” and I knew he had embraced us both.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
Michelangelo. He made art that today we still stand in awe of.
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
For my generation, few places could beat the exhilaration of entering the Lost and Found on a lively night.
Describe your dream wedding.
I had it, with my family and friends in July 2010 thanks to David Catania and the D.C. City Council. It surprised me how moving and affirming it was, and this after 38 years together.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
Early childhood education, to give each child a chance to reach his or her potential.
What historical outcome would you change?
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, in hope that, with malice toward none and charity toward all, our country’s racial history might have played out better.
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
New York City. The Saint. 1983. 4 a.m. Betty Buckley singing “Memories” from “Cats.” The room is pulsating.
On what do you insist?
I’m a middle child and thus I can bend lots of ways.
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
Sorry, not quite there yet.
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Hard to Say No: The Life of Michael Rawson”
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
Nothing, though Gordon insists we would start a campaign to get Chord Overstreet to join our team.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
A life force that we share with all living things
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
Encourage our youth. From their ranks will come our future leaders and they may just be the generation that finally brings it home for us.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
If there’s good barbecue along the way.
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
Gay men are driven solely by sex, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
“Maurice,” the Merchant-Ivory production.
What’s the most overrated social custom?
Celebrities Tweeting about every ordinary thing they do.
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
A place or two on the wall of the National Gallery of Art for my paintings.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
It gets better, much better.
Why Washington?
I came to school in Washington, GW, in 1966. A few years later, I met Gordon when we were interns at the Council on Environmental Quality and a little over a year later we hooked up and we made our life together. We’ve lived in Dupont Circle, one of the great urban neighborhoods anywhere. We value the cultural scene, the lively street life, so many places to go and things to do, and of course the friends we have here.
Celebrity News
Silky Nutmeg Ganache talks sex and dating, gender, politics, weight loss journey
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ semifinalist grew up in Bible Belt
Uncloseted Media published this interview on July 7.
By SPENCER MACNAUGHTON, ISABEL STOKES, and BELLA SAYEGH | After appearing on the 11th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the first season of “Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. the World,” the sixth season of “RuPaul’s All Stars” and now the 11th season of “All Stars,” Silky Nutmeg Ganache, known by many as the Reverend, is undoubtedly a legend.
Born and raised in Moss Point, Miss., Ganache bears all in this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton.” She speaks about her relationship with gender, her 100-pound weight loss, what it’s like living as a queer person of color in a red state and why she’s calling on allies to stand up for the trans community.
Patrons enjoyed a night out at the popular LGBTQ venue Crush Dance Bar on Friday, July 3.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Theater
‘My Favorite Sociopath’ debuts at Shepherdstown’s CATF
Gay playwright Aurin Squire’s take on D.C. journalism in the ‘90s
‘My Favorite Sociopath’
Contemporary American Theater Festival
July 10-Aug. 2
Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Catf.org
Discernment. It’s a thing some people have, explains playwright Aurin Squire, especially when you’re gay or Black in America (Squire is both).
“You instinctively know when the mob is teaming up for the best interests of the powers that be. You can feel it in the air.”
In his sharp new satire “My Favorite Sociopath,” Squire writes about life experiences but set in a different time and place: It’s the 1990s, early days of the 24-hour news cycle, and three ambitious journalism students are pursuing success in D.C.
And now, Squire’s play, along with other new works, are making their world premieres at the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.).
“All of my plays are queer in some way,” says Squire, 46. “This one touches on harmless and dangerous lies. The characters are on the spectrum sexually, and it’s interesting how all that falls out.”
And he’s given it a lot of thought.
“Already as a kid, it seemed to me that the rage against rap music and sex was coming from closeted people resisting their own urges and temptations. For me, it was interesting to see a witch hunt led by witches. Queer people can always call out a lie.”
Since September, Squire has also been working with a TV show about the tech industry set in Silicon Valley. He says, “It seems the general flow of the tech industry is that humanity and civilization is finished and it’s just about accumulating as many goods as possible before everything collapses. In fact, those who are profiting actually agree. But for those who disagree, they believe the solution is to build bigger gates, but activists believe we can stop this”
Yet, he’s learned from folks associated with the show. “Many say the quickest way to divorce yourself from any responsibility or regulations — smash and grab. Otherwise, you have to stop and think and regulate your desires for greed and power”
Squire possesses a penchant for pithy titles. He laughs, explaining the first thing he wrote as a student at Juilliard was “Obama-ology,” the comedy with contemporary message. While a lot of people liked the name, it didn’t necessarily vibe with the author. He concedes that he chooses names based on “easy to remember” and titles that won’t be easy to lose as a file.
Another is “Defacing Michael Jackson,” a coming-of-age dramedy set in rural Florida in 1984, specifically Squire’s native town Opa-locka, Miami, a fantastical place famed for its fanciful Moorish revival architecture.
Living in the shadow of exotic structures, he wasn’t particularly fazed. Squire says “It wasn’t until returning to visit after my freshman year at Northwestern University in Chicago that I realized how weird it was: When you grow up in a place, you take surroundings for granted no matter how over the top.”
Now based in New York (where for two happy years, 2017-2019, he shared digs with drag king Murry Hill), Squire returns frequently to Miami to be with family, but this summer has been filled with both work and travel.
Currently, he’s in Shepherdstown with CATF shaping up “My Favorite Sociopath.” Later this summer he will travel to South Africa for research, followed by a silent writing retreat in Santa Fe, N.M.
Much of Squire’s work reflects the Latino, African, Caribbean, African-American, and Jewish cultures he grew up around in South Florida.
When asked if today’s winds of anti-multiculturalism worry him, he replies, “No, because that’s going to pass. Most people don’t like, people are seeing the negative results of it, and the young people coming up despise it. White male gamers were tricked momentarily through the algorithms into voting against their own interests and they’re now seeing how it’s not working out for them.
“Conservatives always try to stop progress and eventually they always lose. It’s just a question of where we’ll be in the middle of the end of civilization before that happens. I’d like to hope we can turn the ship around before then.”
In addition to “My Favorite Sociopath,” CATF summer season features three other world premieres (Lisa D’Amour’s comedy “The Smoker,” “Refugee Rhapsody” by Yussef El Guindi, “Best Line Wins: A Play Inspired by the Improvised Lives of Elaine May & Mike Nichols” by Beth Kander) and “¡VOS!” by Christina Pumariega.
CATF runs from July 10-Aug. 2 in three venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112.
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