Arts & Entertainment
Leading LGBTQ photo competition calls for submissions
Calling all photographers! Here’s your chance to enter your work in a juried photography exhibition and competition conceived to discover a new LGBTQ visual culture for the 21st century.
Slated to debut in Los Angeles at the end of January, “Round Hole Square Peg 4” is the fourth installment of a biennial queer photography exhibition that is the only queer presentation at any major art fair. It will open at Photo LA – California’s longest running international photographic art fair, where it made its first appearance in 2013 – from January 30-February 2, 2020. From there, through the support of the City of West Hollywood, it will move to the city’s gallery for a four-week run.
This year’s edition will place special focus on photography exploring themes of transgender awareness, people of color and underrepresented minorities. It will be curated by Director Phil Tarley, who is a fellow of the American Film Institute, a member of the Photographic Arts Council, and writes a critical photography blog or Fabrik Magazine.
According to the press release:
“As Stonewall 50 passes, LGBTQ persecution intensifies in Trump’s America. Art exhibitions enable LGBTQ photographers to voice their activism, proclaim their visibility and create a new wave of queer art and soul. Having a strong presence in front of a large audience helps the LGBTQ community defy and resist negative stereotypes.”
Tarley says, “The world is changing for LGBTQ people. In 2019, dark Trumpian clouds are forming and threatening to roll back hard-won civil rights. The religious right is ramping up its homophobic and transphobic attacks. By showing positive, sincere images that reflect our true queer lives, we can stay visible in a world that wants us to disappear,” Tarley, .
Participating artist Stuart Sandford comments that his work is innately queer. “The queerness of my work, other than simply being produced by a self-identifying gay man, comes from the intention to question the prevailing norm,” he says. “The taboo, the (gay) male gaze on the (gay) male body in an unbridled manner, something once lost and now reclaimed. But will this, or any art, help save us in 2020? No, of course not, the artist’s role is to ask questions and provoke debate.”
RHSP Competition Judge Paul Bridgewater adds, “Queer identity is not simply a sexual one. Queer artists have a perspective and an experience to contribute to society that is wholly our own and it’s a rich and worldly one. Having been marginalized and alienated for so long has helped us develop a unique view of self-worth, self-image, spirituality, and companionship. We can look at the world and mirror it back to the human condition with insight, style, glamour, and fun.”
Curated by director Phil Tarley and associate curator Ruben Esparza, “Round Hole Square Peg 4” will be judged by a panel of five prominent jurors and the director of Photo LA.
Photographers are invited to enter the competition now through the“Round Hole Square Peg 4” website.
Out & About
Rehoboth’s Aqua to celebrate 20th anniversary Sunday
Event marks culmination of Pride weekend in beach community
Aqua Bar & Grill in Rehoboth Beach will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Sunday, July 19 from 2-7 p.m. DJ Biff will entertain the crowd; there will be complimentary birthday cake and surprise guests.
The event marks the culmination of Pride weekend in Rehoboth Beach, which runs all weekend with panel discussions, parties, and more.
Books
New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex
‘Poking the Squid’ on homosexuality, gender swapping, and more
‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
c.2026, W.W. Norton
$29.99 241 pages
Birds do it.
According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve been told or for reasons you might think. Even educated fleas do it and, as in the new book, “Poking the Squid” by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.
If you read through scientific papers on animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual: for scientists, the word “sex” means a lot of different things.
Says Ireland, “It’s used to describe behaviors, biology, life histories, and more.”
That might be because animals are not simply binary.
Take, for instance, hyenas. It’s easy for the casual observer to mistake a male hyena for a female and vice versa because of stereotypes of anatomy. Mating, for hyenas, requires subordination for the male and a nifty trick on the part of the female’s body to get things done.
Our feathered friends are no birdbrains, either: black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous but global warming seems to have changed their nesting habits sometimes. Male flamingos have sex with one another, as a territorial thing; other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.
The Chinese mantis eats her mate after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically able to enjoy sex. Genitalia between species varies quite a bit; in fact, the vaginas of ducks “are highly complex.” Lionesses will mate up to 100 times when in heat. Female damselflies will change into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can change their sex, if needed, as can yellow clown goby fish. And seahorse pregnancy and birth sparked a book banning in Tennessee.
So, asks Ireland, if animals, including us, vary so much in biology and life, “… why are we using the word sex like it means something, anything, consistent?!”
Pick up “Poking the Squid,” page through it a few seconds, and you’ll see that the information here is largely told through cartoon-like drawings mixed with captions. It seems to be something on the lighter side, but don’t let that artwork fool you.
Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland offers readers solid information that cozies up to the scholarly, with hard science, philosophy, feminism, and quotations from researchers to support it, thus furthering the narrative and hitting the points squarely. If you see the art and expect something lighthearted, comic, and small-talk-worthy, you could be disappointed.
On the other hand, if you want solid, wryly serious facts, you’re in for a treat.
There’s lots of learning to be gleaned here, and some slight nudge-wink whimsy to emphasize the absurdity of wrong-headed thinking. This can make readers feel like they’re in-the-know on the jokes, and the playfulness balances the seriousness of the information well.
So, serious, scholarly, or slightly silly, none of these are negative but you’re going to know what you want from a book like this. For the right reader, someone in the mood, “Poking the Squid” is wild.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
The eighth annual Westminster Pride Festival was held at Westminster City Park in Westminster, Md. on Saturday, July 11.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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Calendar: July 10-16
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Campaign launched to elect more LGBTQ candidates to ANC seats
Lindsey Graham dies at 71
