Arts & Entertainment
Local queer students receive national awards for art, writing
Work explored race, sexuality, gender and heartbreak
The fifth picture in the photo essay āAnything But Simpleā shows a school hallway with gray lockers lit up by sunlight shining through ceiling-length windows and two bodies tightly embracing. One, with large hairy arms, holds the other, draped in a maroon hoodie with a sign that says āfaggotā stuck to its back.
The photo essay, curated by Spencer Strebe, was part of a legion of portfolios honored by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for their poignant and intelligent exploration of young identity. Strebe, 18, received a silver medal with distinction for his work that explored the rugged terrain that is navigating queer relationships as a teenager fresh into understanding their sexuality. He was a student at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Va., and will attend Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall to study art.Ā
āI wasnāt out as gay dating my first boyfriend,ā read his artist statement. āThe frustration of keeping their love secretā¦led the guy in the gray hoodie [to] out his partner as gay in a desperate effort to make their love known. This is more of a thought, a want, rather than an action done.ā
Like many his age, the COVID-19 pandemic inspired Strebe to pursue a hobby to stave off boredom. He began by taking photos of his friends, documentary-style, which then evolved into in-depth projects for his high school photography classes.
Although he said he quit more photography classes than he took, the desire to continue using the medium as a form of expression persisted. And, when he was required by one of his classes to submit for a Scholastic award, he heeded.
Strebe described āAnything But Simpleā as a ābreakup portfolioā that followed a ceramics tradition of using clay to make secret keeper jars. Because he hadnāt come out yet while creating the photo essay, taking the photos felt like molding a pot into which heād whisper.
āHeartbreak is having a lot of love with no place to put it,ā he said.
This kind of raw expression is what Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has championed for 100 years now.Ā
The organization, which adjudicates submissions blindly, awards skill, originality, and the emergence of personal voice. Past recipients of the award include poet Amanda Gorman and artists Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon. Avedon, who received the award in 1941, described the honor as a defining moment of his life.
āTeenagers are incredible young people. Theyāre not adults but theyāre also not children,ā said Christopher Wisniewski, executive director for Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. ā[This] is a time when [they] feel raw and start to express this in their art and writing.ā
For Taiwo Adebowale, 17, her gold medal-winning poetry was a fierce effort to affirm her Black immigrant and queer identities. Adebowale, who goes by she/they pronouns, was a student at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Towson, Md., and will study English and advertising at Howard University in the fall.
āI do not exist. I am not fiction. I am not walking delirium. Iām not even considered a person. Iām Something,ā read her essay āsubspaces.ā āSomething, that according to all laws of nature, shouldnāt exist. Something that goes into spaces, softening our tones, crouching down, telling security guards and mothers ādo not be afraidā like weāre angels at Christās second coming.ā
Adebowale, who is also the first Scholastic award winner at her school in six years, draws inspiration from Black queer authors like Akwaeke Emezi, whose work highlights lifeās absurdities through mysticism and surrealism. Thus, for her submission, she wanted to embrace the concept of beauty as taboo.
āBeauty is one of the things I find integral to myself as a person,ā she said. āI donāt feel beauty can exist without embracing yourself as a whole.ā
In embracing her wholeness, Adebowale harked to a lesson from her poetry teacher about writing about the things that make one uncomfortable.
In āMy Fault, Doctor,ā written to mimic a doctorās note, Adebowale wrote about the annoyance her nameless character had with a doctor who asked about the characterās sexuality.
āMy fault, Doctor. I swallow up the fact I like a girl. Fact beats wings in my stomach,ā read the poem. āFact tries to crawl up with the acid reflux. Fact infests my throat and nests as a knot. Donāt be alarmed by that. I chose to kiss the girl at church, behind my familyās back, with the knot.ā
All in all, this uninhibited opining about societal ills is what Scholastic Arts and Writing lauds. Wisniewski believes the award validates budding artistsā and writersā work, and more importantly, their humanity.
āCreativity should be a universal value,ā he said.
Celebrity News
More than 1 million people attend Madonna concert in Rio
Free event took place on Copacabana Beach on Saturday
An estimated 1.6 million people on Saturday attended Madonna’s free concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach.
The concert, which was the last one as part of Madonna’s Celebration Tour, included a tribute to people lost to AIDS.
Bob the Drag Queen introduced Madonna before the concert began. Pabllo Vittar, a Brazilian drag queen and singer, and Anitta, a bisexual pop star who was born in Rio’s HonĆ³rio Gurgel neighborhood, also joined Madonna on stage.
Congresswoman Erika Hilton, a Black travesti and former sex worker, and Rio Municipal Councilwoman MĆ“nica BenĆcio, the widow of Marielle Franco, a bisexual Rio Municipal Councilwoman who was assassinated in 2018, are among those who attended the concert.
“Madonna showed that we fight important fights for the human rights of Black (people), young (people), women and LGBTQIA+ people, and against all injustice, discrimination, and violence,” saidĀ AssociaƧao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (National Association ofĀ TravestisĀ and Transsexuals), a Brazilian trans rights group known by the acronym ANTRA, on itsĀ X account.Ā “What they call identitarianism’ is our subversion to the retrograde and conservative tackiness that plagues the country.”
The Associated Press reported the concert was Madonna’s biggest ever.
The DC Center for the LGBTQ Community, SMYAL and Rainbow Families sponsored Gay Day at the Zoo on Sunday at the Smithsonian National Zoo. The Smithsonian observed International Family Equality Day with special exhibits and an event space.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Covering Gay Day at the Zoo for @WashBlade . Here at @NationalZooDC pic.twitter.com/LqgGNOOAiM
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) May 5, 2024
Photos
PHOTOS: Taste of Point
Annual fundraiser held for LGBTQ youth scholarship, mentorship organization
The Point Foundation held its annual Taste of Point fundraiser at Room & Board on May 2.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)