GUILFORD-Pride began with rebellion. Kopkind Colony, the living memorial to the late radical journalist Andrew Kopkind, honors both as it begins its summer season of activities.
First up is CineSlam, Kopkind's annual Pride Month film fest of LGBTQ short works. The screenings will be held at 4 p.m. June 28 at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro.
This year's lineup includes foreign and domestic films, comedy and drama, feature, animation, and experimental documentary - including a rare art film made by Allen Ginsberg and Bruce Conner. The 1970 film sets Ginsberg's poetic recitation to a montage of Conner's visual artistry.
Tickets may be purchased on the day of the show, but reservations are strongly recommended. See cineslam.com for tickets. There will be Pride Cake to follow.
The next day, June 29, also at 4 p.m., Kopkind, with co-sponsor 118 Elliot, salutes the liberationist legacy of James Baldwin with a talk by Richard Goldstein, a longtime journalist who interviewed Baldwin over the course of a few days in New York in 1984. The free talk, titled "Celebrating James Baldwin 100: 'Go the Way Your Blood Beats,'" is at the art space at 118 Elliot St. in Brattleboro. Donations are welcome.
This event is part of the prolonged centenary commemoration of the revolutionary author and public figure. As a Black man, a gay man, and a person who grew up in Harlem before World War II and left the country for Europe - spending the rest of his life in transit - Baldwin resisted "all of the American categories" and, in his novels, essays, and speeches, challenged America to look at itself, to liberate itself from the violence that still consumes it and defines its power in the world.
Richard Goldstein was executive editor of The Village Voice, for which he wrote on popular culture and sexual politics for 32 years.
An award-winning commentator on LGBTQ issues, a founder of rock criticism and early champion of graffiti culture, Goldstein is the author of, among other works, "The Poetry of Rock," "Homocons: Liberal Society and the Gay Right," and "Another Little Piece of My Heart: My Life of Rock and Revolution in the '60s." He lives in New York City and Vermont.
Since 1999, Kopkind Colony has put on public events and brought together journalists, activists, and documentary filmmakers for seminars and retreats in Guilford, where Andy Kopkind spent 25 summers with his life partner, John Scagliotti, a pioneer in gay media and the project's administrator.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.