Raise Up the Rainbow: 6/27-28, two great events!

24 06 2026

Saturday, June 27: CineSLAM, Vermont’s LGBT Short Film Festival, an international, multi-genre lineup of intriguing films, with an out-of-this-world finale! 4 PM, Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St. in downtown Brattleboro. Tickets:  filmfreeway/cineslam.com (You can also buy tickets at the door.)

Sunday, June 28: Late Brunch with Roger Lancaster, speaking on Sex, Class and the Urgency of Desire. 2 PM, Tree Frog Farm, 158 Kopkind Rd., Guilford. No charge (donations gratefully accepted), but please make reservations with JoAnn Wypijewski at jwyp2000@gmail.com.

Roger Lancaster, a brilliant writer, speaker and scholar, is author, most recently, of The Struggle to Be Gay, in Mexico, for Example. His writing, there and in works including Life Is Hard and Sex Panic and the Punitive State, is thrilling for its combination of stories, ethnography, historical and political analysis, and polemic. In his latest book, based on years of observation and life experience in Mexico’s ambiente, he puts sexual identity and class in conversation — the Rainbow, one might say, and the rainbow, historic symbol of rebels united against kings and capitalist oppressors. Desire is particular and universalist; intimate and material; a fascination, a struggle — and much, much more. Any political movement for a humane future would be foolish to ignore its breadth and urgency.


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Remembering Allen Ginsberg at 100

6 06 2026

And a Reminder: Kopkind’s Pride Weekend Events, 6/27-28

Allen Ginsberg was born 100 years ago, on June 3, 1926. We remember that brave, gentle, howling soul, guide to the power and beauty of the word. Like another of America’s great gay poets, Walt Whitman, Ginsberg contained multitudes. ‘A Supermarket in California’ invokes Whitman — an homage, now, to both these giants of literary imagination and liberation.

Those who attended last year’s lgbt short film fest CineSLAM would have seen the remarkable Allen Ginsberg’s Lost Work. That film, mysteriously, is now nowhere to be found — at least we can’t locate it — which goes to show that you never know what extraordinary treat is to be found at CineSLAM.

Tickets for this year’s CineSLAM, on Saturday, June 27, beginning at 4 pm at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, may be purchased at filmfreeway/cineslam.com.

On Sunday, June 28, we’re hosting a Raise the Rainbow Late Brunch at Tree Frog Farm, 158 Kopkind Road in Guilford. There will be food, drink and a talk by Roger Lancaster, a fascinating thinker and speaker — author, most recently, of The Struggle to Be Gay, in Mexico, for Example. Roger will speak on themes central to his exploration of working-class gay life and the ambiente: ‘the urgency of desire’, the salience of class and material want in the creation of identity, the universal necessity of ‘vistas of freedom’, connection, a better life. (Scroll down to previous post for more.)

There is no charge for Sunday’s event (donations will be gratefully accepted). People must make a reservation, though, so that we have a count for food. Please reserve by writing to JoAnn Wypijewski at jwyp2000@gmail.com.

Happy Pride Month!

Happy 100th Anniversary of the life of Allen Ginsberg!

Come, Raise the Rainbow with us on June 27 and 28!

And now for a snippet from the cutting room floor of Before Stonewall. A peek behind the scenes during Andy Kopkind’s interview with Ginsberg for John Scagliotti et al.’s Emmy-winning documentary on gay life before the uprising. Click on image.


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