Outsources: Resilience in the Face of Oppression. Making Culture, Making Music

OutSources continues a discussion about resilience in the face of assaults on our community. In an earlier show (June 13), we talked with Boulder psychologist, researcher, and activist Dr. Glenda Russell about the murders in Orlando—what such attacks do to us and how we can respond in ways that make us stronger as individuals and communities. Tonight’s show focuses on one of the resilience-building actions that Glenda mentioned: creating queer culture.

In this show, Glenda talks with Carol White, a locally well-known creator of queer culture in the form of LGBTQ choruses, about how she has used music to create and nurture community, to provide a touchstone of resilience, and to educate folks about LGBTQ people in the process.Carol first founded a PFLAG chorus that performed at the PFLAG National Conference in Denver, and then she founded the Denver Women’s Chorus, one of the first lesbian choruses in the nation. After that, she organized a chorus for the Gay Games, and finally, she founded Harmony: a Colorado Chorale, a mixed chorus of women and men that performs in Denver.

In 1992, during Carol’s time with Harmony, Colorado voters passed Amendment 2, which legalized anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Although Amendment 2 was eventually declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court, it had already taken a huge psychological toll on the state’s LGBT population and our allies. Carol’s response to her singers’ devastation perfectly fit the lesson that Glenda brought to our earlier discussion: she turned to queer culture, specifically to queer community making music together.

Come sit in on our conversation with Carol to learn more the power of culture.