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Joan Giuffre 1939 JUSTICE & FREEDOM Joan Giuffre 1939 1956 1957 1963 1967 Joan took part in 1939 - 2005 the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 1964 Joan followed friends from Joan graduated from New York who had made Benjamin Franklin High their way to California; she Born Joan Elizabeth Giuffre January 14, 1957: School in 1956, and then arrived in San Francisco in to Angela D’Agata and On her 18th birthday, Joan apprenticed with the Arena April of 1967. Michelangelo Giuffre in took the train to New Theater Summer Stock in Rochester, NY, Joan was York City to meet with her Corning, NY. After being the eldest of three children. friend from Corning. She fired before the end of As a member of a garment spent the next few years “I am a rabble-rouser Rouser the summer due to her 1971 call me playwright or poet or agitator or inspiration workers union, her mother going back and forth, as lesbianism, Joan was told, I am a rabble-rouser Rouser” did piece work. Her father often as she could afford, While Joan was in “If [she] did not go Upon signing the Declaration of - from “Tidbits & Exercises” operated a grocery business until she was established in California, her mother, straight home at once, Conscience, Joan made a decision to with his cumbatti. New York. sister, niece, and nephew Joan Giuffre identified as a Sicilian, anarchist, lesbian, and once there see either live a life of poverty rather than pay taxes toward the Vietnam War. joined her. Following an philosopher, writer; she lived her life with courage and a priest or a psychiatrist... earthquake in 1971, they all dedication to justice and freedom for herself and others. they would tell [her] returned to Rochester. father.” Born in Rochester, NY in 1939, Joan was brought up to identify as American and Catholic; “I’m a Sicilian on both sides for 3,000 years, a tan in a black and white world.” At home she also learned of 1977 1979 1987 1992 2005 traditional healers and anarchist philosophy. Joan began writing while living in New York City in her early twenties. Poetry was her vehicle for recording life observations, experiences, revelations, and philosophy. Her friends were the avant-garde: artists, feminists, lesbians, activists, sex workers, Buddhist nuns, junkies, and spiritual seekers. “In our intense searching for some meaning in the life around us we went from LSD25 to yoga, from alcohol to vegetarianism, from amassing possessions to offering our lives to our various interests.” Joan went on to co-found Joan’s interest was in revolution that would uplift those who had no Joan co-founded Rising BlackRose Productions with Joan was taken to St. Mary’s Joan Giuffre died on voice, the forgotten and the abused. As a waitress in New York City, Productions with Sue Cowell; Susan David. It was Joan’s with a ruptured appendix. September 29th, 2005. she participated in union organizing. She marched for civil rights, their mission was to build, Joan attended the National vision as Company Director After a year in the hospital Her ashes are interred at aided draft dodgers, worked for gay rights, and fought violence against support, and encourage Women’s Conference which guided the venture - a she left in a wheelchair and Holy Sephulchre Cemetery. women. women’s cultural and political in Houston, Texas. While plan to produce progressive eventually became bedridden. expression. Two shows of Intensely spiritual, Joan remained Catholic throughout much of her life. there she held intense works and provide an She remained engaged in life Joan’s archives are being A Late Snow, a play by Jane She studied Yogananda’s teaching in the use of yoga and meditation to discussions with women opportunity for controversial through phone calls, letters, donated through the Out Chambers, were staged. They attain direct experience with God. Later in her life, Joan became ‘born- from across the spectrum drama to be performed and and visits while she continued Alliance to the Rochester also produced concerts, which again,’ and was baptized during a service at Manhattan Square Park. of delegations, often appreciated. to mentor others to follow Public Library. For Joan, these various beliefs did not hold contradictions; she found meeting in the common included nationally known their dreams. connections and common truths. smoking areas. performers such as Meg Christian, Casse Culver, and Joan’s complex and controversial story is told through the wealth of Robin Tyler. words she left behind, which tell of an unconventional life that cannot be neatly explained. i knew that i was different JOAN’S WRITING everybody said so for one Through her writing, Joan recorded her opinions, experiences, and visons with honesty and rawness. thing sometimes they were She wrote poetry, articles, editorials, and letters. Joan wrote prolifically about every aspect of life, among being nice sometimes mean them - love, drugs, sex, marriage, divorce, religion, oppression, abuse, poverty, liberation, and religion. always wondering i wondered Joan had poems appear in issues of Letters, an international magazine of art, poetry, and letters published by The Country Press from Saratoga Springs, NY. Feature articles and poems that Joan wrote also appeared in the too at their wondering i could Empty Closet newspaper, from Rochester, NY. already see that everyone An overview of Joan’s work includes ten collections of poetry, an autobiographical narrative, letters, was different i already knew editorials, and numerous other poems, rants, and musings. Collection titles include The Book of Coincidence; that no two snowflakes were These Truths I Hold to Be Self-Evident; Conflicting Public Opinion; and Passion, Poetry, and Politics.* alike no two grains of sand * Collections of Joan’s poetry can be accessed at the Out Alliance Library and there was nothing wrong or right with that - it was just The Book of Coincidence, shown here, provides Joan’s first collection of poems was compiled A Bitter Little Book, Joan’s second collection, True that’s how God made a record of Joan’s experience in New York into the book The Revolution of Ecstasy - First was first published in an edited form by City in 1962. Auditions 1960 - 1964. It was published by The Country Press of Saratoga Springs, NY in them, that’s what everybody It contains sketches, journal entries, random BlackRose Productions in 1987. 1976. said . notes, poems, and lists from which Joan compiled a collection. a person had to be like a Thief in his own world - Books to be hidden (You are too young for that book) Friends to be hidden (You are too white for that friend, you are too black for that friend) Lovers to be hidden (You are both Girls) Either you’re the Same or you’re A Bitter Little Book The Revolution of Ecstasy different That’s Life Dig The Book of Coincidence “The poems are about people and the poems In 1989, Joan wrote in an introduction: yourself Cop This Ain’t Your become sketches for characters in the first play World and i ain’t your I write as an adult (in the same years) called “It is still New York City; it is still 1964... Rachel’s decided not to shave anymore “The Revolution of Ecstasy,” ergo the title! I spent most of my time with lesbians, mostly creation you’re as surprised except under her arms The working title of the book had been ‘I Hold lesbian artists trying to raise an army to as i am to find Ourselves unless she goes to work These Truths to Be Self-Evident,’ but with each address our issues - convinced that we should but she probably won’t go to work passing day I realized that truth would not free our sisters from loony bins and shock Here - . .” because she hates hates hates work be reached so easily - but still suffering from treatment tables and behaviour modification the grandiosity of youth I felt no compunction control by drugs - free our sisters from i love Rachel about the title ‘The Revolution of Ecstasy’ ...” battering relationships as wives, daughters, - abridged poem from sisters, lovers and that free lesbians would / Rachel hates logic Passion, Poetry and Politics no line as free Among the 43 poems in this collection are: could singlehandedly make the whole world a as Rachel “The Hero,” “The Sinner,” “The Green-Eyed better place by doing what they do; by being i won’t even try words Monster,” “The Visionary,” “The Outlaw,” “The women with responsibililty for the larger Agonizer,” “The Philosopher,” and “The Mama.” community.” “I ONLY WROTE THE TRUTH.” ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ROCHESTER CAST THE BOYS MART CROWLEY Mart Crowley began writing The Boys in The Band in 1961, and was supported by Natalie IN THE BAND Wood, Joanne Woodward, and Diana Lynn, which gave him the opportunity to bring the play to production. According to Crowley, his motivation in writing the play was not activism, but anger anger toward the homophobic society and laws that impacted his life and career. In the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, Crowley explained, “The [play’s] self- Larry, Michael, and Emory deprecating humor was born out of a low Photo by The Boys in the Band self-esteem from a sense of what the times producer Dominick Dunne told you about yourself.” HISTORY OF THE PLAY ABOUT THE PLAY The Boys in the Band first opened in April 1968 and quickly became a huge success, drawing crowds and celebrities to over 1,000 performances. It Michael and his group of gay friends are celebrating Harold’s was the first major play to offer a view of the still-hidden gay community.
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