Volume 15 • Issue 5 SEPTEMBER — OCTOBER 2019 375 S. Euclid Avenue • Tucson, AZ 85719 Senior Pride celebrates, supports and unites Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Older Adults in Southern Arizona Senior Pride Thanks The David and Lura Lovell Foundation For Landmark Grant by Lavina Tomer The David and Lura Lovell Foundation, a family The largest grant we have received to date, this foundation based in Tucson, have approved a major funding will support Senior Pride End of Life Planning grant of $25,000 to Senior Pride to join an initiative for Program, a Health and Well-Being Program. We will hire End of Life Planning. Senior Pride is the only LGBTQ+ one part time coordinator and engage trained volunteers community organization to become a member of the who will hold “Honoring a Life” Workshops. These work- Arizona End of Life Partnership. This partnership is shops will give participants an opportunity to share re- charged with supporting communities to reflect on how flections, ask questions and receive up to date materials life values can stay intact and tools to accomplish with informed planning. Senior Pride is the only LGBTQ+ community critical goals for end of Founded in 1994, the Lovell organization to become a member of the life plans. They will be Foundation has this initiative offered for all ages and as a priority. Arizona End of Life Partnership. be free of charge. End of life concerns What should we know like living wills, health care powers of attorney and and do as LGBTQ+ people to prevent unwanted events how to honor life after death are best planned for in and people from negatively influencing the close of a life advance. Good planning will allow day to day living with well lived? confidence and relief. Good planning will let families For more information and a schedule, check out and friends know wishes, expectations, and how best to Senior Pride’s website, https://soazseniorpride.org preserve individual dignity and respect. Thank you Christina Rossetti, consultant and John Amoroso, Executive Director of the Lovell The 42nd Annual Foundation for the invitation to submit a grant application for your consideration. From Arizona End Of Life Partnership: Tucson Pride Festival “We want to fundamentally change how we talk about Saturday, September 28 death”. Parade 11 am Look for Senior Pride in the parade and our booth (Country Club & Broadway to Reid Park) at the festival in Reid Park. Congratulations to Tucson Pride. Festival Noon to 9 pm (Reid Park, Demeester Outdoor Performance https://tucsonpride.org/ Center, 900 S Randolph Way) General Admission: $20 pride2019/ Lower ticket cost for veterans, children, others Wild Geese Foundation Grant—Key to Senior Pride Future The Wild Geese Foundation has awarded Senior publications and social media. Pride a grant of $5,000 as a major boost to building the • And, to seek and engage partnerships, networks organization’s capacity. and collaborations with all who serve older people in In its application to the foundation, Senior Pride Pima County and surrounding areas. stated that the objectives are to begin a transition from Statement by Sara Whitman, co-founder a grassroots Wild Geese organization to I am pleased to report that the Wild Geese Foundation Foundation: a more formal Board approved a grant in the amount of $5,000 to We are a family one that will support your good work at Southern Arizona Senior Pride. foundation. We serve LGBTQ+ — Sue Hyde, Executive Director, Wild Geese Foundation. believe in a fair older adults for and just society… generations and The poem conveys much of what I believe about to increase services. the role as a funder—that while there is a definite As part of the capacity-building process, the Steering power imbalance in the world of grant making, it Committee will hire a consultant for a fund develop- is our responsibility to create easy access, and as ment plan to increase donations, grants and sponsor- much respect in the process as possible. There is no ships for our non-profit organization. need to have anyone “walk on their knees.” https:// The need for capacity building is the anticipation of wildgeesefdn.org (reference to “Wild Geese” by Mary an increase in the population of older LGBTQ+ adults Oliver). and to meet greater needs for services, connection to community, and collaborations. A summary of Senior Pride’s key goals is as follows: Senior Pride Speakers Series • To provide resources to LGBTQ+ older adults as well as support groups; Our series is open to everyone and always features interesting speakers. • To interrupt isolation through establishing social connections (such as monthly potlucks and speakers The monthly program offers opportunities series, book club, workshops and friendly visits to for networking, discussion and homebound individuals) Senior Pride updates. • To enhance health and well-being through education Senior Pride meets from 2-3 pm at the and resources; Himmel Park Library, •To build cultural experiences and communications 1035 N. Treat Ave through community events that celebrate our history on the second Tuesday of the month. and cultural achievements; September 10 – Denisse Brito, Asst Curator of •To continue to serve as a communications hub Community Engagement, through our website (https://soazseniorpride.org), Tucson Museum of Art https://tucsonmuseumofart.org Topics: Senior accessibility, Free First Thursdays, Senior Pride Contact Information new exhibit: The Western Sublime: Majestic Land- mail to SAAF at: 375 South Euclid Avenue • scapes of the American West Tucson AZ 85719 October 8 – James Hodges, Partnership phone number: (520) 312-8923 Specialist, US Census Bureau email: [email protected] website: https://soazseniorpride.org Topic: Why is it so important to participate in the 2020 Census? (LGBTQ people have Facebook page: been underrepresented). soazseniorpride Email [email protected] • 520-312-8923 Please Like US !! or visit https://soazseniorpride.org P.2 Community Profile Lola Lai Jong: Interview by James Richardson Proudly Womonloving, Chicago-born Chinese, Wordsmith, Taoist, and Asian Pacific Islander Queer activist. A feminist philosopher and radical lesbian. And, for good measure, carpenter and house painter. Most in Tucson know her as Writer and Poet. “I am a person unafraid to laugh at myself; I make every effort to check my ego.” Senior Pride: How did you start to write? Lola: “In the 1950’s, my sister and I were the only Chinese Americans at my school until Junior high. There was little published writing on what it was to be Chinese American and I wanted to express my Photo: James Richardson feelings. My family didn’t discuss sexuality. I learned to focus on who I was and dismissed who I was not”. Lola Lai Jong Early writings depicted life in Chicago as Chinese of Color Tent at the Michigan Women’s Music Festival American. Maturity and exposure turned her focus to from 1987 -1993, lesbian lives and experiences and her writing earned Since 1994, I have participated in the in the attention. Then she appeared at LGBT bookstores Women’s Sundance Lakota Ceremony. and in venues on Chicago’s Printing House Row neighborhood, once ground zero for the Publishing She helps host and produce “In Our own Voices” at industry. KXCI radio, offering listeners a Healing happens when one glimpse into the experiences of “Writing stories of my life the various voices that make up gave visibility to the events becomes visible. — Lola Lai Jong Tucson’s LGBTQ+ Community. that happened to me. Healing happens when one becomes visible.” Senior Pride: Whom do you admire? Her accomplishments are many; her resume Lola: Amoja Three Rivers - American-born African, is big. Choctaw, Tsalagi, Ojibway, Jew and one of the founders of the Womyn of Color Tent and Sanctuary Lola co-founded Invisible to Invincible (“i2i”) at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. “A tireless Asian Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago, and helped activist, theorist, and teacher.” organize the first National Asian Lesbian retreat in Santa Cruz, CA in 1989. Senior Pride: When you relax? Lola co-founded CALM, PALS, MAD-Asian Lola: I hang with friends and play keyboard, Lesbian gatherings in Chicago and the Midwest in free form. the 1980s as well as the Asian American Literary and Arts Society. And she co-facilitated the Womyn Senior Pride Steering Committee Senior Pride officers are Gary Gardner, Chair; Lee Crosby, Vice-Chair; Cynthia Beving, Treasurer, and James Richardson, Secretary. They serve on the Steering Committee with Robert Bell, Joyce Bolinger, Jade Davis, Claire Ellington, Gretchen Field, Roger Osgood, Sue Pennington, Kay Smith, Lavina Tomer and Curt Stubbs. This group meets on the 1st Thursday of each month from 10:30am-12:15pm (except July and August) to conduct Senior Pride business, set policies and plan programs and events. Anyone interested is welcome— see calendar of ongoing events for meeting notice. Contact: [email protected] or Telephone 520-312-8923. P.3 P.4 Words of Wisdom: Showcase of LGBTQI+ Elder Poets Headlining the roster of poets is Rebecca Seiferle, whose works have been awarded national honors. Rebecca Seiferle has published four poetry collections and was Tucson Poet Laureate from 2012-16. Her col- lection Wild Tongue (Copper Canyon Press, 2007) won the 2008 Grub Street National Poetry Prize, and Bitters (Copper Canyon, 2001) won the Western States Book Award and a Pushcart prize. Seiferle is also a noted translator from Spanish; Copper Canyon Press published her translation of Vallejo’s The Black Heralds in 2003, and she translated Vallejo’s Trilce (Sheep Meadow Press, 1992). She has taught at Brandeis University, Vanderbilt University and Hamilton College and at many other national and international writers and arts centers and festivals. She was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship for po- etry in 2004.