Oral History Commons^™

Moser, W. Jo, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

W. Jo Moser is a mother, photographer, political activist, and lesbian. She has experience working in childcare and is passionate about child welfare. Moser has a unique perspective as a lesbian parent being in a romantic long-term relationship with her partner of several decades. She sheds light on what living in San Francisco was like as a queer-identifying person in the 60s, 70s, and early-80s. There were experiences of social isolation she shared. This isolation was due to the fact that she did not always feel accepted in lesbian communities, but also felt that she had to prove herself to …

Mckenzie, Mike, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Mike McKenzie was born in 1971 and grew up in Scarborough Maine raised by his single mother. Mike knew he was gay in 1988 while still in high school where he witnessed and faced homophobia. This resulted in dropping out of school at the age of 16. At 17, Mike joined the Coast Guard and served from 1990 to 1991. As a very masculine gay man, he was generally well accepted by those he served with who knew he was gay but faced homophobia from a newcomer who outed Mike; this resulted in a discharge from the Coast Guard. Back …

Manson, Barry, Alanna Larivee, Emma Wynn Hill

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Barry Manson was born in Skowhegan, Maine in 1947. He grew up in Rumford and worked in his father’s grocery store from third grade to high school. Manson shares his story of being an out gay man since the age of 12 and the uncomfortable environment of living in a closed-minded community in Northeast Maine. He briefly attended college in Tampa, Florida then Ricker College in Houlton. While living in Connecticut, he began hitchhiking to New York City on a regular basis to enjoy the city’s theater scene and night life. He moved to New York where his love for …

Henderson, Susan, Emma Wynn Hill

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Susan Henderson is a gay woman living in Portland, Maine. She realized she was gay after attending a meeting of the Wilde Stein Club at the University of Maine in Orono. After leaving Orono, she worked at the Portland Social Security Office and stayed there for 36 yeasr. She helped to write a newsletter for the Maine Gay Task Force that turned into Mainly Gay Magazine, a magazine that reached people nationwide. On the Maine Gay Task Force she helped to put on the Gay Symposia that the group hosted for almost ten years. She came out in the 70s …

Barteaux, Kennedy, Kayla Woodward, Nathanial Koch

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Kennedy Barteaux is a 38 year old trans man who grew up in Norridgewock, Maine who knew from a young age that he was queer. He was outed to his parents as a lesbian at age 14 and was kicked out of the house and moved in with a supportive friend’s family in Skowhegan. He moved to Portland at age 18 and got involved with the Dyke March. Barteaux discusses his discomfort with existing gender expectations and stereotypes in both the gay and trans communities. He talks about community organizing and public speaking with and for the trans community (including …

Solomon, Howard, Richard Morin, Michelle Johnston

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Howard Solomon is a 76 year-old man who grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania. During his early years, and still today, Judaism played a significant role in his life. His dad was a Kosher butcher, and Solomon attended a Hebrew school while growing up. Solomon’s profession was teaching history as a college professor at New York University, Tufts University, and the University of Southern Maine. Towards the end of his full-time teaching career, he taught a class about Lesbian and Gay History. During the same period, he openly discussed his homosexuality in the university context. He witnessed the AIDS epidemic …

Abdurraqib, Samaa, Iris Sangiovanni, Samar Ahmed

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Samaa Abdurraqib is a Black, queer, Muslim woman living in Portland, Maine. Abdurraqib was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attend the University of Ohio, and later the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a PhD in English Literature. After graduating she worked as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Next she went on to work the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine as a reproductive rights organizer. She now works for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Her advocacy and organizing work has included places such as Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, …

Vermette, Jean, Annie Holland, Olivia Tryon-Nadeau

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Jean Vermette, born in 1954, is a transgender woman from Skowhegan, Maine. At the age of three, Jean knew that her biological sex did not match her gender identity. When Jean came out as transgender to her wife in the 1980s, her marriage soon dissolved. After Jean filed for divorce, she spent five years transitioning. In addition to working as a self-employed electrician, Jean has dedicated her adult life to advocating for Maine’s transgender community. She created the Maine Gender Resource and Support Service and spent over fifteen years speaking publicly to Maine college students and medical professionals about the …

Parsons, Betsy, Shanisa Rodriguez, Madison Leblanc

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Betsy Parsons grew up in a Midwestern town in the 1960s and 1970’s in a middle class educated family active in the local community. Her father and mother were both teachers. Her mother and father met in Orono, Maine in English class before migrating to the Midwest. Parsons describes developing a love a teaching from her parents; she knew from a young age that she wanted to become a teacher herself and began teaching at Portland High School in 1977. She describes herself as a ‘late bloomer’ in terms of her sexuality; she didn’t come out to herself until her …

Antonik, Thomas, Ethan Masselli, Kailyn Braley

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Thomas Antonik is a gay man from Maine. Thomas moved to New York City in 1979 to attend the School of Visual Arts. He was diagnosed with HIV in the early days of the epidemic and one year later was diagnosed with AIDS. He was a part of the People with AIDS Coalition. In 1989, Antonik moved back to Maine and worked part time while also attending to his health. Antonik is an artist who works in painting and photography. He is also a practicing Quaker.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, …

Bull, Steven, Alanna Larrivee, Tracy Payne

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

In this interview (part 1 of a two part interview), Steve Bull describes growing up in the 1950s in Kennebunk and Cape Porpoise and becoming conscious at a young age of being “different.” At age 6 or 7, he was discovered having sex with a playmate. When, at age 13, his family moved to New Jersey, Steve instead secured a scholarship to instead attend an expensive boarding school in Massachusetts where he found himself surrounded by children from wealthy families and became aware of social justice, anti-war, and civil rights activism. After attending Johns Hopkins University for two years he …

Arbor, Kelly, Alanna Larrivee, Emma Wynn Hill

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Kelly Arbor, who identifies as genderqueer, was born in Rumford, Maine in 1977. Arbor is an artist, educator, and proud activist. They have been involved with activism throughout their life including in college at the University of Vermont. In this interview, Arbor talks about overcoming challenges growing up trans in a rural community, and discusses such issues as poverty, classism, LGBTQ representation, sex education in schools, incest, consent, AIDS, and substance abuse. Kelly Arbor also describes being involved in the Maine-based group MESH – Maine Educationalists on Sexual Harmony – a group working to create a dialogue surrounding sex positivity …

Summer 2006, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format. "The WMPG 'Zine"

Summer 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Summer 2005

Spring 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format.

Fall/Winter 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Summer 2004, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Spring 2004, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Fall 2004, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Fall 2003, 909 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Fall 2003

Ms. Joanna Boley-Lee On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee.

Interviewee: Ms. Joanna Boley-Lee (age 66; born 1937 in Newark, New Jersey; lived in Maine for 8 ½ years)

“I think my closing reflections would be that when I came to Lewiston I remember walking across the bridge that goes across the Androscoggin, the extension of Main Street, just sort of looking out, and there was a black man with a camera and I thought, good, there's a black person. So I went up to him and I introduced myself, told him I was new in the area and he tells me he was visiting. I …

Mrs. Rose Jackson On Employment, Hamida Suja

Quotes

Mrs. Rose Jackson Full Interview

Rose Jackson was born in Louisville, Mississippi, to Willie O Clayton Hathorne and Bertha Ophelia (Young) Hathorne; she had three sisters and three brothers. She left school at fifteen to marry her first husband, with whom she had five children; after his death, she married John Jackson, with whom she had another daughter. She worked as a cleaner and hairdresser, and received her diploma from Portland High night school. At the time of this interview, she had been living in Maine 40 years; her family moved here because she had a brother-in-law who had been …

Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Education, Maureen Elgersman-Lee

Quotes

Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson Full Interview

Rev. Albert Jackson was born in Slabfork, West Virginia, in 1942. At the time of this interview, he had been living in the Lewiston Auburn area for around forty three years. Clemmie Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1948; at the time of this interview, she had been living in Lewiston Auburn for around three years. The couple had three sons. Rev. Jackson graduated from high school in Lewiston Auburn; Mrs. Jackson graduated high school in Alabama, and received a degree in sociology with a minor …

Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Employment, Maureen Elgersman-Lee

Quotes

Reverend Albert Jackson and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson Full Interview

(Clemmie not pictured)

Rev. Albert Jackson was born in Slabfork, West Virginia, in 1942. At the time of this interview, he had been living in the Lewiston Auburn area for around forty three years. Clemmie Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, was born in Marengo County, Alabama, in 1948; at the time of this interview, she had been living in Lewiston Auburn for around three years. The couple had three sons. Rev. Jackson graduated from high school in Lewiston Auburn; Mrs. Jackson graduated high school in Alabama, and received a degree in …

Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee

Interviewees: Reverend Albert Jackson (born in Slabfork, Virginia; age 61; lived in Maine for 43 years) and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson (born March 1948 in Marengo County, Alabama; age 55; lived in Maine for 3.5 years)

“Well I like it. You know, I describe it as, ah, a place where you can shop. I notice when it rain, a lot of people go out to eat. They like to eat here in Maine. And I've noticed -- I've (inaudible) –but this is a good area to live in.”

Interviewer: “Are there any events in Lewiston and Auburn's …

Mr. James Sheppard On Leisure, Sanela Zukic

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Interviewer: Sanela Zukic

Interviewee: Mr. James Sheppard (born in New York City in 1924; both his parents immigrated from Antigua in the West Indies to Canada, then they came to the United States in 1923; moved to Maine in 1971).

“But in addition to that we'd have lots of summer events: picnics and that sort. But that's separate; that's a different thing.”

“Between my wife and I, we saw to it that they did a lot of reading. And we did a lot of traveling. We did a lot of traveling to the Caribbean and South America, and we took …

Emma Jackson On Employment, Maureen Elgersman-Lee

Quotes

Emma Jackson Full Interview

Emma Jackson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1941. She and her husband John Isaac Jackson had three children, and at the time of the interview she had been living in the Lewiston-Auburn area for forty five years. She spent the first ten years of her life in Maine doing domestic work, and then worked in the nursing field for thirty years, at a number of different facilities owned by Central Maine Medical Center. She discusses her life in Lewiston, challenges in finding housing she and her husband faced when they first moved to the area, …

Winter/Spring 2003, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Mr. Richard Terrence On Leisure, Rachel Talbot-Ross

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Interviewer: Rachel Talbot-Ross

Interviewee: Mr. Richard Terrence (age 57; born 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio; moved to Maine in October 1975)

“And, you know, raising my children is interesting in that as they grew older and as they noticed the very differences, they were starting to mix in very well. They were making friends, and, you know, they were involved in sporting activities and community.”

Mr. Richard Terrence On Education And Employment, Rachel Talbot Ross

Quotes

Mr. Richard Terrence Full Interview

Richard Tarrence was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945, the second-oldest of seven siblings. His parents moved to Ohio from the South in the 1930s; his maternal grandfather was a bishop in the AME church, and his paternal grandfather was a sharecropper. He was drafted in 1965 and spent four years in the Air Force, including time in Vietnam. He married his ex-wife, Loretta Wilson, who was from Maine, and they moved to Portland in 1975. He completed a degree in Criminal Justice at USM in 1979, and spent twenty-two years working for Allstate Insurance. …