Click here to join this online CLGS Lavender Lunch via Zoom!
Drawing on years of experience speaking on topics at the intersection of music, queer history, and activism, Rev. Jim Mitulski and musicologist Thomas Kurtz will explore how the relationship between music and spirituality served as a voice for social change among queer communities that faced systemic exclusion during the worst years of the AIDS crisis.
In this CLGS Lavender Lunch, our presenters will investigate how modes of musical expression including sound, lyrics, and performance practice are inextricably linked to understanding history as activism among Queer communities.
Rev. Mitulski will also speak on his experience as the Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church San Francisco between 1986-2000 while focusing on the musical influences during his tenure there.
And… we will examine a few examples of current queer hymns!
Our Presenters
Thomas Kurtz
Dr. Thomas Kurtz‘s research investigates how music and performance functioned as a catalyst for social justice during prominent social movements, with a particular focus on Queer communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has held teaching positions at San Antonio College and the University of Texas at Austin, and he currently teaches in the Performing Arts & Social Justice departments at The University of San Francisco, as well as at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Jim Mitulski
Rev. Dr. Jim Mitulski is Pastor of Congregational Church of the Peninsula in Belmont, CA, and a resident of Oakland. He has been a pastor in both the Metropolitan Community Churches (the historically queer/LGBTQ Church) and the United Church of Christ for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of both CLGS and the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network and he was instrumental in bringing the MCC Archives to CLGS. Jim is a former program coordinator at the Hormel LGBT Collection at the San Francisco Public Library, and he edited the MCC Hymnal (1989), an inclusive language resource used by grass roots queer religious communities around the world. His work has been profiled by historian Lynne Gerber at The Revealer.