LGBTQ+ relationships
Michael Bronski
Michael Bronski is an independent scholar, journalist, and writer who has been involved in social justice movements since the 1960s. He has been active in gay liberation as a political organizer, writer, editor, publisher and theorist since 1969. He is the author of numerous books.
His book, A Queer History of the United States, won the 2011 Lambda Literary Award for Best Non-Fiction, as well as the 2011 American Library Association Stonewall Israel Fishman Award for Best Non-Fiction. "You Can Tell Just By Looking: And 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People" (coauthored...
Donald Ransom
Since arriving in Newark in the early 1980s, Rev. Don Ransom has worked in the fields of substance abuse and recovery, as well as HIV prevention and education. A central figure in Newark AIDS activism, he was involved with James Credle and others in the pioneering Fire Ball programs of the early 1990s, a member of the city’s first HIV planning council, and remains active with NJCRI and other organizations. As well, he serves as senior reverend at the Unity Fellowship Church NewArk.In his oral history interviews, Rev. Ransom talks about queer Newark nightlife, AIDS activism, his...
Ulysses Dietz
Ulysses Grant Dietz served as curator of Decorative Arts at The Newark Museum from 1980 until 2017, and was appointed Chief Curator in 2012. As the curator of 114 exhibitions covering all aspects of the decorative arts from colonial to contemporary, he studied and collected furniture, silver, base metals, glass, ceramics, textiles, and jewelry. He is particularly proud of his work on the Museum’s National Historic Landmark Ballantine House, built in1885. The Ballantine House was reinterpreted between 1992 and 1994 with a groundbreaking installation called House & Home.Mr. ...
Deion Session
Deion Amar “Dee Amar” Session. I rep Newark for life. Rutgers University: Newark. Unapologetically Black & Queer. Live your truth!Kareem Willis
Kareem Willis is a scholar, activist and proud member of the LGBTQ Community. As a Ph.D student currently enrolled in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University- Newark, Kareem is learning how to harness his passion for social advocacy,change and empowerment for the betterment of the lives of other persons. As a nonprofit enthusiast, hisfocus is on researching methods that nonprofit organizations and others charged with fulfilling the public good can deploy to better maximize their impact. This research initiative is important as nonprofits will need to craft more...Tiney Pringle
Tiney Pringle was born and raised in Newark. In her oral history, she discusses growing up butch in the city, including touring with a basketball team of all self-identified butch players in and around the tri-state area. She also speaks about her experiences in the club scene in the 1980s, as well as friendships and relationships in Newark, such as that with fellow narrator Carol Glassman. Tiney is an artist who works with paint and ceramics, and an athlete who has participated in softball, basketball, and football leagues.Click on photo to view image gallery
William Courson
Bill Courson was born and raised at the Jersey shore (his hometown is Avon by the Sea) and relocated to and has lived in Montclair, NJ since from 1978.A student at Brookdale and Monmouth Colleges in the the early 1970’s, he feels fortunate to have lived through and participated in a period of political activism and social and cultural ferment that witnessed the birth of the contemporary movement for LGBT equality. Along with a handful of other lesbians and gay male students, he co-founded the Gay Student Union, the first LGBTQ group at both colleges.
In 1986 he...
Gail Malmgreen
Gail Malmgreen (b.1942) grew up mostly in Weequahic, where her parents were active in Left politics. After attending Swarthmore, the University of Rhode Island, Indiana University, and Columbia University, Gail held a variety of archival and academic appointments, including serving as associate editor of the Eugene V. Debs Papers, visiting lecturer at Harvard, and associate head for archival collections at New York University’s Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. She has published in labor history and women’s history, has spearheaded several oral history projects, and is the...Aaron Frazier
38 years living with the virus, a poet and writer, self-published two chap books, write for La Raine Magazine and several other local and nationally. I have a BS From Saint Peters College in Jersey City Urban Studies Public Policies, an Associate in Liberal Arts Social Science from Essex County College, The Mother of the House of Divine of Greater Newark, a volunteer for the LBGTQ Center, previous Coordinator of Project Fire II of El Club Del Barrio, currently an active member of Hyacinth Cab and Thrive Role Model Story, a long term non progressor study participant with the National...
Carol Glassman
Carol Glassman was born in Brooklyn in 1942 to a first-generation large Jewish immigrant family. She went to public school and then Smith College, where she got involved with the student movement that became known as the New Left. Her activism eventually brought her to Newark, where she was a central member of the Newark Community Union Project (NCUP), part of the Students for a Democratic Society-led effort to organize in poor communities with the eventual goal of creating an “interracial movement of the poor.”In this oral history, she discusses coming into her lesbian identity...