Eisen, Margaret Bloch

Haynes, Kevin

Hill, Bob

Mellor, Carl

Ryan, Kerry L.

English

Syracuse University Research Facility and Collaborative Environment

ON OUR SHORT LIST CoME OuT, CoME OuT MicheLangeLo Signorife u caLLing gay men and women out of the cfor:~et. Michelangelo Signorile, best known for "outing" public figures who are homosexual, chronicles his own gay experience in Queer In America. Signorile says the book is a "call to arms" for America's gays and lesbians. A s a youngster growing up in Brooklyn, Michelan-gelo Signorile dreamed about writing a book. But not this one. Not some-thing as contentious as Queer In America: Sex, the Meoia, ano the CfoJetJ of Power. "I always thought it would be about someth ing less controversial, " admits S ignorile, a surprisingly soft-spoken New Yorker who majored in public relations at SU's Newhouse School of Public Communications and graduated . in 1982. "But at the same time I do remember, when I was a teenager, coming to terms with being gay, hav-ing fantasies about speaking to large groups of people and explaining to them that this was okay ." Homosexuality, h e says, isn 't a 6 S Y RA C USE UN IV ER S IT Y MA G AZ I N E lifestyle, b ut a life . In his book, pu b-lished this summer by Random House, Signorile argues that it's a painful life w hen lived in the proverbial closet. T hat's w hy h e wants everyone o u t, ready or not. Signorile has long advocated expos-ing p ublic figures w ho are homosexu-a l s, a practice dubbed "outing ." Writing primarily for gay and lesbia n m agaz ines , h e h as outed the late Malcolm Forbes, Hollywood billion-aire David Geffen, and Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams. No new names are outed in Sig-norile's book; he didn 't want the con-troversy to oversha d ow his call to arms. Instead, S ignorile wants to help d ismantle the closet erected by a pow-erful American triumvirate: the New York media, Washington politicians, and Hollywood entertainment moguls. "I think there was a perception that the closet was a p lace w here gay peo-p le went on their own when they real-ized they were gay, that this was a safe p lace to be," he explains . "But it's destructive." Despite t h e anonymity of many homosexuals, there has been progress in the fight for gay rights, especially in the era of AIDS. "Th ere have been enormous c h anges in the last five years," say s Signorile. Those changes have brought about more media cover-age, political debate, and a higher gay profile in Hollywood, including the upcoming release of Phifa{)efphia, a fJ.m starring Tom Hanks about an A IDS-infected man. But change has yet to bring about acceptance, says Signorile. "We haven't won anything except the right to have our grievances aired," he contends. "That's it." But for Signorile, that 's a start. It's a lso the most satisfying aspect of his first book. "Inspiring people," he says, "that's the real accomplishment." - KEVIN HAYNES 1Haynes et al.: On Our Short ListPublished by SURFACE, 1993Charles Richter and Ellen Baker Baltz run the Pennsylvania Stage Company in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Regional theater is not only an integral part of the community, says Baltz, but an incubator for what's seen on Broadway. Su.1an Micari '7 6 When Susan Micari created a literacy program for New York City's Women in Need shelter system five years ago, she realized everything did not begin "once upon a time." An actress, Micari uses multicultural folktales, acting improvisation, and storytelling to enhance the reading and critical-thinking skills of homeless women and children. "One thing I know from acting is that you can be free in your imagination in a way that you · might never be able to be free in life, depending on your circumstances," says Micari, a 1976 the-ater graduate. "But if you can give yourself experiences through your imagination, it can really help you to overcome hardship in your life." Some of her students have left the shelter and moved on to attend college or enter the work force with their new skills. Perhaps fairy tales sometimes do come true. -KERRY L. RYAN 7 S E PTEMB E R 1993 ALLENTOWN OR BUST ELLen Baker Ba lt z ' 73 Char l e.1 Ri chter '7 3 I n a renovated old brick church in Allentown, P ennsy lvania, a woman wearing a large cowboy hat greets theatergoers with a friendly "H owdy." E llen Baker Baltz, managing director of t h e Pennsylvania Stage Company (PSC), strives to welcome the commu-nity into the theater and the theater into the community. She considers the sur-vival of her company to be at stake. "Many people in the arts take for granted that the arts are a lso funda -mental in other people's lives, bu t that's not so," she says. "The arts are compet-ing with videotapes, sports, TV, and a whole host of other activities that don't ask you to donate money like we do." R ecently arrived from Texas, w here she started a professional touring/teach-ing theater company, Baltz now uses some of the same techniques to send actors from PSC, a nonprofit regional company, to visit schools, nursing homes, and other institutions, and to bring groups into her theater for workshops. While the number of regional the-aters in the nation h as seriou s ly declined in the past decade, w ith many of the remaining ones in debt, th e 60 or so left are vital to the American cul-tural scene, Baltz says. "Some really exciting theater is coming out of regional theater," she says. "Even your Stephen Sondheims are using them as an incubator." Baltz, a 1973 speech communica-tion graduate, was recommended for h e r job by PSC's a rtistic director, Charles Richter, a lso a 1973 graduate of the Coll ege of Visual a nd Performing Arts. T he two h ave kept in tou ch since they met on their first day at Syracuse University, w h e n they wer e pair ed as acting p artners in a dra ma class. Richter, chairman of theater arts at Pennsylv ania's Muhlenberg College, strongly supports region-al theater. "We can do plays that ar e not primarily commercia l, " h e says, "plays of significance and mean-ing, in high-quality productions with honesty and artistry." - MARGARET B LOCH EISEN 2Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [1993], Art. 3https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol10/iss1/3>MichaelS. Shapiro, who received his bachelor's degree in American studies from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1970, was appointed by President Clinton as general counsel for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Shapiro, a former historian and museum director, was a senior attorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges before his appointment. > Barbara D. Living.Jton, a 1984 graduate in experimental photography from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, received the Eclipse Award for outstanding photography for her pho-tograph of three-year-old filly Turn back the Alarm. Eclipse awards are given annually to honor outstanding horses and people involved in the racing world. A free-lance photographer, Livingston resides in Saratoga Springs, New York. > Edward H. 0 'Neil, executive director of the Pew Health Professions Commission and co-director of the University of California at San Francisco Center for the Health Professions, wrote a policy paper for the White House on the future of the primary care work force at the request of Hillary Rodham Clinton. O'Neil, who has been at the forefront of health care reform, earned his doctorate in American studies from the Maxwell School in 1984. IN HIS OWN DEFENSE B laiJ e Wint e r ' 8 5 MI life seems to have been a series of overcoming c ha l-enges," says Blaise Winter, whose seven-year career as a football player app eared to be over w hen he was released by the Gree n B ay Packers after the 1990 season. Unable to la tch on with another team, Winter was forced to sit out the 1991 season and was ad v ised by ma ny p eople to retire. H e told t h em to think again, then went abou t a determined quest to r etu r n to t h e Nation a l F ootb a ll League. W inter, a 1985 SU physical educa-t ion graduate, spent $2,000 to p roduce a short video t it led BLaue Winter Wantd to Play FootbaLL, w hich he mailed to all 28 N FL teams. H e wrote letter s, spen t hund red s of dolla r s o n p ho ne ca lls, then drove more tha n 7,000 miles t o visit N FL clubs to req uest a tryout. H e go t hi s o p portunity in S a n Diego, due in large part to his associa tion with George O 'Leary, a n assistant coach with the Chargers and Winte r's position coach during hi s day s at Sy racuse University. "I think people looked at him as a kid w ho would give you everything he had but was not really good enough," says O'Leary. "S o m etimes coach es need to look beyond a person's height, w eight, and speed stats and see w hat's inside." Winte r m a d e th e Chargers , became a starter at defensive tack-le, a nd h elped t he team w in its first d ivision t itle since 1981. "Last year was great for m e because I d efied the odds and p roved everybody wrong w ho told me to m ove on w ith my life," says W inter. I t w a s n' t t h e f irst t ime Winter rose to t he challenge of d oub t. Born w it h a cleft palate, he underwent speech 8 S YR ACUSE UN IV ERS ITY MA GA Z IN E therapy as a child and was briefly mistaken for a developmentally dis-abled student. Tumors were r emoved from both Winter's ears, leaving him 90 percen t deaf on his r ight side. He became a football star in high school but wasn't highly recruited by col-leges. He received the last available scholarship from Syracuse in 1980, and then only because another player decided to go elsewhere. H e eventual-ly b ecame a co-capta in du r ing his senior season in 1983. ''I've alway s felt I have to work every day t o prove my worth and overcome the labels put on me," says Winter. " I enjoy prov ing p eople wrong." - B oBHILL As a defensive tackle with the San Diego Chargers during the 1992 season, Blaise Winter fortified one of the better defens-es in the National Football League. 3Haynes et al.: On Our Short ListPublished by SURFACE, 1993Tammy Tarbell celebrates her Iroquois heritage through sculpted clay dolls. She hopes her work- decorated with fur, feathers, and beads-helps viewers appreciate the diversity of Native American culture. Robert O ' Connor G ' 85 Debut novels don't get much better than Robert O'Connor's Buffalo Soldiers. Published last spring, the 324-page book makes a mockery out of peacetime army life and a celebrity out of O'Connor, who earned a master's degree in creative writing from Syracuse in 1985. Buffalo Soldiers received rave reviews from fellow writers and the New York Times, which surprised O'Connor, a lec-turer at the State University of New York College at Oswego and an adjunct professor at SU. "You sort of prepare yourself for the worst," he says. "A lot of friends had books come out and go down quietly, so I was prepared for that. I was really gratified when the reviews came out and a movie deal came through. Really, I was astonished." -Boa HILL 9 S EPT E MB E R 1993 NATIVE IMAGES Tammy Tarb e lL '80 Tammy Tarbell has her own line of dolls, but she doesn 't sell them in department stores. Tarbell makes clay dolls, sculptures that depict and celebrate Native American women. In pieces such as "Clan Mother" and "Turtle Woman," which has a turtle shape, the artist draws upon her Iroquois heritage, exploring Iroquois ideas in a new format. Iroquois lore, for example, often places North America on the back of the "Great Turtle." Tarbell, a 1980 graduate of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, says this piece and her other dolls communicate on both a visual and an emotional level. She believes she passes along energy to her cre-ations and that each of them has its own spirit. "The dolls speak to you," she says. "They draw you in. People who look at my dolls say they stir something inside them." She hopes her pieces help viewers gain some appreciation of Iroquois cul-ture and of the diversity of Native Americans. "Too often, people put us into one category," she says. "When they think of a Native American, the image is of a Plains Indian in a Western headdress. There are hundreds of tribes, each with its own identity." In making her sculptures, Tarbell rolls and shapes clay, carves out faces with a w ooden probe, and fires the pieces in a kiln. The dolls' faces, hair, and blankets are all made from clay. She decorates the pieces with fur, feath-ers, and glass or brass beads. "I start a piece, set it aside, and then do some more work," says Tarbell. "I worked on 'Strawberry Wo-man,' a large piece, for over two years." She recently completed an internship at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, N ew York. At the museum, sh e coordinated "Women of t h e Haudeno-saunee," a show ex hibi t ing h er own work and t h at of 14 other Iroquois women. - CARL MELLOR 4Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [1993], Art. 3https://surface.syr.edu/sumagazine/vol10/iss1/3

On our Short List

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On our Short List

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