Cincinnati Before Stonewall: The Untold Queer History of the Queen City by Jacob Hogue
Long before Stonewall, queerness thrived in the Queen City.
From queer soldiers in 1862 to drag kings and queens who lit up saloons and concert halls, Cincinnati’s early LGBTQ+ history reaches into the forgotten corners of the city’s past, introducing unlikely and extraordinary figures. Like Mary Ann Jefferson, a Black transgender woman who, in the late nineteenth century, became a fixture in the criminal underworld of Rat Row, Cincinnati’s most dangerous neighborhood. Or Julius “Junkie” Fleischmann, a gay man who, even as the U.S. government launched a purge of homosexuals from its ranks, secretly served as a covert operative for the CIA at the end of World War II. Charting the rise of pre-Stonewall bars, brothels, and hidden sanctuaries that offered fleeting refuge amid relentless repression, historian Jacob Hogue offers a bold, long-overdue reclaiming of queer Cincinnati’s place in the American narrative.
Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest, featuring Sean Andres
Long before Stonewall, queerness thrived in the Queen City.
How do the stories we tell about Midwestern places influence or reflect our experiences? How is the literature of a place or a region relevant to the people who live there? In this expansive anthology, Andy Oler collects 72 original short essays by a diverse array of contemporary writers. Each explores locales in Midwestern literature relevant to the life and work of literary figures and canonical authors such as Toni Morrison and Willa Cather. Lingering in these places in both body and mind, the contributors contemplate the resonances and desires nurtured by their chosen location. Together, the essays take readers on an odyssey that maps our inner longing to connect across vast landscapes. A singular collection of creative nonfiction, Lingering Inland plumbs the personal and collective essence that binds Midwesterners together through words and places.
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Queens of Queen City 