Biography LGBTQ+ Books
LGBTQ+
Blue Planet Blues Vol. 1 Hitchhiking the Psychedelic Matrix: The Memoirs of Holly Avila
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME on a journey through the free love '70's... Read what happens when a young woman coming of age turns on, tunes in & drops out of college to join the counter-culture on a quest for freedom and spiritual self-discovery. Hitch a ride with Holly from go-go dancing jobs to hippy communes to anti-war demonstrations with nothing but a backpack, guitar and her thumb. Dive into romantic LSD trips and magical experiences as our heroine explores the edges of existentialism & the irony of love.In this opening volume of the series, based on the journals that Holly kept from 1974 to 1977, we are introduced to her pursuit of freedom after rebelling against her cloistered life & upbringing with a midwestern military family. Through her love affairs, philosophical musings & psychedelic experimentation we are brought on a journey around the continent as a reflection of her internal search for answers. Why have I never felt at home? Why did my mother give me up? Why do I feel incomplete without a lover? Why does the 'real world' seem so unreal to me?Holly Avila is an artist, author & musician who has been writing & performing songs since the 1970s. Her love of folk music led her to Greenwich Village, NYC where she formed the bands NY Frets & later Wheels, playing the tri-state country-bluegrass-blues circuit for 12 years. In 1986, Variety wrote, "The city came through vividly in the lyrics, but her deep-rooted singing was pure country like maple syrup poured over a stack of flapjacks." Her music found its way to the big screen in 1987 when Wheel's song "Trying Very Hard" appeared in the feature film Kandyland. Holly later joined the Juggernaut String Band in Pennsylvania while raising her children. They performed around the Delaware Water Gap area & appeared on the main stage of the Philly Folk Festival in 2000. She then went on to form her own world fusion project Blue Planet / Planeta Azul to explore her interest in Latin American folk forms, multi-cultural influences & psychedelic rock. Global Rhythm Magazine selected her Cumbia "Querida De Mi Alma" for their November 2006 Global Rhythm on Disc compilation. In 2009 she released her debut album "Mountains Back Home" on all digital streaming platforms, defining Blue Planet's new sound of Pan-American Fusion. In 2011 Holly drove cross-country to Baja California, Mexico where she wrote & recorded her upcoming project “West Coast Bound” EP which is due to be released in fall of 2018.
LGBTQ+
Erika and Klaus Mann in New York: Escape from the Magic Mountain (Chicago Shorts)
This is the riveting tale of two brave nonconformists whose dramatic lives open up new perspectives on the history of the twentieth century. Thomas Mann’s two eldest children, Erika and Klaus, were unconventional, rebellious, and fiercely devoted to each other. Empowered by their close bond, they espoused vehemently anti-Nazi views in a Europe swept up in fascism and were openly, even defiantly, gay in an age of secrecy and repression. In 1936, they fled to the United States and chose New York as their new adopted home. From the start, the two were embroiled by the literary and intellectual life, political turmoil, and shifting sexual mores of their times. Andrea Weiss engages their struggles, their friendships (Maurice Wertheim and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, among them), and their liaisons, as the siblings try to adapt to their new lives, all while introducing their work to an American audience for the first time.
LGBTQ+
The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
LGBTQ+
asunder
There is a saying that, when two soulmates find each other, and fall in love, a star is born. In case of Sabine and Birgit, this saying becomes true. For the time of ten weeks, nobody was able to separate them. But they were enforced to split in twain, which was concluding in appalling consequences for their lives …