Long before Keith Boykin stood in the East Room of the White House helping orchestrate the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and LGBT leaders, he was just a kid growing up in St. Louis. It’s easy to forget that icons often start right next door. Boykin, who lived here until high school before…
Books
How Author Jeff Copeland Reintroduced Andy Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn to the World
Author Jeff Copeland was not like the other boys growing up in exurban St. Louis in the 1970s. Rather than playing sports, he was fascinated by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Copeland decided early on that he wanted to write about celebrities, and with the help and encouragement of his resourceful mother, who came…
St. Louis County Library’s 2025 Community Autism Expo is This Saturday
The new Clark Family Branch plays host to St. Louis County Library’s 2025 Community Autism Expo, Saturday, April 5th from 11:00-2:00 p.m. Now in its sixth year, the expo provides the St. Louis area with one of the largest gatherings of organizations and resources for families with loved ones on the spectrum. This year’s expo…
Steven Louis Brawley’s Jackie Kennedy Research Cited in New York Times Bestselling Book
Most of us know of Steven Louis Brawley as being our resident St. Louis LGBTQIA+ historian, but did you know that he also is a nationally known Jackie Kennedy Onassis expert? “As a young child my family strongly encouraged my love of history. Especially Abraham Lincoln and John and Jackie Kennedy,” says Brawley. “That passion…
Arch Rival Roller Derby Is a Queer Sanctuary
When I joined St. Louis’ flat-track roller derby team in 2016, one of the first things I was told was, “Nobody joins roller derby if they have a perfectly happy life. Usually, they’re dealing with some shit.” That was certainly the case for me. I was 22, newly enrolled in graduate school at Washington University…
Chris Andoe is Ready to Talk
Chris Andoe learned to tell stories in his grandmother’s backyard on the north side of Tulsa, Okla. “I’m from a family of storytellers,” he says. At 46, he’s a current St. Louis Magazine contributor, former editor of Out in STL and the author of the recently released “House of Villadiva,” a book that straddles multiple…
Alex Zivic’s Collection of Poems Takes on the Dark–and the Light
Alex Zivic has packed a lot into his slim volume of poetry, Ellipsism. The evocative and often spare poems cover loss, longing, visions and perceptions, with darkly lush illustrations by artist Wafalo. Zivic, 25, spent about two years working on the book, writing in a Moleskine notebook or the Notes app on his phone. Sometimes…
Free to Be You and Me
In the early days of Shameless Grounds, there was confusion. Michelle Mueller, who co-founded the business with her husband Andrew in 2011, recalls that people were often puzzled over what exactly makes a café sex-positive. “I think some people expected we were going to make them eat on the floor, or wear a collar or…
Mid-20th Century LGBTQ History Revealed in Newly Released Tell-All Memoir — ‘Farm Boy, City Girl: From Gene to Miss Gina’
ST. LOUIS, May 27, 2020 – MiRiona Publishing and author John “Gene” E. Dawson recently announced the official release of his historic memoir, “Farm Boy, City Girl: From Gene to Miss Gina.” The book details Gene’s life growing up in Depression-era Iowa in a poor farming Irish-Catholic family and his adult years spent living on…
Author & Professor Patrick Dilley to Present from Acclaimed New Book at Prime Timers This Saturday
Patrick Dilley, Professor of Higher Education and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will be presenting from his newly published book at this month’s Prime Timers St. Louis organizational meeting, Saturday, August 10, 2019. Gay Liberation to Campus Assimilation: Early Non-Heterosexual Student Organizing at Midwestern Universities, was published in February by…
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