National Coming Out Day an ODU LGBT+ Tradition

Posted on October 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

By Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Assistant

ncod-flyer

October is National Gay and Lesbian History Month and October 11 is National Coming Out Day (NCOD). 

National Coming Out Day has been an ODU tradition for LGBT folks on campus since 1989.  In terms of ODU traditions, that’s a pretty long time.  While founded as a Division of the College of William and Mary in Norfolk in 1930, ODU didn’t become a full-fledged university until 1969.   It really hasn’t been until the last decade or two that ODU started thinking in terms of what traditions we have to offer, so an annual event celebrated at ODU since 1989… well in ODU terms that’s a pretty long time.

National Coming Out Day grew out of a February 1988 conference held in Virginia.  Attending this event were approximately 200 LGBT leaders from across the United States.  The day was envisioned as a way to carry forward the energy and enthusiasm from the October 11, 1987 Lesbian and Gay March on Washington.  This march drew 600,000 people in a time when it was harder for LGBT folks to be open about their sexuality. 

The purpose of National Coming Out Day is to encourage LGBT folks to “take the next step” in their coming out process – to push their boundaries, and to be truthful and open – but to do so in a way that is safe for them.  This next step can be something private such as telling a family member or friend, or something public like being visible as an LGBT person in one’s community.  National Coming Out Day recognized that coming out is often a lifelong process for LGBT individuals. 

The purpose of the event is also to foster LGBT visibility.  Unlike Gay Pride Day, which is all about celebrating the LGBT community, National Coming Out Day has been about LGBT folks letting the community at large know they exist and who they are.   Unlike many marginalized communities, it isn’t always obvious who is LGBT.  Many people don’t know that they know someone who is LGBT, and many LGBT folks remain in the closet for fear of harassment, job discrimination, or ridicule from friends and family.  This was even more the case in the late 1980s when National Coming Out Day was founded than it is today.  The cost of being invisible is that it fosters misunderstanding, stereotypes, and bigotry.   Those who know someone who is LGBT are also more likely to support LGBT rights issues. 

The first ever National Coming Out Day was held on October 11, 1988.  It was organized by Jean O’Leary of the National Gay Rights Advocates and by Robert Eichberg founder of a personal growth workshop called “Experience Weekend.”  The first National Coming Out Day was covered in both mainstream and LGBT publications.  National publications providing coverage included USA Today, CNN, and NPR.  Oprah Winfrey dedicated segments of her show that day to coming out. 

After 1988, National Coming Out Day became its own organization to promote the annual event, to keep track of these events across the country, and to provide coming out resources.  In 1990, the NCOD organization merged with the Human Rights Campaign to become the National Coming Out Day Project.

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The ODU Gay and Lesbian Student Union (GLSU) was on board for the second ever National Coming Out Day on October 11, 1989.  The GLSU officially started meeting as a student organization on campus earlier that year in the Spring semester.  This first National Coming Out Day Social at ODU was held in the Suffolk Room in Webb Center from 3:30-5:30pm.  The event included refreshments, discussion, and coming out resources.  During the first decade and possibly much longer, this annual social at ODU was held in Webb Center.  In 1990, the GLSU extended an invitation to folks from other local colleges and universities, as well as a local LGBT youth group, to attend.  Music was also added to the line-up.  In 1991, the event included the film “On Being Gay.”  A National Coming Out Day exhibit was displayed in front of the ODU Bookstore that year.  At the time, the bookstore was located in Webb Center.  The display included LGBT books and buttons, as well as an official National Coming Out Day poster and t-shirt.  In 1992, National Coming Out Day included a showing of the film “Since Stonewall.”  In 1999, the film “Working with Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students” was shown and a “Reflections Gallery” was created in Webb Center.  The gallery was “A chance to view a collection of written thoughts, feelings, and experiences from the Old Dominion Community about gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. “

Today as LGBT people are more accepted by society, National Coming Out Day has come to be a day of celebration for the LGBT community.  While largely a U.S. holiday, it is also celebrated internationally in Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

National Coming Out Day has become one of many events held at ODU and across the U.S. in conjunction with LGBT History Month.  LGBT History Month was founded in 1994 by a Missouri high school history teacher named Rodney Wilson.  The month is celebrated in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day.  LGBT History Month celebrates the contributions of LGBT individuals, organizations, and community to history and society, as well as the LGBT struggle for civil rights. 

“Most people think they don’t know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact, everybody does. It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes.”
– Robert Eichberg, 1993

References:

“ODU gay group to hold social”, Our Own Community Press, October 1989, p. 7.

“Members of Old Dominion University’s Gay and Lesbian Student Union (GLSU) display their banner and a National Coming Out Day Poster (photo with caption)”, Our Own Community Press, November 1989. p. 17.

“The ODU GLSU Invites You! National Coming Out Day Social (advertisement), Our Own Community Press, October 1990, p. 6.

“October 11 is third annual National Coming Out Day”, Our Own Community Press, October 1990, p. 22.

“October 11 – Norfolk: Coming Out Day Social, Old Dominion University Gay and Lesbian Student Union (calendar listing)”, Our Own Community Press, October 1991, p. 21.

“October 8 – Norfolk: National Coming Out Day Social, ODU GLSU (calendar listing)”, Our Own Community Press, October 1992, p. 15.  

“National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11”, Our Own Community Press, October 1993, p. 2.

National Coming Out Day Social (flyer), Box 2, Folder 10, Old Dominion University Gay and Lesbian Student Union (GLSU) Records, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529.

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Posted in Archival Research, Hampton Roads History, LGBTQIA+, ODU Digital Collections, Our Own

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Gimme Some Loving

Posted on October 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

by Maddie Dietrich, Music Special Collections and Research Specialist

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Gene Loving with members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

We in SCUA are excited to announce the acquisition of a unique collection from the local pop music industry, the business records of AGL (A Gene Loving) Productions, a concert promotion agency that brought some of the greatest legends of pop music to Hampton Roads during the 1960s and 70s.

Who is Gene Loving?

A historical player in southeast Virginia’s music scene, both as a concert promoter and as a radio/TV personality. Loving worked his way up in the radio business as a disc jockey and later as music director for Richmond station WLEE. He got his start as a promoter when he booked Freddy Cannon for a live broadcast in 1961. He later moved to WGH where he became the first DJ to pick a Beatles record as a future hit, and over the next four decades he would become one of Virginia’s most recognized on-air personalities.

What did he donate?

A trove of business records and promotional materials (press kits, booking agreements, correspondence, photographs and ephemera) that tell the stories of the pop, rock, and R&B legends Loving’s agency brought to Hampton Roads: the hotels where they stayed, the accommodations they required, the venues where they performed, how much they were paid, and which shows sold out (and which ones flopped). Included among the artists Loving booked were James Brown, The Yardbirds, Sonny & Cher, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, and The Jackson Five.

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While most performances went smoothly, the records reveal occasional hang-ups, from minor contractual disputes to complete show cancellations, with a few involving local law enforcement. In his autobiography Loving Life Loving recalls an incident with The Rolling Stones during their 1966 US tour when they were scheduled to play back-to-back performances at the Dome in Virginia Beach. Extra police had been hired for security after word got out of a small riot at the Stones’ performance in Boston four days prior. For the first show at the Dome police lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of the stage in a display of force that subdued the crowd so much that they responded to each song with only mild applause. Mick Jagger was so angered by this that after the show he called Loving to the dressing room and gave him a thorough dressing-down, shouting that never in all of their shows all over the world had they endured such a humiliating performance thanks to the excessive show of force. Jagger threatened not to play the second show unless the police were removed, which they were.

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Virginia Beach police lined up in front of the Rolling Stones.

Where is Gene Loving now?

After four decades in radio Loving turned to television where he was an early innovator in UHF broadcast, developing one of the largest chains of independent stations in US history. He later founded Hampton Roads Wireless. He is the recipient of countless awards in broadcast and philanthropy, and currently enjoys an active retirement lifestyle in Virginia Beach.

*Special thanks to Gene Loving for donating this collection and Dr. Tim J. Anderson for supporting our efforts to collect and promote popular music archives.

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Posted in Archival Research, Donations, Music Special Collections, Norfolk History

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How LGBTQ+ Folks Spent Summer Vacations in the 1990s

Posted on September 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

By Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Assistant

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This is a continuation of my blog posts referencing Our Own Community Press, a Virginia LGBTQ+ community newspaper which ran from 1976 to 1998. 

With the Fall semester starting, I thought about the timeless “What I did on my summer vacation” essay that so many of us were asked to write upon returning to school.  With so many summer activities and vacations cancelled this summer due to the current pandemic, I thought I would highlight what LGBT folks did for summer vacations in the 1990s.  While many LGBT folks did the same things as everyone else – such as visiting the beach, going on cruises, or enjoying theme parks – there are LGBT specific things that are mentioned or advertised in Our Own Community Press so I thought I would highlight some of these.

One did not need to travel far to find summer activities such as sports, recreational clubs, conferences and gatherings, festivals, or other events catering to the LGBT community.  Local LGBT sports teams, clubs, and activities included the Lambda Wheelers, an LGBT bicycling group; the Mid-Atlantic Amateur Softball Association; volleyball tournaments at Stockley Gardens and Northside Park in Norfolk; and the Mid-Atlantic Bowling League.  Other recreational activities included canoeing, hiking, rollerblading, women’s golf, and even skydiving. 

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Local summer benefits included pool parties sponsored by the Tidewater AIDS Crisis Taskforce (TACT) and the AIDSCARE Sunset Sprint Music Festival held at Ocean View Beach Park in June 1997.  Some LGBT folks attended the biannual Stockley Gardens Art Festival held each May. 

Local cruises on the Elizabeth River were popular.  The Mandamus Society, an LGBT social group, held an annual cruise on the Carrie-B during the 90s.  At least one year, there was an LGBT cruise on the Spirit of Norfolk too.  While “Gay Days” at Busch Gardens had not yet become a thing, the first “Gay Days” at King’s Dominion was held in July 1997.  “Gay Days” at Disney World in Florida began in the summer of 1991. 

Beach vacations were also quite popular.  Virginia Beach had its very own “Gay Beach Resort.”  The Coral Sand Motel located on Pacific Avenue catered to LGBT clientele.  The Outer Banks provided nearby beach getaways for LGBT folks.   Rehoboth Beach in Delaware was also a popular choice.  The Mandamus Society and Dignity, an LGBT Catholic group, both planned trips there in the 1990s.  Our Own contains advertisements for Rehoboth Beach Resorts.

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LGBT conferences and gatherings ranged from the serious to the fun.  Many catered to diverse populations within the LGBT community.  Serious conferences included the annual Lesbian and Gay Health Conference and AIDS Forum; the Southeast Lesbian / Gay Conference in July 1991; the International Lesbian & Gay Conference in Acapulco in 1991; and a Lesbian Writer’s conference in 1992. 

Fun favorites included many women’s festivals and gatherings such as the Richmond Women’s Festival in 1990; the Roanoke Valley Women’s Festival in 1991, an annual East Coast Lesbian Festival; and WomenFest in Key West, FL in 1997.  Regular women’s festivals were held at Twin Oaks campground in Luisa, Virginia and the INTOUCH women’s campground in Kent’s Store, Virginia.  Music festivals were especially popular among Lesbians.  These festivals included the Northeast Women’s Musical Retreat; the annual Virginia Women’s Music Festival held at INTOUCH; and the annual Rhythm Fest Women’s Music, Art, and Politics Festival held at Lookout Mountain in Georgia.  Some men held camping gatherings too.  These include the annual Gay Spirit Visions Conference in Highlands, NC and a men’s gathering held at Twin Oaks in 1993.  Women’s and men’s gatherings sometimes highlighted LGBT-affirming alternative spiritual beliefs including New Age, Pagan, and Earth-based spirituality. 

Film festivals were also popular among LGBT folks.  Among these were the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival the summer of 1997 and Outfest, an annual gay and lesbian film festival held in Los Angeles.  

Many conferences highlighted the diversity among LGBT folks – the Golden Threads Lesbian Celebration for Lesbians over age 50 in 1990; the National Gay Young Adults Conference also in 1990; a 1990 gathering of North and South American Native American LGBT folks; a 1996 conference and AIDS institute for gay men of color; and an annual “Women Celebrating Our Diversity” Gathering at Twin Oaks Campground.   Gay geeks weren’t left out as the Gaylaxicon science fiction convention, which was founded in 1988, continued throughout the 1990s and beyond. 

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Other big events of the 1990s included the Gay Games, an Olympic style event for LGBT athletes.  The Gay Games started in 1982 and continues to this day.  In the 1990s, the event was held in 1990, 1994, and 1998.  Many LGBT folks also attended the 1996 International Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.  The Atlantic States Gay Rodeo is mentioned in Our Own articles for 1996 and 1997.  Many LGBT folks attended the GALA performing arts festival held in Tampa, FL in 1996.  Maya Angelou was a keynote speaker at the event. 

The 1990s were a great time for LGBT vacation packages.  In the 1990s the travel industry took note of a perceived “disposable income” within the LGBT community.  The idea is that many LGBT professional couples have extra income that isn’t going toward raising children that they can spend on leisure instead.  While this myth persists even today, and there are many affluent people in the LGBT community, there are also many LGBT folks who aren’t especially wealthy or have dependents – LGBT parents (notably Lesbian mothers), LGBT folks from low income communities, and LGBT folks who have met with job discrimination.  During the 1990s the LGBT travel industry flourished.  Companies such as Toto Tours and Alyson Adventures offered tours, cruises, and destinations specifically for LGBT travelers.  Sometimes there were separate women’s and men’s vacations, and other times the events were mixed.  Local travel agencies such as Moore Travel (Norfolk), UNIGLOBE ITA Travel (Norfolk), and Four Seasons Travel (Williamsburg) arranged LGBT vacation packages.  Bed and breakfasts and private resorts catering to LGBT folks offered options for those looking for smaller, low-key vacations.

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LGBT travel magazines and guides promoted the LGBT travel industry.  Such publications included magazines like Our World and Out and About; global guides such as Damron’s many guides, Ferrari’s Places of Interest: Worldwide Gay & Lesbian Guide, and Women Going Places 1993/94: A Women’s Complete Guide to International Travel; and city specific guides like Betty & Pansy’s Severe Queer Review of San Francisco and Washington, D.C.: An Alternative Guide For Those Who Don’t Necessarily Travel the Straight and Narrow. 

So, while most of us are hoping that 2021 will be a better time than 2020 for joining in recreational activities or going on vacations, we can always look back at what folks did for fun in the 1990s.  Perhaps looking through the articles, advertisements, and event listings in Our Own will provide you with nostalgia for the days when we could go out without masks and social distancing.  Better yet, it might give you an idea for something to do when this pandemic is over. 

Archived issues of Our Own Community Press are available digitally at: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown

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Posted in Archival Research, Hampton Roads History, LGBTQIA+, Norfolk History

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Plastic clips: Friend or Foe?

Posted on September 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

by Lara Canner, Allan Blank Curator of Music Special Collections

Last year, my brilliant co-worker created animal sculptures made from binder clips.

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Meet the clip art dogs! One day we will open a clip art zoo!

The binder clips used in the sculpture were originally part of an already processed acquisition. After reviewing the collection, the clips were found to be causing harm. Once a helpful tool to separate paperwork in folder, now the binder clips needed to be removed due to tearing, creasing and potential for rust stains. That got me thinking about archival best practices, how processing has changed over time and how even good intentions can harm collections in the long run. I absolutely hate paperclips. Paperclips rust to paper causing staining and can create tears when removed. Ugh

Yet, the archival alternative, clips made of plastic, can cause damage too, if not used properly.

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Archival grade plastic clips will not rust, tear paper and come in an assortment of fun colors…they are the superheroes of the paperclip world! However, problems occur when archival processors rely on too much on the clips for separation. Okay…what does that mean?

So, the very basic definition of a paper clip is to both keep paperwork connected and also keep that paperwork separated from other materials. This reasoning becomes tremendously important in the archival theory of original order. At the same time, the processor wants to keep the collection formulated the way the contributor first had the papers organized, but in a way accessible for researchers. Thus, plastic clips become a way to at once keep original order yet maintain separation for general clarity.

An example of this is found in the Allan Blank collection. In my most recent processing, I discovered sketches for a Trio (Clarinet, Flugelhorn and Piano) all in the same box, but separated by other sketches, scores and reference materials. I could keep all of these sketches separate based upon the original order, but it would be much easy on a researcher if the sketches were altogether. However, if I were to use plastic clips, I could maintain original order and still have ease of access. Great! Problem solved! Yeah…not really. Okay…why are plastic clips bad if too many are utilized?

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Notice how the clips bow the folder? When pressure from additional folders is added, this will cause the materials to bend. (Don’t worry, this is just an example. No artifacts were harmed during the taking of these photos!)

Now, in archival ancient times, it would have been fine to put a bunch of paperclips on the materials and call it good, but best practices have changed. Lots of plastic clips separating paperwork while a seemingly innocent way to keep order, can actually cause harm.

I prefer the method of clear organization within series and sub-series. Researchers can easily access materials using a clear finding aid, while the papers maintain original order within the folders. Over the course of processing, I have used approximately two plastic clips. Adhering an envelope to letter and for keeping a small note to a score.

In the end, archival processing theory is an evolving process. New products are introduced that help keep records safe, but archivists still need to be careful when protecting documents. Plastic clips are definitely an archivist’s friend!

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Posted in Archival processing

Wiki Wiki What?

Posted on September 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

By University Archivist, Steve Bookman

BigBluePhone

While Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) is offering limited appointments for the ODU community only, we are still open virtually to answer any reference questions you may have about our collections! One of the ways you can find out information from our archives remotely is through our Special Collections and University Archives Wiki page. Here you can find frequently asked questions and quick facts about ODU’s history. You can browse by popular topics such as athletics, buildings and grounds, events, and student life, or you can use the search bar at the top of the page. Although not a complete history of ODU, entries are added on an ongoing basis, so please check back periodically as new information is added.

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Find out all about the history of Big Blue on our Wiki!

In the past, archival repositories have answered reference questions, and once they have been answered, unless it is written down, the information is lost. To reduce the need to answer the same questions repeatedly, we created the Special Collections and University Archives wiki as a knowledge base to store answers to those questions. As a result, more information is shared with researchers and our archivists do not spend as much time on reference questions as in the past.

The wiki was produced using a WordPress theme called WikiWP as well as the Posts in Page and Table of Contents Plus plugins. These plugins and them make the WordPress page look and feel more like a Wikipedia page. With these helpful tools, anyone can create a similar wiki website to store useful and helpful information.    

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Yay for fall! The students are back, and so is our blog!

Posted on September 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

I know it’s been hard living without our blog for the past few weeks, but we decided it needed a summer vacation. Luckily, after a couple of months relaxing on the beach, the blog is back and ready for fall! So grab yourself a maple vanilla latte, put on a comfy sweater and light that one pumpkin scented candle you always bring out in September and enjoy!

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Carolyn Rhodes, Pioneer and Inspiration

Posted on June 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

By ODU Student Assistant Caroline Vanderlinder

After transcribing some documents in the Carolyn Rhodes digital archive collection-https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/crhodes-I was shocked to find out how extraordinary she was. Rhodes was one of the founders of the Old Dominion University’s women’s caucus, friends of women studies, as well as the trust for feminist education program. Rhodes made a huge contribution to the advancement of the status of women at the University. She went through all the ranks of assistant professor, associate professor, and then became an English professor in a time when advancement for women at ODU was slim.

During the 1970s, male professors received quicker promotions and tenure than female faculty members. The research conducted by the caucus showed males were granted a 57% chance of tenure while  females were granted a 33% chance. The information gathered by the caucus was collected from public information, and through every rank they found female employees earned $1000 less than males. If that was the information they found in the public records, I can’t imagine what they would have found if they were given access to the private records. In 1974, the president of ODU never refuted or attempted to disprove the information. It was only after the department of labor opened an investigation that the salary inequities were looked into, however the gap wasn’t closed fully.

Carolyn Rhodes’ shared her personal experiences during an oral history interview conducted in 2009: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/oralhistory/id/667/rec/2

After reading Professor Rhodes’ syllabus, I could see she was an intense professor who expected nothing but the best work from her students. At the time, Women’s studies was just beginning, and failure would not have been acceptable. Although she was a tough professor, her students and peers believed she was an inspiration. Her experiences and the knowledge she had to offer was irreplaceable. Apart from teaching at Old Dominion and the University of Kentucky, her teachings were also respected overseas at Peking University, China, and Babes-Bolyai University, Romania where she was a Fulbright lecturer in American Literature.

I am done transcribing the Carolyn Rhodes collection but I know I have so much more to learn about her. Learning about Carolyn Rhodes and what she has done for us women at ODU has made me proud.

Everyone in the Special Collections and University Archives program has thoroughly enjoyed working with Caroline, and we are so glad she stayed on with us to transcribe the Carolyn Rhodes digital collection during the COVID-19 closure. We wish her the best with her studies this fall! -Jessica Ritchie, Head of Special Collections & University Archives

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Posted in Archival Research, ODU History, University Archives, Women's History

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The Humble Beginnings of Hampton Roads PrideFest

Posted on June 4, 2020 | 1 comment

by Mel Frizzell, Special Collections Assistant

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Image from Our Own Community Press Digital Collection courtesy of ODU Libraries: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

Like many events this summer, the Hampton Roads LGBT PrideFest has been postponed due to the coronavirus.  The event has been held for the last decade at Town Point Park in Norfolk with crowd sizes reaching upwards of 25,000 people.  This includes LGBT folks along with their family, friends, and allies.  Well known headliners in recent years have included the Village People, Martha Wash of the Weather Girls, Jussie Smollet, and JoJo.  There have been additional entertainers, as well as food and beer tents, vendors, and organization booths.  Related events include a boat parade along the Elizabeth River, a block party at the Norfolk Scope, and a week’s worth of Pride events and activities. These events are hosted by Hampton Roads Pride and their partners, but additional events are held by other groups and organizations throughout the month of June which is LGBT Pride Month.

While there have been Pride month events held in Norfolk since at least 1986, the first event officially connected with the Hampton Roads PrideFest was a small picnic held at Shelter #1 of Northside Community Park in Norfolk on July 15, 1989 by a Gay and Lesbian social group known as the Mandamus Society.   Approximately 200 people attended this first event.  The picnic was a potluck, and no alcohol was allowed in the city park.  Leaders of local LGBT organizations made short speeches.  Activities of the day included volleyball, kickball, frisbee, kite flying, and people watching.  For many attending, this was their first time spent among a large diverse group of LGBT folks.

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The 2nd Annual “Out in the Park” picnic was held again at Northside Park on June 24, 1990.  This time over 1,000 people attended.  The event was hosted and organized by the newly formed Hampton Roads Pride Committee – later renamed the Hampton Roads Lesbian and Gay Pride Coalition and eventually Hampton Roads Pride.  The event included food, entertainment, games, and guest speakers.  Larger name speakers were included this year including Robert Bray, director of public information at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Sam Garrison, a gay activist and former commonwealth’s attorney and a former aide to Vice President Spiro Agnew.

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For most of the early 1990s, crowd sizes averaged around 1,000 attendees at the picnic jumping up to 2,000 and even 2,500 people in the later 1990s.  In 1991, the picnic moved to Mt. Trashmore in Virginia Beach.  It was co-hosted by the ODU Gay and Lesbian Student Union and held on the lawn in front of Webb Center at Old Dominion University in 1992.  In 1991 and 1992, there were related marches on the Norfolk Naval Base in support of Gay and Lesbian folks serving in the military and against the ban on gays in the military.  From 1993 to 1996, “Out in the Park” returned annually to Mount Trashmore.  The event moved back to Norfolk in 1997 to a new location at Lakewood Park.  Many folks expressed appreciation for the abundant shade at Lakewood Park which was severely lacking at Mt. Trashmore.

For many years throughout the 1990s, food such as hamburgers, hot dogs, and baked beans were provided by the Hershee Lounge, a Norfolk Lesbian bar.  Free sodas were also available.  Some years, there was even a dessert contest.  Later on, the event moved toward a food vendor format offering more variety, but cost out of pocket for picnic goers.

Entertainment during those years was mostly local though sometimes artists were brought in from other places.  Musicians and bands included Pamela Stanley; Julie Clark, Sandy Law, Melissa Reeves and Strange Brew; Mermaids in the Basement; Romanovsky & Phillips; Tom Weinberg and the Ten Percent Review; Martin Swinger; The Hampton Roads Men’s Chorus; and a variety of other acoustic, alternative rock, and dance performers. Larger name entertainers became more common in later years when sponsors helped bring in these acts.  Sometimes these larger performances were held as special concerts outside the main picnic for fundraising purposes.  Admission to the Pride picnic and the later PrideFest has always been free.  In addition to musicians, comedians and dance troupes were sometimes brought in.  Drag Queens frequently emceed the picnic and took part in the entertainment.

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During the 1990s, most speakers were local, but some years featured headline speakers.  These included Miriam Ben-Shalom, national chair of the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Veterans of America; and Perry Watkins, Sgt. First Class, U.S. Army retired.  Given Hampton Roads close association with the military, speakers often spoke out against the military ban on gay service members.

Picnic activities during the 1990s included volleyball, drag races where folks would race in high heels and wigs, and local community awards.  One year, picnic goers formed a huge human rainbow triangle on the face of Mt. Trashmore.  For many years, a wine and cheese fundraiser preceded the picnic to help cover picnic costs.

How the Pride picnic evolved and grew into the annual PrideFest beyond 1990s is largely beyond the scope of this article as primary research comes from Our Own Community Press which shut down in 1998.  I can tell you that the annual Pride Picnic moved to Chesapeake City Park for most of the 2000s.  The PrideFest as we currently know it came to Town Point Park in Norfolk in 2011.  It is currently the second largest event held in Norfolk with HarborFest being the largest. 

To learn more about the history of Pride in Hampton Roads, visit Our Own Community Press Digital Collection: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

Images are from the Our Own Community Press Digital Collection, courtesy of ODU Libraries: https://dc.lib.odu.edu/digital/collection/ourown/

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Posted in LGBTQIA+, ODU Digital Collections, Our Own

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What in the World is a Trinome?

Posted on May 26, 2020 | 2 comments

by Maddie Dietrich, Music Special Collections and Research Specialist

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F. Ludwig Diehn, composer, benefactor, and the man whose name is born by ODU’s Diehn School of Music, donated his personal collection of letters, scores and artifacts to ODU Special Collections and University Archives in the late 1990s. Among the items contained in the collection is a remarkable piece of apparatus known as the Billotti Trinome. It is a metronome, but it’s much more.

A simple metronome produces a click sound at regular intervals at a rate set by the user who can then self-monitor their own sense of pulse against that of the machine. The rate of speed the clicks occur is measured in beats per minute, so a metronome can be set to, say, 72 bpm, or 120 bpm, and so on. Nowadays metronomes, like clocks, are partially or fully electronic, often relying on quartz movement for establishing regularity, but older metronomes were mechanical and operated via a simple clockwork mechanism and, like mechanical clocks, were driven by a rewindable mainspring. Later metronomes would feature a small electric motor to drive the mechanism. A slightly more complex version of the mechanical metronome included a small internal bell which could be set to ring once every two, three or four clicks as desired, on the downbeat of each grouping of beats. The Billotti Trinome took this concept a step further by adding a second, independent click pitched slightly lower than the first. Combined with the bell sound the Trinome is capable of playing three separate beats simultaneously at one tempo, effectively producing what musicians call polyrhythms.

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Patented by Paul Billotti in the early 1960s, a product review appearing in a 1963 issue of Music Educators Journal offers the following description. “THE BILLOTTI TRINOME, a new device billed as “the rhythm metronome,” produces beats with three different sounds—a bell, a tick, and a tock—each sound beating a different rate of speed and combining in various ways to form rhythmical patterns which can be varied by adjusting the rate of speed of each beat sound to the desired proportion relative to the speed rate of the other two beat sounds.” As a composer of 20th century music Diehn undoubtedly found the device useful when conceiving of multiple complex melodies and rhythms played against one another.

A Stillness that Better Suits this Machine by Casey Cangelosi, 2003

Of course the advent of electronic and computer-based metronomes and drum machines rendered a device like the Billotti Trinome obsolete, though surviving specimens occasionally surface on sites like eBay and Reverb.com and when they do they command a hefty price tag. The machine even has a cult following, so much so that the company Grover Pro Percussion commissioned a work for solo percussion which calls for the Trinome along with a set of woodblocks, bell, and triangles. A performance of the work, entitled A Stillness that Better Suits this Machine by Casey Cangelosi (2013), can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY-b188mihM (above). The video offers a fine view of the Trinome’s internal workings. A more basic demonstration of the Trinome may be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1XnnzCX5XA.

And the beat goes on.

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COVID-19 and Beyond: How ODU Has Stepped Up to Meet Crises Throughout Its History

Posted on May 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

By Steven Bookman, University Archivist

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Women students in the war-training program work on an airplane

As Virginia, the United States, and the World are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Old Dominion University is rising to meet the challenge. For the health and safety of its students, staff, and faculty, the University closed its facilities, moved all its courses online, and will hold a virtual Monarch Grad Week to celebrate students graduating in May 2020. The entire Monarch community has come together to help slow down the Coronavirus by making masks for their fellow Monarchs, providing meals for the community, and volunteering for the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps.

However, this isn’t the first time ODU has faced adversity in the face of a crisis. International wars, the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the H1N1 pandemic have cause the University to respond in a variety of ways.

World War II

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Sally Avery holding her nephew, George Shipp, Jr., points out her uncle Robert Turner whose name is on the Alumni War Memorial plaque.

Well before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Norfolk Division of William & Mary, as Old Dominion was known from 1930 to 1960, was already heavily involved in the war effort. An Aircraft Instruments Institute was established at the division in 1938 to train students to operate and repair aircraft instruments. The following year, a war training program was established on campus, allowing students to take courses related to aircraft mechanics and welding, radar, and topographical mapping, among others. At a time when colleges were losing enrollment with male students leaving to fight the war, the enrollment at the division remained steady and even grew during the war. Under the direction of Lewis W. Webb, Jr., the war training program offered free classes for women such as aircraft repair, drafting, and other war-related topics. Officers from Naval Station Norfolk, including several African American sailors, took classes at the division. By the end of World War II, approximately 5,000 people enrolled in the war training program, the largest on the East Coast.

September 11, 2001

The morning of September 11, 2001 began like any other Tuesday morning on campus. Students went to their classes as usual, but when highjacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania Field, word spread rapidly. The ODU community, as it always has, reacted quickly to help with those in need. Shuttle service was organized for students, faculty, and staff to give blood at the Norfolk Scope, the History Honor Society collected bottle water and socks to give to first responders in New York and Washington, D.C., and a room in Webb Center was reserved for Monarchs to pray, remember, and reflect. Three students and an alumnus lost their lives during the attacks: Army Lieutenant Colonel Karen Wagner, Army Specialist Craig Amundson, Navy Lieutenant Commander Robert Elseth, and alumnus Robert Schlegel, ’92.

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ODU students attend a 9/11 vigil

H1N1, 2009

In April 2009, the first human infected with H1N1, a flu-like virus similar to the current Coronavirus, was reported in the U.S. Unlike the Coronavirus, H1N1 mostly infected children and young adults. ODU Student Health Services was quick to send out recommendations by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to combat the virus. By July, Human Resources encouraged offices and departments to come up with plans for teleworking in preparation for an outbreak in the fall. A vaccine was developed in September and H1N1 flu clinics were held on campus beginning in November. By the time the CDC declared the pandemic over in August 2010, only a small number of Monarchs were infected.

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Posted in Covid-19, ODU Archives, ODU History, University Archives

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