Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Artist Riva Lehrer talks new memoir, career, state of the world
by Carrie Maxwell, Windy City Times
2020-11-18

This article shared 2622 times since Wed Nov 18, 2020
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


In queer artist, writer and curator Riva Lehrer's recently released memoir Golem Girl, she takes readers on a journey through her life via the lens of her being born with spina bifida and the way that has impacted and informed everything she has done.

"This is the entire through-line of my book," said Lehrer. "I have been working on this book for the past six and a half years. It started as a record of my work for my family so that after I died they would have a document that explained my work that they could give to curators or collectors.

"Then for various reasons I started to look into my own childhood and questions came up about some of my images and where they came from. I started doing research into my family and that really changed the whole direction of the book. The book is now a hybrid of those two things."

Lehrer was born in 1958 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and lived there until she moved to Chicago in her early 20s. She studied at the University of Cincinnati and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). In addition to her artistic endeavors, Lehrer is also a faculty member at SAIC and a Northwestern University Medical Humanities Department's instructor.

As for the title of the book, Lehrer said each word refers to the two parts of her life. She added that this delineation between the two was not one moment in time, that is was a gradual process.

The prologue includes references to Frankenstein and his creature and Rabbi Judah Loew be Bezalel and his Golem which is a folk story in her Jewish culture. Lehrer told Windy City Times she learned about Golem in her early teens when she saw the 1915 silent German Yiddish film called The Golem. She added that the creature and Golem spoke to her in her youth, hence the first word in her book title.

"Part one, Golem, is about perceiving myself and being more or less told when I was a monster while I was growing up," said Lehrer. "I always identified with not being human, being a construct like Golem is and because of this I was going to be, according to other people, not qualified for any of what is perceived as a 'normal' life.

"Part two, Girl, is about trying to figure out how to have a life that I recognized as something I want. Not a life where I would get brownie points for overcoming my disability, a life that held meaning and power to affect the world in some way. It is all a long slow evolution. It has been 60 years of nudging at doors."

One of these evolution moments Lehrer speaks about in her book was when she went to Boston as an older teenager for one of her many surgeries. There were moments in the hospital when her mother was not in her presence where she felt like a young adult with autonomy.

Another way Lehrer asserted her autonomy was when she moved into the dorms at the University of Cincinnati and later into an apartment with some friends. College is where Lehrer met the two people who would change the course of her personal life—her boyfriend William and, later, her girlfriend Adele.

Lehrer told Windy City Times that until she met William she did not think she would ever have a romantic relationship with anyone due to her disability. William giving her the nickname Chen from Liebchen which means the beloved one in German further solidified her belief that she was a desirable person.

"When you give each other nicknames it is a way to give you a little private circle around the two of you," said Lehrer. "We were making in literal and figurative ways spaces that were just for the two of us. Given that he is an architect space both conceptually and symbolically was important to the both of us."

As for Adele, Lehrer met her in a drawing class and she said that falling in love with her awakened her queer identity. She added that at the time people only used the word bisexual to describe who she was but that word never spoke to her.

"Both relationships completely refuted what I expected from the world," said Lehrer. "I can never be grateful enough for the fact that everything I expected adulthood would be which was isolated and lonely. I have always been surprised when anyone is interested in me. I have never quite gotten over that.

"It is a little hard to trust people but having two extremely beautiful, smart, creative, incredible people who I could clearly see that other people in our community thought were hot stuff would choose me, on the one hand I kept waiting to see if it was a joke of some kind or a trick but on the other hand when it became more real I could not completely believe anymore in the messages I had grown up with."

Today, Lehrer is still really good friends with William and Adele and last year she did a portrait of William over a long weekend where he sat for her in her Chicago studio. This took many months to finish.

"William was supposed to come back again this past February to stay for another long weekend so I could work on the portrait but of course by then it was looking like that was not going to be a good idea due to the emerging pandemic," said Lehrer. "I had to finish it through Zoom sessions and mailing some stuff back and forth. It took a very long time. We were extremely sad about not being able to see each other in person."

When asked if Lehrer thinks things would have been different had she been born a decade or more later, she said "yes, however, individuals are extremely variant because it is not like everyone who is younger than me does not have impairments. It was more than ten years later but they did in utero surgery to correct some things for fetuses with spina bifida. What they can do even now depends on the placement and size of the lesion on the spine, and also the kind of medical team involved."

Lehrer pursued an artistic career because at the time various other careers were blocked to her due to her disability.

"Everybody said for some bizarre reason that I should be a kindergarten teacher which was the last thing on Earth I wanted to be," said Lehrer. "I ended up choosing art school because it seemed like it was never going to make me a lot of money but it was something I was allowed to do. I also really enjoy doing art."

Of the many artistic endeavors Lehrer talks about in her book were her Circle Stories portraits beginning with "Circle Stories: Jeff Carpenter."

"His painting became the first of a series: 'Circle Stories,' named for the wheel of a wheelchair, for the universal symbol of impairment, and for the Collective, my circle of safety. And whether or not I was a bad painter, I could give people control over how they were portrayed. These works weren't commissions. Technically I needn't obey anyone's wishes but my own, but this work actively demanded a collaborative ethics of representation."

A number of years ago, Lehrer's practice opened up to other ways of expressing her art in addition to her work focusing on disability and gender presentation.

"In terms of the future, I am really hoping to work more deeply with people who have not had access to representation for reasons of some kind of embodiment," said Lehrer. "My work is always going to be around embodiment in one way or another and that includes non-visible disabilities; for example people with psychiatric diagnoses."

One of Lehrer's 2020 projects that took place over Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic was a portrait of Alice Wong. She is also finishing other works that were already in progress before the pandemic over Zoom or via mailing things back and forth.

In terms of how Lehrer has navigated this pandemic "my message is that disabled people are extremely accustomed to having to drop whatever the way that they used to do something and have to find a new route or seeing someone who had to invent a new route from the beginning. That they were never going to have access to the standard way of doing something.

"The level of creative invention in the community is intense. Even though this is on a scale that I do not normally have to encounter, having to scrap an entire practice, but on the other hand I am used to it as are so many of my compatriots. To say, that was then and this is now. Right now, I am trying to figure out how to continue to be a portraitist when I cannot have anyone in my studio at all."

As for what Lehrer wants the readers to take away from reading her book, she said she "hopes it makes more space for the life that you have. The book is about how people perceive and manipulate each other's embodiment, about the pressure we bring to bear on each other depending on whether we think each other's embodiment is desirable, appropriate or problematic.

"I use my life to talk about that. It still is not important to me at all that people know the specifics of my life. I was writing about my life to talk about how we turn each other into monsters and then try to change each other to be more accessible."

See rivalehrerart.com/ .


This article shared 2622 times since Wed Nov 18, 2020
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

RuPaul finds 'Hidden Meanings' in new memoir
2024-03-18
RuPaul Andre Charles made a rare Chicago appearance for a book tour on March 12 at The Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave. Presented by National Public Radio station WBEZ 91.5 FM, the talk coincided with ...


Gay News

Almost 8% of U.S. residents identify as LGBTQ+
2024-03-16
The proportion of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+ continues to increase. LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as LGBTQ+, according to the newest Gallup poll results that ...


Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


Gay News

No 'explanations' needed: Affinity remains a haven for Chicago's Black queer community
2024-03-12
Back in 2007, Anna DeShawn came out while she was studying for her undergraduate degree. At around the same time, she searched online for "Black lesbians in Chicago." Her search led her to Affinity Community Services, ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Altercation, mpox research, Univ. of Fla., George Santos, tech battle
2024-03-08
Video footage uploaded to Facebook showed an altercation between a state trooper and two prominent Philadelphia LGBTQ+ leaders, the Washington Blade reported, republishing an article from Philadelphia Gay News. Celena ...


Gay News

Affinity Community Services' Latonya Maley announces departure
2024-03-06
Latonya Maley, executive director of Affinity Community Services, announced March 6 that she would be stepping down from her post. The announcement came from a statement with Affinity board members. Maley said that, "It has been ...


Gay News

LPAC celebrates historic wins for LGBTQ+ candidates in Super Tuesday primaries
2024-03-06
From a press release: Washington, DC—Today, LPAC,the nation's leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary candidates to public office, proudly announces the outstanding victories of 67% of endorsed candidates ...


Gay News

THEATER 'R & J' puts a female, queer spin on Shakespeare
2024-03-05
Romeo and Juliet is the theatrical gift that keeps on giving. It's been reworked for the masses numerous times, whether in direct adaptations or musicals such as West Side Story. Shakespeare's plotline points have even inspired ...


Gay News

Without compromise: Holly Baggett explores lives of iconoclasts Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap
2024-03-04
Jane Heap (1883-1964) and Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), each of them a native Midwesterner, woman of letters and iconoclast, had a profound influence on literary culture in both America and Europe in the early 20th Century. Heap ...


Gay News

There she goes again: Author Alison Cochrun discusses writing journey
2024-02-27
By Carrie Maxwell When Alison Cochrun began writing her first queer romance novel in 2019, she had no idea it would change the course of her entire life. Cochrun, who spent 11 years as a high ...


Gay News

Brittney Griner's jersey retired at Baylor University
2024-02-20
On Feb. 18, Baylor University retired Brittney Griner's #42 jersey. Griner—a two-time AP national player of the year, two-time Olympic gold medalist and the NCAA women's career blocks leader (with 748)—attended a Bears home game ...


Gay News

Theater Review: Billy Elliot, The Musical
2024-02-19
Book and Lyrics: Lee Hall; Music: Elton John. At: Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora Tickets: 630-896-6666 or Paramountaurora.com; $28-$79. Runs through March 24 Billy Elliot: The Musical may nearly be two decades old, but ...


Gay News

Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree
2024-02-16
In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller
2024-02-16
Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...


Gay News

WORLD South Africa murder, lesbian couple, Brianna Ghey, Eurovision
2024-02-16
In South Africa, LGBTQ+-rights groups condemned the brutal murder of Diego Jacobs, a queer man in Cape Town, The Washington Blade reported. Reports indicate Jacobs, 21, was brutally murdered (reportedly by a former neighbor) on Feb. ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.