Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Mountain Changelings: Radical Faerie Cultural Formation in Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
As a gay liberationist counter-cultural movement, the Radical Faeries certainly have their roots in West Coast urban cultures of the 1970s. Rural “spiritual conferences” in western states established crucial social practices and values – especially around gender, spirituality, social roles, and the environment. Interestingly, though, the cultural movement gained important traction around 1980 in Appalachia with two of its most enduring features. At that time, operations for the reader-written magazine RFD found a home in western North Carolina, and the publication devoted itself increasingly to documenting Radical Faerie culture and gatherings. Around the same time, regular rural gatherings at dedicated Appalachian “sanctuaries” drew RFD reader-writers to share the Faerie culture expressed in the magazine. This correlation of cultural networking through both media and event allowed the West Coast-born culture to manifest in a specifically Appalachian context. In this paper, I will trace how the culture found a home in Appalachia, how the region shaped the fledgling movement, and how issues of race and poverty informed this development. This history is of particular value as a way to articulate a rural genealogy for an LGBTQ culture which is often seen as exclusively urban. And, it is also important in showing the Appalachian region’s lasting influence on a cultural politics which now has a small but growing international scope.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Jason Ezell is a PhD candidate in American Studies at the University of Maryland, with a research focus on queer studies, critical rural studies, poetics, and affective labor. He also serves as a history and social sciences liaison in Marx Library at the University of South Alabama.
Mountain Changelings: Radical Faerie Cultural Formation in Appalachia
As a gay liberationist counter-cultural movement, the Radical Faeries certainly have their roots in West Coast urban cultures of the 1970s. Rural “spiritual conferences” in western states established crucial social practices and values – especially around gender, spirituality, social roles, and the environment. Interestingly, though, the cultural movement gained important traction around 1980 in Appalachia with two of its most enduring features. At that time, operations for the reader-written magazine RFD found a home in western North Carolina, and the publication devoted itself increasingly to documenting Radical Faerie culture and gatherings. Around the same time, regular rural gatherings at dedicated Appalachian “sanctuaries” drew RFD reader-writers to share the Faerie culture expressed in the magazine. This correlation of cultural networking through both media and event allowed the West Coast-born culture to manifest in a specifically Appalachian context. In this paper, I will trace how the culture found a home in Appalachia, how the region shaped the fledgling movement, and how issues of race and poverty informed this development. This history is of particular value as a way to articulate a rural genealogy for an LGBTQ culture which is often seen as exclusively urban. And, it is also important in showing the Appalachian region’s lasting influence on a cultural politics which now has a small but growing international scope.
