Our Queer Elders: with Katie Castagno

Forbes Library, 20 West St, Northampton (20 West St, Northampton MA 01060)

Music

Katie Castagno’s “Our Queer Elders” uses song to celebrate and elevate the lives of queer icons throughout history. At a time when queer history and queer voices are increasingly erased, “Our Queer Elders” is part sentimental and part cheeky, whether it’s an account of Rachel Carson’s whirlwind romance with Dorothy Freeman, a hypothetical look into a clandestine meeting of Sally Ride and Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya during the Cold War, or a rollicking love song from Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert.