Hannan, Kathleen, 2020 November 16

Containers:

Digital-materials RL10066-SET-HANNANK, Digital-materials digital-materials

Physical description:

1:18:47

Scope and content:

Tags: Kathleen Hannan; Women's Music; Bisexuality; Witch One; The Pagoda Center; The Center; Jude Speck; Our Bodies Ourselves; Catholicism; From Outside The South; New York; Coming Out; Meri Furnari; Mica-Meri Furnari; Organa; Debbie Venn; Kathy Oaks; Cathy Oaks; Vermont; Bellydancing; Morgana; Morgana Macvicar; Shefay; Sheila Fay; Nancy Breeze; Emily Greene; Pam Shook; Seeds For Peace; Pat Nolan; Peggy Mcintyre; Alix Dobkin; Teresa Trull; Pagoda Theatre; Pagoda Playhouse; Deb Ennis; Flame; Shyne; Barbara Lieu; Pam Oldham; Shyne; Nancy Breeze; Rainbow Williams; Barbie Quin; Lori Hollar; National Organization For Women (Now); Rena Carney; Astrology; Lesbian Astrology; By Any Other Name; Loraine Hutchins; Lani K'ahumanu; Controversies

Biographical / historical:

Kathleen Hannan is a singer songwriter who lived in St. Augustine in the 1980s and spent time at the Pagoda, sometimes performing there. Hannan grew up in a progressive Catholic family in western New York, majored in Biology/Ecology at Tufts University (1969-73), taught environmental education to school children for two years in Maine and on Cape Cod, then was part of a lesbian band in Vermont called Witch One. It was in Maine that she first came to recognize her bisexuality, which she views as adding to her sexuality, not taking away. She moved to Florida and trained as a massage therapist in Sarasota. She was working as a massage therapist and living with her boyfriend in St. Augustine in 1986 when her publicity flyer, posted on the bulletin board at the Pagoda Center, was annotated "bisexual," part of a labeling and lesbian-only controversy at that time. She protested the labeling (not the label) in writing to Pagoda and did not consider it a big deal. Her letter is copied below. More important to her at that time was that Pagoda members, including a good friend, voted not to allow her to perform at the Pagoda Center because she identifies as bisexual. She does not recall just when this happened, but it may have been after she performed with others at the Pagoda 10th Birthday Celebration in 1987. She did not perform again at Pagoda (at least in the available records) until 1996. She remains friends with many Pagoda women and holds no grudge for something that did hurt her at the time. Hannan now lives in Durham, NC, with her partner of 22 years, the artist Jude Speck. She directs two non-performing choruses, and continues her social and political activism (see kathleenhannan.com). She still identifies as a lesbian. Her papers are archived at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University.

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