Jim Sears, Inside The Mattachine

Sunday, March 4, 1:00pm Jim Sears, author of Inside the Mattachine Stonewall Library & Archives 1717 N. Andrews Ave. Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33311 Free Admission     The Stonewall Library & Archives in association with Arts United’s Arts Explosion presents Dr. James T. Sears, author of Behind the Mask of the Mattachine at the reading room of the Stonewall Library, 1717 North Andrews Ave, Ft. Lauderdale. Dr. Sears, a professor at Penn State University, lectures throughout the world on issues related to education, sexuality, and LGBT issues. The Mattachini, of medieval Italy, were fools or court jesters, who stood up in the midst of political oppression and persecution and dared to speak the truth in the interests of the common folk. In post-WWII America, the Mattachine Foundation was formed in Los Angeles in 1950, becoming the Mattachine Society in 1953. At its height, seven years later, it had 300 paid members with chapters in a half-dozen U.S. cities and a variety of publications, including the Mattachine Review. James T. Sears, a leading historian of GLBT issues, richly examines the rather messy history of the organized gay movement. In Behind the Mask of the Mattachine, Dr. Sears weaves in and out of the biography of Hal Call and his personal struggle with those of other pioneers and their political struggles to organize homosexuals. After reading Behind the Mask of the Mattachine one can only come away with a better understanding of what really happened in the gay movement in its formative years. Please join us on Sunday, March 4, 2007 at 1:00 PM at the Stonewall Library for this fascinating program. The event is free and open to the public. For further information please visit www.jtsears.com or contact the library at 954-763-8565.