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July 3-9, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9
SF playwright portrays Eleanor Roosevelt’s female lover by Matthew S. Bajko
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new one-woman show, written and performed by lesbian San Francisco playwright Terry Baum, portrays the little known romantic relationship between pioneering journalist Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “It is not widely known,” Baum said of the women’s love affair and lifelong friendship. In 1928 Hickok, while working for the Associated Press, was the first female reporter to have her byline appear on the front page of the New York Times. In 1932 the AP assigned Hickok to cover the Roosevelts during his first presidential campaign. Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt became friends first before they were lovers, Baum told the Bay Area Reporter during an interview in her home office in early June. “I think Hick fell in love with Eleanor really quickly. That is how we portray it in the play,” said Baum. “She had to quit the AP because of her relationship with Eleanor.” Hickok spent three years traveling the country and documenting the impact of New Deal projects on the lives of everyday Americans during the Depression. Her job title was chief investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and her reports were sent directly to President Roosevelt. He in turn would forward on Hickok’s reports to recalcitrant members of Congress. Meanwhile, when not on the road, Hickok lived at the White House and vacationed with Eleanor Roosevelt. “Hick helped her became a media savvy, progressive first lady,” said Baum. “She taught Eleanor how to
Rick Gerharter
Playwright Terry Baum
get attention and take advantage of it.” Born in 1893 in rural Wisconsin into desperate poverty, Hickok’s mother died when she was 14 and her father kicked her out of the house. An aunt took her in and helped her complete high school. She would go on to have a successful career writing for a number of papers in the Midwest, but Hickok was filled with self hatred, said Baum. “Hick was a fat bull dyke. She was really an outsider her whole life,” said Baum. Yet, she added, “Hick had a charisma; everyone loved her.” During her lifetime Hickok dated several women but remained devoted to Eleanor Roosevelt. She lived out her final years at Hyde Park near the former first lady and published several books, including a biography of Mrs. Roosevelt. She died in 1968. Later biographers of Eleanor Roosevelt downplayed the evidence of romantic ties between her and Hickok. In 1978 a researcher discovered a
cache of 2,336 letters Roosevelt wrote to Hickok, between 1933 and 1962, the year Roosevelt died. Hickok had willed the letters to the FDR Library. In September last year Baum spent a week at Hyde Park in New York State at the presidential library to research source material for her play. She read only a portion of the first lady’s letters. “Her hand writing is so unbelievably bad,” Baum said. “You have to decipher it yourself.” She had to seek permission from the Roosevelt Estate in order to use several of Eleanor Roosevelt’s later letters in the play. The trustee asked her what she thought about the two women’s relationship, recalled Baum. “I said they were in love,” she said. “It makes her more relevant now that she was willing to take these chances in the 1930s. It makes her more interesting to people now.” Reading descriptions of Hickok in other people’s letters gave Baum a sense for how personable she was. “You realize how Hick thinks of herself is not how she was thought of in the world. She was warm, funny,” said Baum. By writing her play, Baum wanted to bring their life together to greater attention. “It is a story people should be familiar with because, in my opinion, she was the most important woman of the 20th Century,” Baum said of Eleanor Roosevelt. “She was supported and shaped by a lesbian she had a passionate relationship with and was friends with for the rest of their lives.” Directed by Carolyn Myers, HICK: A Love Story features recordings of Roosevelt’s letters to Hickok read by the actress Paula Barish. Baum, who portrays Hickok, first workshopped the play at last year’s National Queer Arts Festival. She excised material from Lorena and Eleanor a Love Story written by See page 16 >>
Club hosts East Bay LGBT local candidates compiled by Matthew S. Bajko
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he East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club is hosting a get together next week with a number of out candidates seeking local elected offices in Alameda County. According to the club, there are eight LGBTQ Democrats running in November races this fall who are under consideration for early endorsements from the political group. One of the more high profile candidates is lesbian Oakland AtLarge City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who is making a second bid to be mayor of her hometown. Also on the ballot in Oakland is Abel Guillen, who identifies as two spirit. He is seeking the city’s open District 2 council seat. Currently an elected member of the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees, Guillen had sought an Assembly seat two years ago but came up short. A number of out candidates are running for seats on Berkeley’s City Council. The most high profile is longtime gay City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who is seeking re-election in the recently redrawn District 7. In the contest for the council’s District 8 seat are Lori Droste, who is
Courtesy Kaplan’s campaign
Oakland At-Large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan shares an embrace with her fiancée, Pamela Rosin, during the San Francisco Pride Parade Sunday, June 29.
raising two kids with her wife and has served on a number of Berkeley commissions, and gay community activist George Beier, who twice ran against Worthington but was redistricted into a new council district this year. Three candidates are seeking seats on countywide boards, including bisexual East Bay Municipal Utility District board member Andy Katz, who is running for re-election to his Ward 4 seat on the board. Katz last year had announced a run for state Assembly
but abandoned his bid earlier this year. Also running for the EBMUD board is Marguerite Young, who is running for the Ward 3 seat. A lesbian and former director of Clean Water Action, Young lives in Oakland with her teenage son. Lastly, Richard Fuentes, a gay Oakland resident, is seeking Guillen’s Area 7 seat on the Peralta community college board. Fuentes, who is opening a new gay bar in downtown Oakland called the Port with his partner Sean Sullivan, ran unsuccessfully for the Oakland school board two years ago. While Stonewall’s candidate event will serve as an early endorsement meeting for club members, members of the public are invited to attend. Candidates will need to secure 60 percent of the membership vote to clinch the early endorsement. The meeting takes place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Library, 1901 Russell Street (at MLK) in Berkeley. For more information, visit www. EastBayStonewallDemocrats.org.
Bay Area LGBT tech groups visit White House
Three LGBT-focused technology groups based in the Bay Area will take part in a White House forum next week. The White House Office of Public Engagement and Office of Science See page 16 >>