Martin Padgett's guest appearances

Martin Padgett

Gwinnett County Public Library

Hear-Tell

Ivory Tower Boiler Room

David Baker

Rebecca Miller

Jim White

Karen Thomas

Valerie Boyd

Meg Wilson

Charles Pace

Patty Reeber

Shelly Schwerzler

Amy Billings

Homegrown Gwinnett

Shannon Bland

Cassandra Hickman

Hilda Loh-Guan

Bianca Hezekiah

OwlTail

Eric Solomon

Andrew reunites with fellow queer male intellects Marty Padgett and Dr. Eric Solomon after having met them at the Queer History Conference in San Francisco! They discuss Marty and Eric’s lives living in the South as members of the LGBTQ+ community and how that has affected them. Marty discusses his childhood, where he lived across tobacco farms, and coming from a very Southern family. Eric grew up in Mississippi and discusses the pressure of playing football to fit the narrative of “what it is all men do.”  Marty has an MFA from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism &amp; Mass Communication . He received the prestigious 2019 Lambda Literary Fellowship. He is a PhD candidate in History at Georgia State University and is the author of “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head.” He is currently working on “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick.”  Eric is a Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies and English at Emory University’s Oxford College. He received his PhD in English from Emory University and his BA in English and Spanish from the University of Mississippi. He is working on his first book, “Queer Straits: Desire Lines at the Southernmost.”  Marty, Eric, and Andrew discuss the growth of LGBTQ+ media and entertainment, such as Playgirl and why queer men gravitated towards it!  They also talk about the modern day dating scene for queer men, especially when there’s apps like Grindr where you make sexual and romantic connections geospatially.  Be sure to visit Marty’s personal website https://martinpadgett.com/ and follow him on Twitter @MartyPadgett and Instagram, @martypadgett.  Be sure to visit Eric’s personal website https://www.ericesolomon.com/ and follow him on Twitter, @eesolomo and Instagram, @magicescapist. Give Marty’s book “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head” some love! https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324007128/about-the-book/description Head to Broadview Press, an independent academic publisher, for all your humanities related books. Use code ivorytower for 20% off your broadviewpress.com order. To subscribe to The Gay and Lesbian Review visit glreview.org. Click Subscribe, and enter promo code ITBR to receive a free copy with any print or digital subscription. Order from @mandeemadeit, mention ITBR, and with your first order you'll receive a free personalized gift! Follow That Ol' Gay Classic Cinema on Instagram, @thatolgayclassiccinema. Follow ITBR on IG, @ivorytowerboilerroom, TikTok, @ivorytowerboilerroom, and Twitter, @IvoryBoilerRoom! Thanks to the ITBR team! Andrew Rimby (Executive Director), Mary DiPipi (Chief Contributor), and our Spring 23 Interns (Andrea, Kaitlyn, Rosie, Sara, and Sheila)  ---   Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ivorytowerboilerroom/support

Andrew reunites with fellow queer male intellects Marty Padgett and Dr. Eric Solomon after having met them at the Queer History Conference in San Francisco! They discuss Marty and Eric’s lives living in the South as members of the LGBTQ+ community and how that has affected them. Marty discusses his childhood, where he lived across tobacco farms, and coming from a very Southern family. Eric grew up in Mississippi and discusses the pressure of playing football to fit the narrative of “what it is all men do.”  Marty has an MFA from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism &amp; Mass Communication . He received the prestigious 2019 Lambda Literary Fellowship. He is a PhD candidate in History at Georgia State University and is the author of “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head.” He is currently working on “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick.”  Eric is a Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies and English at Emory University’s Oxford College. He received his PhD in English from Emory University and his BA in English and Spanish from the University of Mississippi. He is working on his first book, “Queer Straits: Desire Lines at the Southernmost.”  Marty, Eric, and Andrew discuss the growth of LGBTQ+ media and entertainment, such as Playgirl and why queer men gravitated towards it!  They also talk about the modern day dating scene for queer men, especially when there’s apps like Grindr where you make sexual and romantic connections geospatially.  Be sure to visit Marty’s personal website <a href="https://martinpadgett.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://martinpadgett.com/</a> and follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MartyPadgett" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@MartyPadgett</a> and Instagram, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/martypadgett/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@martypadgett</a>.   Be sure to visit Eric’s personal website <a href="https://www.ericesolomon.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.ericesolomon.com/</a> and follow him on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/eesolomo" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@eesolomo</a> and Instagram, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/magicescapist/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@magicescapist</a>. Give Marty’s book “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head” some love! <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324007128/about-the-book/description" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324007128/about-the-book/description</a> Head to Broadview Press, an independent academic publisher, for all your humanities related books. Use code ivorytower for 20% off your<a href="https://broadviewpress.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> broadviewpress.com </a>order. To subscribe to The Gay and Lesbian Review visit <a href="http://glreview.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">glreview.org</a>. Click Subscribe, and enter promo code ITBR to receive a free copy with any print or digital subscription. Order from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mandeemadeit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@mandeemadeit</a>, mention ITBR, and with your first order you'll receive a free personalized gift! Follow That Ol' Gay Classic Cinema on Instagram, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thatolgayclassiccinema/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@thatolgayclassiccinema</a>. Follow ITBR on IG, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ivorytowerboilerroom/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@ivorytowerboilerroom</a>, TikTok, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ivorytowerboilerroom" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@ivorytowerboilerroom</a>, and Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/IvoryBoilerRoom?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@IvoryBoilerRoom</a>! Thanks to the ITBR team! <a href="https://www.instagram.com/andrewdavidrimby/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andrew Rimby</a> (Executive Director), <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dipips/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mary DiPipi</a> (Chief Contributor), and our Spring 23 Interns (Andrea, Kaitlyn, Rosie, Sara, and Sheila) --- Support this podcast: <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ivorytowerboilerroom/support" rel="payment nofollow" target="_blank">https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ivorytowerboilerroom/support</a>

“Being On the Fringe of American Culture as a Queer Person,” Dr. Eric Solomon and Martin Padgett Discuss LGBTQ+ Life in the South 

Authors Annotated is a Gwinnett County Public Library podcast, where we chat with authors about their work, their creative processes, and their love of libraries. Martin Padgett has written books, features, product reviews, and news for 30 years and is the author of A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta's Gay Revolution. He earned his MFA in narrative nonfiction writing from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He was named a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow. He is a PhD candidate in History at Georgia State University. Marty lives in Pensacola Beach with his husband, their cat, and an overflowing file of future story ideas.

Authors Annotated is a <a href="https://www.gwinnettpl.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gwinnett County Public Library</a> podcast, where we chat with authors about their work, their creative processes, and their love of libraries. Martin Padgett has written books, features, product reviews, and news for 30 years and is the author of <a href="https://gwinnett.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S128C512138" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta's Gay Revolution</a>. He earned his MFA in narrative nonfiction writing from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He was named a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow. He is a PhD candidate in History at Georgia State University. Marty lives in Pensacola Beach with his husband, their cat, and an overflowing file of future story ideas.

Authors Annotated 1: Martin Padgett

Martin Padgett reads an essay titled “Underneath the Sweet Gum Tree,” originally published by the Oxford American, and adapted from his book, “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta’s Gay Revolution” (W.W. Norton, 2021). The story follows Frank Powell, an architect of Atlanta’s queer nightlife from the 1960s until his death in 1996. One of Powell’s many nightclubs, the Sweet Gum Head, offered gay Atlantans a safe space to be themselves long before queer culture became popular culture. Padgett’s story details the progress made in the South and the United States in terms of gay rights and lingers over all that has been lost to the AIDS pandemic and gentrification. A 2018 graduate of the Low-Residency MFA in Narrative Nonfiction program at the University of Georgia, Padgett is a writer and PhD candidate in History at Georgia State University. His writing has appeared in the Bitter Southerner, Men’s Health, Outside, and many others.

<a href="https://martinpadgett.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Martin Padgett</a> reads an essay titled “<a href="https://main.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/1943-underneath-the-sweet-gum-tree" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Underneath the Sweet Gum Tree</a>,” originally published by the Oxford American, and adapted from his book, “<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/a-night-at-the-sweet-gum-head-drag-drugs-disco-and-atlanta-s-gay-revolution/9781324007128" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta’s Gay Revolution</a>” (W.W. Norton, 2021). The story follows Frank Powell, an architect of Atlanta’s queer nightlife from the 1960s until his death in 1996. One of Powell’s many nightclubs, the Sweet Gum Head, offered gay Atlantans a safe space to be themselves long before queer culture became popular culture. Padgett’s story details the progress made in the South and the United States in terms of gay rights and lingers over all that has been lost to the AIDS pandemic and gentrification. A 2018 graduate of <a href="https://online.uga.edu/degrees-certificates/low-residency-mfa-narrative-media-writing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Low-Residency MFA in Narrative Nonfiction program at the University of Georgia</a>, Padgett is a writer and PhD candidate in History at Georgia State University. His writing has appeared in the Bitter Southerner, Men’s Health, Outside, and many others.

Ep. 13: Martin Padgett, "Underneath the Sweet Gum Tree"