William Way Center exhibits LGBTQ memorial portraits by Arleen Olshan

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Arleen Olshan has been involved with LGBTQ arts and activism in Philadelphia for more than 60 years. She was a founding member of the then-Gay Community Center of Philadelphia in 1973, now the William Way Center, and for 10 years she was the co-owner of Giovanni’s Room, America’s oldest gay bookstore. She later co-founded Mt. Airy Art Garage.

Now 80 years old, she has seen many friends and colleagues pass away.

“I attended a lot of memorials. I also was very active in the community. So when somebody was written up, I wanted to save the paper on them, like in ‘Au Courant’ and different news media,” Olshan said, referring to the now-defunct Philadelphia gay newspaper that ran from 1982 to 2000.

While flipping through a binder overstuffed with clippings, photos and memorial pamphlets, Olshan explained she wants to draw or paint a portrait of everyone inside.

“Once I started this project, I knew that I had to put them all together so I could see what was possible,” she said. “There are hundreds of people.”

The project called “Dead Dykes and Some Gay Men” is now on view at the Imperfect Gallery in Germantown as part of the exhibition “Arleen Olshan: The Tangle I’ve Gotten Into.” It will be on view through Feb. 21.

The exhibition features dozens of drawings, paintings and photographs remembering friends, activists, allies and politicians that have moved through Olshan’s orbit for decades.

The exhibition is produced by the William Way Center, whose building at 1315 Spruce St. in Philadelphia is indefinitely closed as its board decides how to go about repairs and renovations. The exhibition at Imperfect Gallery is William Way’s first in a partner location.

Showing art has been an integral part of the William Way Center since Olshan coordinated its first group show in 1976.

“Through those 50 years there’s probably been thousands of artists that we’ve exhibited. That’s so impactful,” said Jake Foster, who was hired last year as William Way’s first full-time arts exhibitions manager.

“Not everywhere queer art is as accepted. It’s so important for us to have our own space to tell our own stories,” he said.

Keeping their memories alive

To choose which stories to tell in her portraits, Olshan said there is no rhyme or reason. She is moving on instinct.

“It’s mostly emotional, and sometimes it’s political, but mostly it’s my connection with that person,” she said. “It surprises me that I select the people I select.”

Here are a few people portrayed in the exhibition:

• Victoria Brownworth, a Philadelphia Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist who was the first open lesbian to have a daily column. She also co-founded the weekly lesbian music radio show “Amazon County,” which has aired on WXPN since 1974. She died last year.
• Carole Moore, an activist and fiber artist who was a vendor at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival for many years before opening a store The Fiber Arts Café in Bridgeton, New Jersey, later moving it to Millville.
• Marlene “Mike” Miller, a printmaker in Bucks County whose work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Michener Museum in Doylestown. She died last year. Olshan described her as “an organizer with a tremendous sense of both seriousness and fun.”

“It’s very important for me to tell the stories of the people in the portraits. I don’t want any of them to be forgotten,” Olshan said.

“For instance, Joe Beam traveled the country to find gay Black men’s writing and compose the first anthology of Black gay men’s writing,” she said. “Joe died in his 30s, but he’s carried a tradition forward. There are now many Black gay men writing and writing proud.”

Olshan created a trio of portraits linked through Philadelphia’s City Hall. Ethel Allen was the first Black woman to be elected to City Council where she introduced the first gay rights bill in 1975, which was not passed during her lifetime. Rita Addessa, as the founding director of the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Task Force, successfully pushed for the passage of a gay anti-discrimination law in 1982. Lastly, Gloria Cesarez, who became City Hall’s first director of LGBTQ affairs in 2008.

“This feels like I was meant to do this work. I haven’t had this kind of inspiration in many, many years,” she said. “It’s like I’m coming back home to myself.”

The exhibition at Imperfect Gallery includes a series of large-scale figurative drawings and paintings made in the 1970s that Olshan called “Women Loving Women,” showing women in poses of camaraderie and intimacy.

Foster said more exhibitions in partner locations are being planned for the rest of the year. The next is coming to Dirty Franks, a landmark Washington Square West bar. It will be a group show for which Foster is currently accepting submissions. It is expected to run from April through June.