Kim Chan Remembers Celebrate 69

[Edited to add that we also brought Tim, Holly, and John to DC. Karen did not want to come.]

A memory from my early career as a curator Washington Performing Arts during the 1990s culture wars in Washington, DC...the NEA had just defunded Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, Karen Finley and John Fleck. Jan Rothschild organized a lunch at d.c. space with Charlotte Murphy and Bill Warrell and I can't remember who else but I bet Penelope Boyer was with us. By the end of the lunch, we had a plan to organize a fundraiser to support the National Association of Artist Organizations (NAAO) and the National Campaign for Free Expression to sue the government with the NEA 4. We got Washington Project for the Arts and 15 Minutes Club to donate the venues and Saied Azali to donate food from Perrys Washington DC. Jim Epstein, the board chair, at Dance Place; Perry Jude from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Alan Prokop & Debra Singer from Washington Project from the Arts (WPA); Margaret Schnipper from The DC Arts Center; Brian Tate from DC Committee to Promote Washington; and Tim Turner from OUT/DC joined the fundraising committee. We charged $69 per couple for the event at WPA and $6.90 at the door at 15 Minutes because Charlotte told us 69 cents per taxpayer supported the NEA each year. This is how I met Victoria Reis who was working at NAAO then and who runs Transformer in DC and the Siren Arts performance series in Asbury Park which has been my summer salvation for years until I started working at Jacob's Pillow last year. Tim Turner's OUT/DC group was making shirts that said FIGHT FOR HOMO EROTIC ART. I can't remember if we sold these shirts at the 69 fundraiser but I remember selling them with him backstage after performances to different touring artists include more than a few at The Kennedy Center. This is the DC that I knew and lived in for 20 years.