From the press release:

THE LULU SESSIONS is a raw and deeply personal documentary about the last 15 months of the larger-than-life LuLu, through the eyes of someone who couldn’t be more different – her best friend and ex-lover, the filmmaker.  Leave your ideas of boundaries in love and life behind, because this film will take you to a whole new frontier – and it’s likely to make your jaw drop, laugh out loud, cry and continue to think about it long after you have left the theater.

LuLu is unlike anyone you’ve ever met.  She’s the amusingly profane, chain- smoking, no-holds-barred Dr. Louise Nutter, genius cancer research scientist and demanding yet beloved professor.  Her sweet-sounding nickname, LuLu, has nonetheless, stuck from her hardscrabble childhood days as a former cheerleader growing up on a small farm in Vermont. At 42, she is told she has the very illness she researches – end stage breast cancer.

The next 15 months – LuLu’s last – are an adventure that rattles her assumptions, values and places a spotlight on the boundaries of the bond between LuLu and the filmmaker.  The film offers us insight not only into a deeply connected relationship but the beginning of an intimacy between two women that outgrows our understanding of friendship and partnership – and maybe even life.  Lulu returns to her family farm for stability and solace but battles resurrected ghosts instead.  Dying becomes a process of shedding – of long-held but stale presumptions, obligations and relationships and forging new ones.

The film has been met with great critical acclaim, with high praise from L.A. Weekly and Variety. 

The documentary was nominated for 4 Grand Jury Awards, took Second Place in Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Toronto LGBT Film Festival, and will be the Opening Night Film at the Austin LGBT Film Festival in September.

To read more about “The LuLu Sessions”, please go to the film’s website here.

To purchase tickets for Saturday night’s screening at the Chelsea Clearview, click here.

Click to enlarge.

 Written by a Barnard Class of 2005 Alumna.

For about a year, we have been throwing “Blue Star: A Party for Girls Who like Girls”, which was born out of our dissatisfaction with the number of spaces for queer women in the New York City nightlife scene.  This scene includes only three lesbian bars in Manhattan and approximately the same number in Queens and Brooklyn.  The original mission for Blue Star was to provide another option for women who like women (and their friends), because the scene was so limited.

We are not professional party promoters, so the task seemed daunting at first.  How to secure a venue?  How to get the word out?  But once we managed to find a space, things really started to come together.  As we gained momentum, we began to think about the direction of the party.

Last November, one of Blue Star’s parties also raised funds for The Trevor Project, which turned out to be one of our best events.  The Trevor Project is a national organization providing crisis and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. We started thinking, why shouldn’t all the parties raise money for charity?  There is really no reason that having a great night out should be completely disconnected from do-goodery.

That is why going forward each Blue Star event will be a fundraiser for a different charity.  We are happy to support any charity, but would prefer to focus on smaller organizations working on local and/or LGBTQ causes, where the money the party raises can have a great impact, in addition to increasing awareness of the charity and its mission.  If there is an organization you would like to nominate to be supported by a Blue Star event, please email us at: bluestarpartynyc@gmail.com.

Our first party with this new mission is next Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 9 p.m at The Bowery Electric, raising money for the Ali Forney Center.  The Ali Forney Center protects LGBTQ youth in New York City from the harm of homelessness and supports them in becoming safe and independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood.

Blue Star parties are free to attend. We accept donations in the Donations Jar at the DJ booth. Additionally, 100% of the party’s profits from the bar will also go straight to the evening’s supported charity.  

Hope to see you there!

Thursday, April 21
The Bowery Electric
327 Bowery
9 p.m to 2 a.m.

Drink specials for the first hour!

For more information, please visit us @ http://www.bluestarpartynyc.com.

The opinions expressed in the above post do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Columbia Pride.

It’s Homecoming. Big Blue vs. Big Green. And in the shadow of Wien Stadium, CU Pride will be doing what it can to fight the good fight: challenging Dartmouth’s LGBT Alumni to a knock-down drag-out no-holds-barred brunch.

Actually, it will probably be a really pleasant and enjoyable affair and you should come!

RSVP to Chad Miller at cam2015 [at] columbia [dot] edu. N.B.: Seats are limited and it’s pay your own.

Indian Road Cafe
Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010
Noon
600 West 218th Street

And be sure to stop by the Columbia Pride table in the Alumni Tent at the Game!

For more information: http://alumni.columbia.edu/newsletter/ecards/Pride_homecoming_102310.html

Thursday, June 24th, 8-11pm
Join Columbia Pride and LGBTQ students and alumni
from other top-notch schools for a Pride Party at Elevate,
390 8th Ave, between 29th and 30th Streets.
$5, Cash Bar, drink specials from 8 to 9PM.
Current students over the age of 21
get in free with their university ID cards.

Sunday, June 27th, PRIDE!
Come march with Columbia Pride in the
New York City Pride March.
11.30am.
Meet on East 39th Street
between Madison and Park Avenues.
Questions about marching?
Contact Erich Erving, Assistant Director for Alumni Relations.

Tuesday, June 29th, 6-9pm
In case you missed the fun on Thursday
(or just want more of it),
attend an All-Ivy Post-Pride Mixer at the Yale Club,
50 Vanderbilt Ave (across from Grand Central Station),
in the Tap Room (3rd Floor).
$40 cash only at the door.
$20 for current students with their University ID cards.
You MUST RSVP for this event if you are not
already a member of the Yale Club.
Please register EARLY. It will be much appreciated.

And for those of you in Texas…

Monday, June 21st, 5.30pm-7pm
An All-Ivy LGBT Mixer in Dallas at Vino 100.
2909 McKinney Avenue.
For more information about this event, contact Josh Lupkin.

Hosted at Columbia by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, “Lavender Graduation is a cultural ceremony that celebrates our graduating LGBTQ and allied students.  First started at the University of Michigan in 1995, the ceremony is now conducted at hundreds of universities nationwide including Princeton, Duke, MIT and NYU.  This history of New York is honored during the ceremony as our graduates prepare to make history of their own.”

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
2–4 p.m.

Alfred Lerner Hall
Lerner C555
Morningside Campus

For more information and to RSVP, please click here.

Please join the Sex Workers Project for an information and phone session to help pass two bills that would improve the lives of sex workers and victims of trafficking in New York State.

Right now, police confiscate condoms as “evidence” from sex workers and people they profile as sex workers. Help promote the health of sex workers by stopping this practice!
 
Right now, victims of trafficking are often arrested and convicted of prostitution, which makes it harder to get a job or immigration status. Help us give them the option of clearing their record!

Special Guest Speaker: Sienna Baskin, Staff Attorney of the Sex Workers Project / Urban Justice Center.

Refreshments will be served!

Monday, April 5, 3-5pm
The Diana Center (The Nexus)
Barnard College
Room 203 

Brought to you by Columbia’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic and the Urban Justice Center.

Columbia Community Outreach

Volunteer with Columbia Pride as we lend our support.

This Saturday, March 27, Low Plaza, Morningside Campus
9 a.m. Registration and breakfast
10 a.m. Opening ceremonies followed by community projects

Lunch and a volunteer t-shirt will be provided along with MetroCards when necessary. Return to campus at the end of the day for a thank-you pizza party organized by current Columbia students.

Registration is required.
To register, please click here, then click “Register for an Existing Group” and select “Columbia Pride.”

Spring is in the air, and so is planning for the 2010 Pride March.

NYC Grand Marshals have been announced: Lt. Dan Choi and Judy Shepard

Columbia Pride registered today, and we would be honored to you have you, your friends, and your loved ones march with us this June. If you’re interested in being a group marshal, or if you’d like to volunteer in another capacity, please comment after this post.

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]]> http://columbiaprideblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/save-the-date-62710-pride-march/feed/ 0 chadder march_pic Choi_Self_pic Jud_Sheppard_Pic http://columbiaprideblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/share-your-pride/ http://columbiaprideblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/share-your-pride/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:03:24 +0000 chadder http://columbiaprideblog.wordpress.com/?p=111 ]]> Hello everyone,

Spring has sprung, if today’s weather is any indication. That’s certainly an opportune time to come out of hibernation and share.

Allow me to introduce the launch of Share Your Pride.

Visit us to read journeys and stories from other Columbia alumni. Email us at columbiapridealumni[at]gmail.com, and we’ll share your postings with our community. And, feel free to join the conversation on the posts that you read.

Our first posting is from Eric Horwitz (CC ’90) on Ivy League angst. Who suffers from it? How can we address it and move forward? I, for one, am looking forward to the conversation.

See you online at the campfire,

Chad Miller
President, Columbia Pride

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Ivy League Angst:
When everything is not enough?

As I watched President Obama try to ring some concessions out of his Republican counterparts at the Health Care Summit, I could not help but feel a great deal of empathy for his frustration.  All of his Columbia and Harvard education, and the fact that he was the leader of the free world, could not overcome the fact that his opposition was at times belligerent and appeared that they would do anything to prevent this first African American president from achieving what is obviously an oncoming crisis for this country.

As a coach, I work with many Ivy-league educated professionals who often find that all their education and intelligence somehow still prevents them from achieving their aims.  This is true for both my straight and LGBTQ clients.  I call this Ivy league Angst.  (ILA) Basically, with all the prestigious degrees in the world, one still may not result in success and happiness in the real world.

So here are three perspectives on why everything is not enough.

First Reason for Angst:
School is about being right…and life is about being really comfortable with being wrong.  So I recommend that you put down your number 2 pencil, and start to learn from all the people that you have labeled as stupid or lazy.  Those stupid and lazy people, especially the ones that appear to have good jobs, and close friends, learned in the school of life things that you could never pick up in Hamilton Hall.

Second Reason for Angst:
A degree from Columbia University, and a same-sex partner, and two beautiful children and a white picket fence in suburbia, will still never garner you the acceptance of approximately 50% of the United States of America, and approximately 100% of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.  That degree never bought you a ticket into society, and it never will.   For President Obama, being African American, will never get him acceptance from bigotry from a certain segment of the population, even though he lives in the White House.

Third Reason for Angst:
Just because…Generally people with a questioning mind, and a love of learning are generally angst ridden.  Its not because your LGBTQ, it’s because you are smart.  Just accept that and don’t try to cure it.  Its as much a part of you and your hair, or your eyes or the fact that you like to read the Almanac cover to cover. (that is just me and I am proud of it)

Knowing the reasons for your angst will not make the angst go away, and perhaps your reasons are more in-depth or more complicated.  But the point is to understand the sources of trouble and move in powerful ways to take all the potential and intelligence and ambition you were given, and make a difference, for yourself, your family, your community and your world.

Eric Horwitz, CC ’90

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