My Stranger Experience By Dr. John Howard, At The Dinah...

For my Stranger Experience, I went to a lecture called â€Å"Picturing Queer Souths†, which was taught by Dr. John Howard, at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center. He is a professor at King’s College in London, and he is also a University of Alabama alumnus. During this lecture, he discussed the different aspects of LGBT photography and how sexuality can be expressed through that medium, whether there are members of the community physically present in that photographs or not. There was a specific focus on southern photographers that are members of the LGBT community, not only in the American South, but also in relatively â€Å"southern† parts of the world, like South Africa for example. Through his lecture, Dr. Howard explored the idea that†¦show more content†¦The experience of attending the lecture was incredibly interesting to me. Personally, I identify as a heterosexual woman, so this was actually the first time I ever visited a place that was f ocused on LGBT life experiences and art. Interestingly enough, although the space was not necessarily queer exclusive, I believe that a majority of the attendees were members of the queer community. This led to several questions after the lecture pertaining to personal experiences from members of the community and how they related to the lecture that was shared. I think that one of the aspects of strangeness I experienced was the fact that I did not feel comfortable asking a question that I had at the end of the lecture. There was nothing necessarily telling me that I could not ask a question, in fact, it was encouraged for the most part. I simply felt like I was in a space that was specifically for queer people and that it was not my place to speak up, since I typically have the privilege of having my voice heard daily. Another aspect that felt strange to me was the overt sexuality of many of the photographs that were shown. I grew up in a very conservative Christian household, where I was taught that sexuality was something that was private and sex itself was reserved for married couples. Many of the photos shown during Dr. Howard’s lecture showed partial or complete nudity, or were candid photos of LGBT couples participating in sex acts. This was