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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Author Les Wright, editor of The Bear Book I and The Bear Book II and founder of the Bear History Project has many projects in the works yet he's needing some assistance, mostly from webmasters. The following is from Les, and if you're interested, then make sure to contact him:

"I launched the original BHP (Bear History Project) around 1997. In a matter of a couple of years it grew and grew and grew; I organized the BHP into a 501c3 nonprofit, called it the Nashoba Institute, and it continued to grow... and to be funded out of my pocket. By 2004, I could no longer afford to fund the whole of it, and I had decided to quit my teaching post and move back home to San Francisco. I have also been doing a lot of serious self-examination and re-viewing of what the Bear community has become since the 1980s.
 
After three years back in San Francisco, I have been able to find part-time teaching, but am now following through on a massive career and life calling changes. I have very limited finances at this time, I am looking to develop some of what I propose to do into gainful employment, some will be donated to the community. I have three web site projects to develop and launch. I am open to partnership, collaboration, or barter and, eventually, service for fee as I can afford to do so.
 
1) www.bearhistory.com will be a web-based resource for Bear history and related gay men's tribal homo-masculine communities: basic factual history, grassroots and academic content, oral histories (transcribed), videos, photo/pictorial galleries; social, sexual, spiritual, aesthetic aspects of 'culture', progressive, eco-friendly, global village perspectives, non-commercially defined subcultures, etc.
 
2) www.leskwright.com will be my personal professional page, to include my bio, resume academic CV), selections published writing (web-based and print), bibliography of published materials, links to a new blog, and professional services and activities - writer, editor, photographer, video documentary project, the Lazarus Generation (AIDS survivors essays book project), etc.
 
(3) www.thinkingbear.com will be my entrepreneurial web presence, for a new Cultural Events business I have been brainstorming for a long time now - it could include revitalized 'Bear Icons & Beyond' art exhibition type projects (as commercial business venture, not developed and donated out of my now nonexistent purse); Bear Camp weekend retreats in the manner of Easton Mountain, Hillside Campgrounds, etc. (I have a site available in northern California). These would be alternative type events, something a bit different form the Bear circuit events now held, hopefully".

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Friday, February 15, 2008

The following is from Les Wright, editor of Bear Book I and Bear Bear II and of Bear History Project: "Bears' artistic creativity has exploded in recent years. As the Bears' subculture has flourished world-wide into gay-mainstream community everywhere, opportunities for Bear creative types to find an audience has not kept pace.
 
The Bear world has changed since the early days of the Bear History Project and the Bear Icons art exhibitions on the East Coast, and the first Bear Paws, then Ursology literary salons here at IBR. We are bigger, better, brighter than ever. The old venues are far too small and have outlived their usefulness. It is time to renew and redevelop the Bear arts – Bear writing, Bear photography and painting, Bear music and performing arts, Bear history and memoir. It is time for a new vision, bigger, bolder, broader, of these Bear arts.
 
Ursology brought a small taste of Bear writing and Bear visual arts to IBR. Bear cultural events have sprung up all over the US and overseas, Bear Café in New York, the Bear Film Festival in Vermont, and no doubt much, much more is happening today. Bears as subject matter of serious, established painters, theorizing Bear as homomasculine homoerotic ideal
 
This is a call to all Bear arts devotees – Bear creative types, arts nonprofit professionals, writers, scholars, film-makers, archivist, web publishers, commercial supporters of Bear community, friends with deep pockets, with vision, with big hearts, with creative drives to come together: to transform Ursology, or its next generation incarnation – into a Bear cultural phenomenon, into the Bear cultural event of the year.
 
Rather than mount a very small event, with little opportunity to do artists and writers justice, Ursology 2008 is being devoted to an open-ended forum, a call to plan a whole new kind of event. Spread the word!".

Ursology has its showing on February 16th at the Washington Gate Holiday Inn in San Francisco.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The following is from Les Wright - editor of The Bear Book I and The Bear Book II: "Artists and writers who celebrate, investigate, chronicle, explore, or otherwise engage creatively with Bears - Bear identity, Bear community, Bear culture, Bear sensibility – are welcome to submit a proposal to participate in Ursology 2008, a two-hour salon, consisting of a reading and display of original works of art.

For the second year in a row, Ursology, the Bear literary and arts salon, will take place during IBR . That’s Saturday, February 16th at Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue, the host hotel in San Francisco.

Ursology 2008 is being organized by Les Wright, founder and curator of the original Bear History Project (Nashoba Institute) and of the Bear Icons and beyond art exhibitions (1999-2002). Proposals, samples of writing or artwork, all inquiries may be sent to the organizer via email (note: a 'placeholder' webpage can be found at BearHistory.com ).

Individuals interested in becoming involved in the development of future Ursology programs or the redevelopment of the Nashoba Institute and the Bear History Project are encouraged to contact Les, and to consider attending a planning meeting immediately following the 2008 salon".

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Monday, July 2, 2007
A couple of weeks ago I posted an article about some reviews from Bears ~ The Movie (MySpace page ~ poster ~ trailer). All of the reviews were positive. I haven't seen the movie and I guess I'm just going to have to wait until the DVD comes out of maybe it will be available on the net at some point. However, here's another more in-depth review from Les Wright (Bear Book I, Bear Book II, Bear History Project). Here's a snippet from Les' blog: "The climax of each IBR is the International Mr. Bear competition, and as Bears documents, service and fun combine to make for a strenuous run for the sash. As long-time emcee, the late Lurch (who appears in Bears) was always wont to say, 'Everyone who runs is already a winner'. The competition culminates with the bestowal of four separate titles. The 2004 contestant base offers a typical mix of Bearish types in friendly competition. Some, such as Mr. So Cal Bear, build upon a natural sense of showmanship and competitive spirit, while others demonstrate their own flavor of natural bear spirit. Mr. Kentucky Bear is a former Marine and horse-breeder, a 'man's man', who would have been a natural for the leather community of a previous generation, and Mr. New York Bear, a bagpipe-playing, big-boned, and even bigger-hearted blond, who epitomizes (unself-consciously) much of the open-hearted, compassionate, fun-loving, even civic-minded 'inclusivity', which was the original hallmark and rallying cry of the Bears back in the 1980s".

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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

There's an interesting article in the Canadian National Post written by Robert Fulford (website - profile) entitled Where the Bears Don't Fear to Tread - Tracking the Pawprints of a Gay Subculture (thanks Les Wright of the Bear History Project for pointing it out).

Here's a snippet from the article: "But what's a Bear? ... My own informal poll indicates that only homosexuals are familiar with the term and they don't always agree about its meaning. Even (Andrew) Sullivan finds Bears hard to define. But some clarification is available in a slick American quarterly, A Bear's Life, edited by its founder and owner, Steve Harris.

Bears have constructed a masculinist subculture within gay society, disdaining feminized stereotypes. Bears display facial hair, sometimes a lot of it. They wear checked shirts and big boots. Many are fat. Some prefer to be called 'large framed', but there's a defiant element willing to wear t-shirts proclaiming, 'I'm fat', sold by A Bear's Life".

ps - check this out as well... cute pic.

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Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Ok so this article on LATimes.com is a bit old - as in February 4th '07 old - but the beauty about the net is that, well, it's not like a newspaper - the page doesn't go yellow after months of neglect.

I discovered the link when I decided to go pay a visit to the Bear History Project. I was checking in on Les Wright's site to see if he had updated his site - which he hasn't unfortunately - however he did add that link to that interesting article entitled 'Bear-y Gay' (a really silly title, but I didn't make it up). It's worth the read, especially to scholars since it speaks about the study of Bear culture. However the article is also about just the awareness of Bear culture within the larger 'gay' comunity. It's a good read, even if it's a few months old.

Here's an excerpt: "'One reason I think there's been such an explosion of interest and activity around the Bear community is that a lot of gay guys, as they get older, find (they put) on weight and don't find themselves fitting the model of the svelte, young guy', said Stevo Harris, publisher of A Bear's Life magazine. 'They look around for new models - and they discover there's a Bear community in which men have real bodies, not the fantasies you see on television'".

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Thursday, February 22, 2007

After being down for a year or so, the Bear History Project page is up, altho right now there is only a 'coming soon' page... which is a good thing. For those who do not know, the Bear History Project is run mostly by Les Wright, author of Bear Book I (Amazon) & II (Amazon again). Les has collected a ton of Bearish paraphernalia and I believe one day he wishes to have all of it displayed at some point. In any account, it's good news to see BHP back up.

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The following was sent in by Eric Crow (email) who is making a call for artists and writers:

This year at IBR the 13th we are proud to present 'Ursology', a new literary and artistic event.

In the tradition of past IBR artistic series, Ursology will produce a program of Bear writers and Bear artists at this year's Rendezvous. The objective is to create a new space of creative freedom for all artists of all levels.

Read more here.