Profs & Pints Baltimore: Queer Country

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Queer Country ,” on the long, often-hidden presence of LGBTQ+ performers in country music, with Tanya Olson, lecturer in English and scholar of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-queer-country .]

Although country music is often thought of as conservative, rural, and straight, queer artists have always been part of its story.

Learn about the important role that queer artists, their ideas, and their experiences have played in country music with Tanya Olson, a cultural critic whose recent work explores the intersection of country music, identity, and tradition.

She’ll talk about queer artists across generations, describing how they are hidden and what it means to stand in the circle of tradition without being seen. She’ll explore how queerness shows up in the songs, stories, and sounds of country music even when it isn’t named, and also what’s at stake when those threads are left out of the history we tell.

You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of country music’s past, as well as a sharper eye for who’s been missing from the picture all along. You’ll gain an appreciation for why inclusion in country radio and the Grand Ole Opry matters, as well as an understanding of how a queer presence might strengthen, rather than threaten, country music's legacy.

Olson’s latest book of poetry, Born Backwards, builds on the language and imagery of country music to ask who gets remembered and why. Learning from her will make for a memorable evening. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Country artist k.d. lang performs in 2008 as part of the Cambridge Folk Festival (Photo by Bryan Ledgard / Creative Commons).