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Love and Sex Among the Stacks: Quatrefoil Library Enriches GLBT Community for 15 Years

Volume 7, Issue 164 - September 7 - September 20, 2001
By Michael Dahl. Photos by Sophia Hantzes.

You know you've come to the right place when the first things you see is Lucy Lawless plastered on a poster inviting you to READ. And directly below the warrior princess is the sexy, badboy mug of Matt Dillon seducing you to pick up a paperback. The two-dimensional celebrities stand as guardians of literacy in the foyer that leads to Quatrefoil Library, one of the nation's handful of GLBT circulating libraries, and one of the Twin Cities's greatest queer resources.

Dean Johnson, a Wisconsin native, knows the value of a gay library. "When I was coming out in Madison, there was a queer community center that I visited a lot," he says. "It helped me in my coming-out process, gave me good information."

Safe Space

How many of us, when first sensing the queer impulses skateboarding through our hormones, went to the library or the local Barnes & Noble, and stared at the gay and lesbian section? Only stared. Or maybe we took furtive glances at the latest issue of The Advocate while our girlfriends glommed onto Mademoiselle and our buddies picked up Sports Illustrated.

Johnson serves as the volunteer head of Quatrefoil Library's development committee. He sees the library as a "safe space," a haven where GLBT people can read about themselves, and their history and culture, apart from prying or judgmental eyes.

"Not everyone has ready access to the Internet," says Kathy Robbins, volunteer coordinator at Quatrefoil, as well as chair of the operations committee. Not everyone can read or research GLBT issues on a quiet, private computer; hence, the need for physical archives of books, newspapers, videos, magazines, CDs, and tapes. Even the most intrepid net-surfer is limited to material entered (manually) into the worldwide databases.

The earliest gay material will probably remain only in hard-copy form. "We have newspaper issues of The Mattachine Review [for men] and The Ladder [for women] that were published in the '50s," says Robbins. (The Mattachine Society was the first serious signpost of gay liberation in the United States.)

Our Books, Ourselves

Quatrefoil Library is named for the 1950 gay novel by James Barr, the first novel to throw a positive light on homosexuals. The library is located in St. Paul, in the renovated Richards Gordon School building, a pleasing Greco-Roman pile just a few blocks from Snelling and Interstate 94.

Down a short flight of steps, once you get past Xena and Matt Dillon, is a quiet, cheerful room packed to the gills with GLBT goodies. A swift browse through the stacks reveals the latest gay and lesbian murder mysteries; how-to sex manuals; feminist poetry; queer romances; and an out-of print book called The Loving Couple by Virginia Rowans, who was also known as Patrick Dennis, the man who created Auntie Mame.

A funky paperback from the psychedelic '60s bears the unforgettable title The Man From Pansy, a spoof of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., with a hero named Buzz Cardigan, a "limp-wristed spy." Even the edges of the paper are purple!

Hundreds of videos are available for the film buff. And the rental (only a buck apiece) is good for two weeks.

Recently, a patron of the library, the late Peter Hengel, willed his entire video collection of more than 700 tapes to Quatrefoil. These include what Robbins smilingly, and euphemistically, calls "gay male erotica." Some are classics from the '70s, the Golden Age of Porn, currently enjoying a retro-appreciation among younger fans.

A Front Runner

"Everyone has their favorite library anecdote," says Robbins. "One of mine is when a young male college student came in to do research on the assassination of Harvey Milk." The library has copies of the San Francisco gay newspapers printed the day after Milk was shot. Robbins continues, "[The student] was able to get a complete feel for what the gay community was feeling and thinking at the time."

Another story involves a phone call from writer Patricia Nell Warren. In 1974, she wrote The Front Runner, which was hailed by the New York Times as "the most moving, monumental love story ever written about gay life." Several years ago, Warren called Quatrefoil and asked if it had any early Blueboy magazines. One of her earliest short stories had appeared in an issue, and she had lost her copy. The staff of Quatrefoil found the issue and faxed Warren the story.

More than 8,000 volumes are available at Quatrefoil Library. Abby Miller, one of the volunteer desk workers, says she gets "a little disappointed that more people don't use the library." She adds, "There are so many good books and magazines and videos. And if people don't want to check something out, they can always photocopy what they need."

A brand-new photocopier sits by the door. A library patron, Dallas Drake, who heads up the Minnesota Homicide Project, donated the machine. "He and his colleagues have been going through newspapers for the past year, checking on local unsolved gay and lesbian murders," Robbins says. Quatrefoil is his best source of information.

Quatrefoil serves a number of needs in the GLBT community. It's not only a great place to pick up a good read, but also an excellent meeting ground for like-minded spirits.

Are brainy boys or warrior grrls in glasses listed high on your hobbies? Go to the back of the library, find a quiet chair, and sit down with Amazons! from 1979, a collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories all focused on sisters-in-arms.

Or pick up the out-of-print hardcover Chorus of Witches by Paul Buckland, a gay romance from 1959 with a happy ending. No one ends up in jail or commits suicide, and the story has more kissing than a whole season of Will & Grace. Who would have thought that queers living back then could actually have a good time?

Q-Tips

HISTORY

Quatrefoil Library began as a collection of gay-themed books in a linen closet. Founders David Irwin and Dick Hewetson created a "seed library" of more than 1,500 books. In 1983, they incorporated the collection as the Quatrefoil Library. The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union (MCLU) leased space to Quatrefoil so that it could become a true public lending library. Doors opened on February 4, 1986. The library occupied its current home at 1619 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, in summer 1987.

FINANCES

"Ninety percent of our budget goes to rent," says Kathy Robbins. Comparable or cheaper housing for the library has not yet been found in either of the Twin Towns. "And that's why we really appreciate any kind of donation from the community," she adds. "Quatrefoil doesn't get any public funding," notes Dean Johnson. "Individual support is crucial for this kind of institution."

WEB SITE

By the end of September, Quatrefoil hopes to have its new Web site up and running. An on-line-catalogue is one of the many projects for the near future, but those titles have to be entered by human hands.

VOLUNTEERS

At Quatrefoil, volunteers make up the entire staff and board. If you're interested in volunteering, in whatever capacity, call the library.

BRAILLE

Triangle Braille Press, an organization of visually impaired GLBT people who produce Braille copies of gay and lesbian works, received a grant from Philanthrofund Foundation to transcribe books that will be available at Quatrefoil Library. Eight books have been produced already. An open house at the library on October 13, 2:30 PM, will celebrate this achievement and show people the rest of the collection.

BOWLING

If you like hurling heavy balls at unsuspecting pins, dust up those fashionable bowling shoes for Quatrefoil's second annual Bowling Evening. Supper and strikes will be the order of the night. Call the library for details.