White Crane
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For over fifteen years White Crane has existed as a quarterly forum for exploring and enhancing gay wisdom & culture.
[edit] History
White Crane, [1] (formerly White Crane Newsletter & White Crane Journal) was created by Robert Barzan in the Summer of 1989.
Barzan chose the name White Crane because in the ancient traditions of China and Japan, the white crane is a symbol of happiness and wholeness. Suggesting high-flying aspiration and convention-defying independence. It is an appropriate symbol for the Gay quest for a life of wholeness and meaning. In that first issue Barzan described White Crane's mission:
"The driving force behind this newsletter is my belief that as gay men we have a unique and wonderful spirituality to share with each other. A spirituality that is, in part, due to our gayness but also because we have all experienced oppression of who we are as gay men...This has forced us to drink from our own wells, exploring new ways that lead to our authenticity."
Barzan published the journal for seven years, growing the newsletter into a journal format with some of the foremost writers in gay history, spirituality and Queer studies contributing almost from the very beginning. He remains White Crane's Emeritus Founder.
In 1996, Barzan passed the journal on to Gay theorist, science-fiction writer and novelist Toby Johnson. At that time he described White Crane Journal's objectives:
- That it be a forum where we can share with each other what we have found both helpful and not helpful for our spiritual development; and
- that what is written here be a source of encouragement in our own life journeys. You are encouraged to test everything that is written here, keep what is helpful to you, and lay the rest aside.
During Johnson's tenure the publication expanded to an international readership with subscribers in Europe, South America, Australia and Asia and entered the digital age with the establishment of the White Crane website [2].
Johnson published White Crane Journal for seven years, writing several books in that time including the 2000 Lammie Award winning Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness. Johnson is now publisher emeritus of White Crane after handing over publishing responsibilities to Bo Young who had previously served as Poetry Editor and Associate Editor.
Bo invited former [[RFD]] poetry editor and former LGBT church advocate Dan Vera [3] to come on-board, and they share the work of publishing White Crane in the 21st Century. Having met in Harry Hay's Heart Circle Workshops in the mid-90s, they seek to bring White Crane to new readers hungry for a spiritual grounding and self-awareness of gay meaning. Their aim is to continue a forum of discussion and sharing in the spirit of the Heart Circles they learned from Harry Hay.
A non-profit publication, supported in its entirety by it subscribers with virtually no advertising, is a highly unusual thing in the magazine and publishing world. It speaks eloquently to the depth of commitment many gay men feel toward living a spiritual life.[citation needed]
Now published by the White Crane Institute, White Crane has moved to publishing books under the White Crane Books imprint. The first volume involved the reissue of Andrew Ramer's Two Flutes Playing. Other volumes in the White Crane series include Mark Thompson's Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning Toby Johnson's Gay Spirituality and James Broughton's posthumous collection of writings under the title All edited by poet and KPFA radio host Jack Foley.
White Crane also manages a Gay Wisdom listserve for individuals seeking inspiring and challenging reminders of the contributions gay people have made to human consciousness. This is a free service available via their website.
[edit] Critical reviews
In 2003, the Lambda Book Report described the venerable publication as "a literate, intelligent-and, at the same time, provocative and ground-breaking, scholarly quarterly of gay culture."
In 2004, Utne Reader nominated the publication for its yearly Independent Press Awards in the area of "spiritual coverage." White Crane was the only Gay magazine to receive a nomination that year.
[edit] Themes
White Crane has featured discussions of themes such as Prayer, Aging, Sex, Archetypes, Gaia, Elders, Totems & Animal Wisdom, God, Grieving, Food, Pilgrimage, Solitude, Elders, Gender, Pleasure, Attraction, Resistance, Altered States, and Healthy, Gay Marriage, Healthy Spirituality, Life Craft, Doubt & Skepticism and Gay Cowboys.
They have studied the relationship of sexuality to spirituality and how this relates to modern Gay life. For fifteen years the publication has served as a singular place for Gay men to share the wisdom of their lives.
They have featured the wisdom of writers and teachers like Franklin Abbott, Antler, Robert Barzan, Jeffrey Beam, Malcolm Boyd, Perry Brass, James Broughton, Joseph Campbell, Michael Clark, Randy Connor, Arthur Evans, Allen Ginsberg, Christian de la Huerta, Ram Dass, Matthew Fox, Harry Hay, Daniel Helminiak, Toby Johnson, Joseph Kramer, John McNeil, Andrew Ramer, Will Roscoe, Tom Spanbauer, Mark Thompson and many others.
Gay men use all kinds of paths and lifestyles to grow spiritually and to enhance their experience of life: meditation, prayer, psychotherapy, service, religion, music, drugs, yoga, breathing, ritual, dream study, dressing up, dressing down, role-playing, relationships, gardening, sex, sex rituals, dancing, and much more--all with varying degrees of success.
Committed to the certainty that gay consciousness plays a special and important role in the evolution of life on Earth, White Crane exists to explore the variety of ways contemporary gay men discern a more meaningful life.
