Tribute to Cheryl Spector
Yesterday at Dupont Circle the LGBT community gathered to pay tribute to a much beloved activist, archivist, and all around good gal, Cheryl Spector (1958-2007)--founder of the Rainbow History Project, which documents the queer movements to which she contributed so much. For hours in the hot sun the crowd listened to eulogies and fond reminiscences of Cheryl by many people whose lives she had touched, and by her brothers and sister Barbara who went around and thanked everyone for coming. I regret I never had the chance to meet her, but feel honored that shamantigre invited me to join him in sacred drumming for the event. I brought my djembe and we drummers opened and closed the ceremony. The steps up to the Dupont Circle fountain where the speakers stood were covered with a sheer shimmery gold cloth, and glitter was scattered all around by the DC Radical Faeries, who filled a cauldron with incense to bless the crowd as we drummed. Many portraits of Cheryl were displayed and there was a watermelon too, they said it was her favorite food. When Barbara Spector spoke, she held up Cheryl's necklace containing many charms from people she had known, and the power of her living spirit radiating from the necklace was palpable. Afterward, the participants moved the commemoration to a café but I had to get home so I missed that part. At the end of the Dupont Circle part, two other lesbian drummers and I sang "Hava Nagila" in Hebrew to the African rhythms. It turned out none of us was Jewish and we were all amazed at one another for having learned the lyrics in Hebrew. לחים L'Chaim!