Part of the Practice
What is social practice, and how does it affect the ways we navigate our lives and make change in the world? Join artists, scholars, and collaborators from Social Practice CUNY on Part of the Practice, hosted by Catherine LaSota, as we discuss our individual art practices, our communities, and the role of socially-engaged art in our work for social justice.
Part of the Practice
10: Public Lives, Community Care with Elvis Bakaitis
In our final episode of 2024, host Catherine LaSota is in conversation with Elvis Bakaitis, Head of Reference at the Graduate Center CUNY Library. Elvis discusses their work with the Lesbian Herstory Archives, their experience as a caregiver in different contexts, and the nature of our public lives in New York City and at CUNY in particular, as well as the queer aging studies project they are working on as an SPCUNY Fellow.
FULL TRANSCRIPT of Episode 10 available here.
About our guest:
Elvis Bakaitis serves on the CUNY LGBTQ Council and as a board member of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, where they advocate for trans and gender non-conforming students across the University. As a 2022 Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives, Bakaitis explored the philanthropic activism of Reed Erickson. Their research is additionally supported by grants from Harvard University, Duke University, Rockefeller Archive Center, and the American Library Association. Bakaitis has presented about delightfully queer topics at the National Academy for Public Administration, The Whitney Museum, Columbia University’s Seminar for Women and Society, among other venues. Elvis’ illustrations are published in Women’s Studies Quarterly (WSQ), Sinister Wisdom, and they are the co-founder (and current co-organizer) of the NYC Feminist Zinefest. A passionate advocate for positive aging and eldercare, Bakaitis completed a Certificate in Geriatric Care Management from the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging.
More about Elvis Bakaitis:
website: https://sites.google.com/view/elvis007/work
More about topics discussed in this episode:
NYC Feminist Zinefest: feministzinefestnyc.com
Lesbian Herstory Archives: lesbianherstoryarchives.org
Learn more about Social Practice CUNY.
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Thank you to our podcast editor Jade Iseri-Ramos, and thank you to Gaius LaSota for our Part of the Practice music.
Part of the Practice logo courtesy of Maliyah Mohamed.
Social Practice CUNY is funded by the Mellon Foundation.