“The enclosed are excerpts from a montage series-in-progress, “From Nostalgia, Through Now & Beyond”, work paying homage to international LGBTI individuals, couples, and allies (often depicting forces they were up against) predominantly pre-Stonewall. At over 300 pieces at this point I am hoping to one day create a free online museum of sorts. These particular images are part of a subset from the whole, work I’ve come to consider “The Gad Beck Suite”. Gad Beck was a gay jewish man whom had at a young age managed to survive the brutal murderous Nazi occupation by basically going underground, working for the resistance. Manfred Lewin was his “affectionate friend” at this time, a friend whom despite his love for Gad could not leave his family when they were to report for “relocation”, and ultimately died with them in the camps. Written pre-holocaust Manfred gave his journal to Gad, one of his last gestures as a loving friend before going off to meet his fate. Gad cherished this journal and his memories of Manfred his whole life. Zwi Abrahmson was another friend of Gad’s who too had gone underground. At one point when they were both arrested Zwi gave Gad a lock of his hair to keep hidden as a talisman of faith and courage while Gad was in his own separate cell. Gad’s book “An Undeground life: memoirs of a gay jew in Nazi Berlin” was published in 1999 via University of Wisconsin Press.”
– Stephen Mead
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Stephen Mead is an Outsider multi-media artist and writer. Since the 1990s he’s been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online. He is also grateful to have managed to keep various day jobs for the Health Insurance. In 2014 he began a webpage to gather links of his poetry being published in such zines as Great Works, Unlikely Stories, Quill & Parchment, etc., in one place: Poetry on the Line, Stephen Mead For links to his other media (and even merchandise if you are interested) please feel free to Google Stephen Mead Art.
