Episode 57 – Exclusion III

This is the third of four conversations about exclusion. This is an interview with Mitchell Halberstadt. He wrote a provocative essay back when I was with AJODA and I’ve stayed in contact with him every since. That said he has burned every anarchist bridge available to him since then. He’s been escorted out of several BASTARD conferences. He is one of the few not-houseless people banned from the Long Haul. He is the very definition of a social pariah. Halberstadt observes, “With 20/20 hindsight, I wish I’d invoked the name of Lenny Bruce. That might have avoided a lot of verbiage. Then again, I’m an original in my own right. It’s my hope that this interview succeeds in establishing that, in contradistinction to the notion that I ought to be viewed predominantly as a pariah.” This conversation is an attempt to grapple with why this is the state of affairs and who is MH. It was an enjoyable conversation for me for the way it tells a story about post-Stonewall NYC, a time when the Bay was still friendly to freaks, and what happens (inevitably?) as one ages. Contact us at thebrilliant@thebrilliant.org (1003)