There are 3,000-plus Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence worldwide, with 18 sisters, novices, postulates, and aspirants in the Boston area. For three years, I have walked in gay pride parades with them, screamed encouragements alongside them at Boston’s annual AIDS Walk, accompanied them to fancy fundraising dinners at city hotels, brought friends to their monthly Drag Bingo charity events, and sailed with them while they’ve sold raffle tickets on Boston harbor cruises.
Starting with my first email contact with them, the Sisters welcomed me with warmth and trust, appointing me their “photo historian” shortly after my first visit. When my sisters and I were growing up, we wished unrealistically for an older brother. Now the Sisters of the Commonwealth have become my brothers—my new family.
I never tire of watching as they artfully manifest into their “avatars,” which can take an average of an hour and a half to do so. Their social activism has the seemingly simple goal of inspiring acceptance and tolerance of different lifestyles, all while raising money for the LGBT community and other causes. Watching the reactions on the faces of strangers in the crowds as we pass, I get to witness the public’s ability or inability to process the sight of these “clown nuns”—to question and to learn—and the Sisters’ continuous optimism makes me feel hopeful.
The human stories behind photographs can be tools for supporting social change. I hope that by sharing these photographs of the Sisters with the public I am contributing to and echoing their desire to build a better world.
Meg Birnbaum
EXHIBITION
Photographs by Meg Birnbaum:
Sisters of the Commonwealth
Artists’ Reception, Saturday May 17, 6-8pm
May 16 – June 22, 2014
Davis Orton Gallery
114 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
USA
Also showing: Photographs by Aline Smithson
Links
http://davisortongallery.com
http://www.megbirnbaumphotography.com
http://alinesmithson.com
