International Gay & Lesbian Review

Faeries: Visions, Voices & Pretty Dresses

• Nonfiction
• Publisher: Aperture
• Publication Date: 2000

While strolling through one of my favorite hang outs recently, this ‘coffee table book' caught my undivided attention. Upon opening the book, my eyes were given a deliciously wonderful feast of photographs along with words that danced merrily across the page. Having been a follower of the radical faerie movement for the last twenty or so years, I often had hoped someone somewhere would capture this budding, nascent socio-politico- spiritual movement. And so she has! Perhaps to some it will be startling to realize that a woman has created this masterpiece of photographs but then again perhaps only a woman photographer could capture the raw exuberance of these men! Ms. Pickett focuses on the faerie sanctuary of Kawashaway situated in Minnesota. Offering a range of photographs that blend the everyday mundane with the exotic, the masculine with the feminine, the sensual with the earthly, the photographs paint a very real yet magical world. Interspersed throughout the book are snippets of interviews with various members taken over several years. The quotes interweaved with the photographs create a stunning world of laughter, love, hard work, and camaraderie. Yet this book is an honest book. Both the words and the pictures show the complete story. This world may be magical. This world may be comforting. But this world too must deal with the drudgery, the nitty gritty, the pain of life. Even magical worlds must cope with these elements. And the Kawashway faeries do cope. One can view photographs of the faeries sawing wood or repairing a leaky roof or pumping water or fixing a community supper. And since this is an honest book, it too deals with the tragedy now called AIDS. Probably the most moving story is the one titled “Daisy Care.” Daisy was a gentle gay man by the name of David Lindahl. Daisy was tended by his faerie friends throughout the stages of his struggle with AIDS. Thus the magical world of faeriedom does indeed know to cope. And cope very well indeed. The only flaw that I find with the book (and it really isn't a flaw) is that I wish that it could have been more diverse in representing the other faerie tribes that exist throughout the United States. Of course, such an undertaking would be near to impossible. Anyway, Pickett's charmingly touching book is a wonderful memorial to a lustful magical world. Now close your eyes and click your heels.

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