Journalist Kelly Cogswell to discuss media’s role in reproducing ignorance and hatred

Kelly Cogswell, a journalist, poet, and artist, will discuss “Citizen Dyke: Community, Media, and the Age-Old Seduction of Hate” on Wednesday, Nov. 28 as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.

The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Yale Divinity School’s Niebuhr Hall, 409 Prospect St. It is free and open to the public.

Cogswell is the co-founder and co-editor of the Gully online magazine, which provided “queer views on everything.” Her work has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Louisville’s Courier-Journal, and THIS WAY OUT: the international lesbian & gay radio magazine. Her column for New York’s Gay City News has also been recognized by the New York Press Association. Her work on the Lesbian Avengers won Cogswell the Joan Heller-Diane Bernard Fellowship. The Avengers was “a direct action group focused on issues vital to lesbian survival and visibility.”

Cogswell is an experienced activist and advocate. She was an organizer of the 1994 International Dyke March, and was specifically vocal about the importance of not asking for permits. Her book, “Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger,” discusses her experience as a lesbian advocate in the 1990s. She is currently working on a French memoir titled “En territoire ennemi: Essais picaresques de l'exil (In Enemy Territory: Picaresque Essays on Exile).”

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degree in 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus distinguished reporters, editors and others who have made important contributions to the media. Among recent Poynter fellows are Elizabeth Kolbert, Dan Diamond, and Susan Glasser.