narrator
Kelsey Flynn was born on June 25, 1971 in Montclair, New Jersey. She grew up there with her parents, Laura and Peter, and her older brother, Peter. She attended Smith College from 1989 to 1993, where she was part of the founding class of the Smith SIKOS improv comedy group. After graduating from Smith as a religion major, she moved to San Francisco to begin attending the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in the hopes of becoming a minister. She did not end up completing her studies in Berkeley, but in San Francisco discovered a love for stand-up comedy that she brought with her back to Northampton. She spent some time in Provincetown and New York City before settling back down in Northampton for good in 1997. Kelsey was a member of the Villa Jidiots improv troupe for many years, and in the early 2000s, she worked as a radio host for local stations WRNX and WRSI. She and her wife were married in 2006, and now live in Northampton with their two children and many pets.
abstract
In this interview, Kelsey Flynn reflects on her childhood growing up in Montclair, New Jersey. She talks about her time at Smith College, where she dated her first girlfriend and discovered she was a lesbian. She speaks about attending Smith during a time when the college and the surrounding town of Northampton were getting a lot of media traction for being a supposed haven for lesbians. She talks about coming out to her parents, and how they worked through their own homophobia in the decades before their deaths. She talks about living in San Francisco in the mid-90s and discusses her time as a performer, specifically her improv and stand-up careers as well as her time as a radio DJ. She talks about meeting and falling in love with her wife, touching on the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts as well as their 2006 wedding. She discusses raising her two children, reflects on the current political moment, and discusses how Northampton has changed over time.