Katie Castagno’s “Our Queer Elders” uses song to celebrate and elevate the lives of queer icons throughout history. At a time when queer history and queer voices are increasingly erased, “Our Queer Elders” is part sentimental and part cheeky, whether it’s an account of Rachel Carson’s whirlwind romance with Dorothy Freeman, a hypothetical look into a clandestine meeting of Sally Ride and Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya during the Cold War, or a rollicking love song from Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert.

Katie Castagno is a geologist by day and a musician by night. Drawing on roots in rural New England and collegiate a cappella, Katie writes about people, places, and geological phenomena. Katie is a Smith College alum and is now the director of the Land-Sea Interaction Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA.