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Turning hate mail into a positive for Rochester Contemporary Art Center

rochestercontemporary.org

The executive director of the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Bleu Cease, says the non-profit deals with a fair amount of criticism or negativity.

But he says when he received a hate letter in the mail mocking his name, calling him a "freak" and making obscene anti-gay remarks, it was time to turn a negative into a positive.

Cease wasted little time in posting the letter from the anonymous author, replete with its homophobic remarks, on social media for everyone to see.

``There could be other people dealing with this kind of thing in silence, or with more internalized fear and anxiety, and I can just imagine that's terrifying, and so that's in part my gut reaction in making this public," he said.

Cease took a phrase used in the letter mocking him as "cool, artsy and with it," and put that on a T-shirt to be sold with proceeds benefitting the gallery.

``Just the fact that we can turn something like this around and take the phrase that was used sarcastically and make it sort of a badge that we can put on a tee shirt and certainly myself and our staff and I think a few hundred people will be wearing them very shortly," he said.

Cease says he doesn't know who wrote the hate-filled letter, but by posting it on social media, the gallery can shine a light on the text and turn it into a positive statement of support for the Contemporary Art Center and the entire arts community.

Here’s a link to the letter which Cease posted publicly. (Warning: post contains graphic language)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157049834825763&set=a.428854885762&type=3&theater