When I read gay activist Cleve Jones's riveting memoir,When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, I was surprised to learn that he and historian Eric Garber were roommates in San Francisco at one time.
In 1982, at New York's Hunter College, I attended Garber's slide lecture on the gay and lesbian aspect of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. I later interviewed him for the New York Native, the now-defunct gay weekly newspaper.
Garber's research inspired me to do further reading on the gays and lesbians of the Harlem Renaissance like the artist/poet/novelist Richard Bruce Nugent, who I wrote about for Joseph Beam's 1986 anthology, In the Life.
Note: See my 1983 New York City News interview with Eric Garber that I posted on this blog on April 20, 2013.
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Gay Activist Cleve Jones's Memoir
I'm looking forward to reading (and reviewing?) When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones, the San Francisco gay rights activist and founder of the AIDS quilt project. (I'm rarely on Facebook, so the last time I checked, he and I were still Facebook friends.)
I learned about the book after hearing him being interviewed on public radio's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I heard him again today on another public radio show, Here and Now.
I learned about the book after hearing him being interviewed on public radio's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I heard him again today on another public radio show, Here and Now.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Blackberri: Doing Politics Through Music
When Blackberri, the black gay singer from San Francisco, released his first solo LP, Finally, in 1981, he surprised a lot of people with the high quality of the production. "They were expecting something more amateurish. I don't think Finally's my best. It's the best thing I've done so far. As a first effort, it was exceptional."
The album was not the first time Blackberri has appeared on record. In 1978, he recorded two songs for Wall to Roses, an album put out on the Folkways label by a men's music collective.
The Finally LP has become a must in the record collection of a select group of black gay writers and artists who cherish the album because of its gay content and glowing affirmation of gay pride and liberation.
The songs range from blues to country & western, so it's hard to pigeonhole Blackberri as an artist. The use of multiple musical styles was to show listeners that he "can do any kind of style comfortably."
Since the release of the album four years ago, Blackberri has not done any recording for one simple reason--no money. He was able to do Finally because "I was fortunate enough to get a donation from a man who told me later on he didn't really want the money back. Then we borrowed some money to distribute it and other stuff."
He would like to produce other artists on his Bea B. Queen label but the " finances have to get much stronger" before that can happen. "I made the mistake of not being one record ahead. What people do is make an album, then it comes in, they make another album. The money that comes in from the second album, they start paying their first album bills with. Then the third album , they pay the second album. That way they've always got money to do another project."
Blackberri to put it simply is Bea B. Queen Records. "I'm basically a one-man company. I have to do the bookings and my own bookkeeping. For a while, I was doing the shipping and my own distribution, plus being the artist. It's a lot of work for one person."
I asked Blackberri where the name Bea B. Queen came from. "Somebody called me Bea B. Queen once and I thought it was really funny. It's a takeoff on B.B. King."
Before moving to San Francisco, and recording songs, Blackberri lived in Tucson,Arizona. While he was there, he vocalized with a band called Gunther Quint. "We played hard rock and blues. We were basically a trio with a singer. We were one of the best bands in Arizona at the time. Got a lot of reviews written about us. Got mentioned in Rolling Stone."
Blackberri's reason for leaving Tucson after six years was because there weren't many clubs where he could play original songs. "Most of the clubs there like bands [that play] the Top 40." So Blackberri packed his bags and guitar and headed for San Francisco, where he's lived for the last 11 years.
Blackberri, a native of Buffalo, New York, knew of his same-sex attraction since he was about six years old. At that time, on Saturday afternoons, he, who was big for his age, along with other kids, went to the neighborhood movie theatre that was a block from his house. The theatre showed adventure serials like Buck Rogers, the space ranger. Inside the theatre "I spent s lot of time cruising the bathrooms. I would always try to sit beside some older boy. I was looking for it. I knew exactly what to do. I was already having sex with my next door neighbors on both sides of me, and sex with the boy up the street from me."
At age 12 or 13, Blackberri sang a lot. His desire, however was not to become a professional singer. He wanted to be a marine biologist. "I was into science. Then I went through a religious conversion and that kind of took me out of everything for a while. I went into the navy and that spun me off into a different direction. I was in the service from '65 to '66. I was discharged for being queer. I was placed under investigation because one of my shipmates turned me in. They put a tail on me, and when they thought they had enough evidence, they arrested me, went through my personal belongings and found incriminating letters and other things."
Being an artist, the circumstances of his departure from the service has not had a negative affect on his career. And although he can afford to take chances, like speaking out for gay rights, his political activity has been slight.
"I was more politically active at one time than I am now. Part of the reason [for that] is that I have a career; I'm not always in one place long enough to take on any commitments. I've been working with different groups, taking on small tasks, little things I can do. I do my politics through my music."
This article was originally published in a slightly different form in the New York Amsterdam News in 1991 and the New York Native in the mid-80s.
Note: Blackberri can be heard on the soundtrack of Marlon Riggs's AIDS documentary Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (1992, 40 minutes).
The album was not the first time Blackberri has appeared on record. In 1978, he recorded two songs for Wall to Roses, an album put out on the Folkways label by a men's music collective.
The Finally LP has become a must in the record collection of a select group of black gay writers and artists who cherish the album because of its gay content and glowing affirmation of gay pride and liberation.
The songs range from blues to country & western, so it's hard to pigeonhole Blackberri as an artist. The use of multiple musical styles was to show listeners that he "can do any kind of style comfortably."
Since the release of the album four years ago, Blackberri has not done any recording for one simple reason--no money. He was able to do Finally because "I was fortunate enough to get a donation from a man who told me later on he didn't really want the money back. Then we borrowed some money to distribute it and other stuff."
He would like to produce other artists on his Bea B. Queen label but the " finances have to get much stronger" before that can happen. "I made the mistake of not being one record ahead. What people do is make an album, then it comes in, they make another album. The money that comes in from the second album, they start paying their first album bills with. Then the third album , they pay the second album. That way they've always got money to do another project."
Blackberri to put it simply is Bea B. Queen Records. "I'm basically a one-man company. I have to do the bookings and my own bookkeeping. For a while, I was doing the shipping and my own distribution, plus being the artist. It's a lot of work for one person."
I asked Blackberri where the name Bea B. Queen came from. "Somebody called me Bea B. Queen once and I thought it was really funny. It's a takeoff on B.B. King."
Before moving to San Francisco, and recording songs, Blackberri lived in Tucson,Arizona. While he was there, he vocalized with a band called Gunther Quint. "We played hard rock and blues. We were basically a trio with a singer. We were one of the best bands in Arizona at the time. Got a lot of reviews written about us. Got mentioned in Rolling Stone."
Blackberri's reason for leaving Tucson after six years was because there weren't many clubs where he could play original songs. "Most of the clubs there like bands [that play] the Top 40." So Blackberri packed his bags and guitar and headed for San Francisco, where he's lived for the last 11 years.
Blackberri, a native of Buffalo, New York, knew of his same-sex attraction since he was about six years old. At that time, on Saturday afternoons, he, who was big for his age, along with other kids, went to the neighborhood movie theatre that was a block from his house. The theatre showed adventure serials like Buck Rogers, the space ranger. Inside the theatre "I spent s lot of time cruising the bathrooms. I would always try to sit beside some older boy. I was looking for it. I knew exactly what to do. I was already having sex with my next door neighbors on both sides of me, and sex with the boy up the street from me."
At age 12 or 13, Blackberri sang a lot. His desire, however was not to become a professional singer. He wanted to be a marine biologist. "I was into science. Then I went through a religious conversion and that kind of took me out of everything for a while. I went into the navy and that spun me off into a different direction. I was in the service from '65 to '66. I was discharged for being queer. I was placed under investigation because one of my shipmates turned me in. They put a tail on me, and when they thought they had enough evidence, they arrested me, went through my personal belongings and found incriminating letters and other things."
Being an artist, the circumstances of his departure from the service has not had a negative affect on his career. And although he can afford to take chances, like speaking out for gay rights, his political activity has been slight.
"I was more politically active at one time than I am now. Part of the reason [for that] is that I have a career; I'm not always in one place long enough to take on any commitments. I've been working with different groups, taking on small tasks, little things I can do. I do my politics through my music."
This article was originally published in a slightly different form in the New York Amsterdam News in 1991 and the New York Native in the mid-80s.
Note: Blackberri can be heard on the soundtrack of Marlon Riggs's AIDS documentary Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (1992, 40 minutes).
Saturday, June 2, 2012
The Rainbow Flag's Colors
In Steve Vezeris's brief entry in Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America (Warner Books, 1995), he pointed out that "[t]he first rainbow [flag] design had eight horizontal stripes, from top to bottom: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for serenity with nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit." He continued: "For the 1979 [San Francisco Gay Freedom Day] parade, due to production constraints, hot pink and turquoise stripes were dropped and royal blue replaced the indigo stripe." According to Rainbow Pride, the documentary about the rainbow flag and its creator Gilbert Baker, hot pink and turquoise was dropped because those colors were not on the palette of flag makers.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Poetry With Music
"Jeff Lilly's poetry dances through music and delivers a lyrical punch that should be heard and acknowledged out there in the world of words and sound."--Neeli Cherkovski, poet and author of Ferlinghetti: A Biography.
Jeffrey Lilly is a San Francisco-based poet who has recorded two poetry with music CDs The Butterfly Flies," his most recent, and Promised Land Poems. "A number of poems on my recordings," says Lilly, an openly gay man, "are an expression of eros or a defense of eros." Especially same-gender eros, which Lilly celebrates without fear or shame or equivocation and with artistic beauty.
The Butterfly Flies features three New York musicians: Jonathan Comisar (piano), composer of the theatre piece Things As They Are, about the Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange, that was performed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in the fall of 2010; Mike Cohen (clarinet and flute), who has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and other venues; and Ivan Borenboim (clarinet), an artist-in-residence at Central Synagogue and a performer throughout the United States, Argentina, and Europe. Hans Christian, the German-born composer on Promised Land Poems, is also a record producer and studio engineer.
Over the years, Lilly, a convert to Judaism in 1992, has read his poetry at his GLBT synagogue, Sha'ar Zahav, as well as other venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Jewish-themed tracks on Butterfly include "Rabin" and "Sholom Aleichem.")
Lilly believes his "reading style is more like poetic song that is well matched with the music which amplifies my word." He has been "told I have a good performance voice that goes well with music." In addition, he continues, "I have had the good fortune of having very talented composers [like Comisar and Christian] to work with."
Among the writers Lilly has been influenced by are Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg whose pairing of poetry and music was "one essential part of the Beat movement."
A few of the poems on both CDs mix words from different languages. Lilly, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Duke University and a master's degree in Russian language and literature and another one in comparative literature at San Francisco State University, sees this as his way of "conveying a musical sound." He "draws on my studies of Russian, French, and Italian, as well as other foreign words I've encountered in the multicultural world of San Francisco."
Lilly is the co-editor of Art Mugs the Reaper, a project he describes as "an artistic quilt." It celebrates the work and lives of gay men who have died of AIDS. He is also at work on an as-yet-unnamed novel about a Russian emigre writer. The book is an outgrowth of his social service work among Russian emigres in San Francisco.
Jeffrey Lilly can be reached at Jeffrey Lilly Presents by sending an e-mail to JL@jeffreylillypresents.com or by regular mail at P.O. Box 31324, San Francisco, CA 94131.
Jeffrey Lilly is a San Francisco-based poet who has recorded two poetry with music CDs The Butterfly Flies," his most recent, and Promised Land Poems. "A number of poems on my recordings," says Lilly, an openly gay man, "are an expression of eros or a defense of eros." Especially same-gender eros, which Lilly celebrates without fear or shame or equivocation and with artistic beauty.
The Butterfly Flies features three New York musicians: Jonathan Comisar (piano), composer of the theatre piece Things As They Are, about the Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange, that was performed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in the fall of 2010; Mike Cohen (clarinet and flute), who has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and other venues; and Ivan Borenboim (clarinet), an artist-in-residence at Central Synagogue and a performer throughout the United States, Argentina, and Europe. Hans Christian, the German-born composer on Promised Land Poems, is also a record producer and studio engineer.
Over the years, Lilly, a convert to Judaism in 1992, has read his poetry at his GLBT synagogue, Sha'ar Zahav, as well as other venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Jewish-themed tracks on Butterfly include "Rabin" and "Sholom Aleichem.")
Lilly believes his "reading style is more like poetic song that is well matched with the music which amplifies my word." He has been "told I have a good performance voice that goes well with music." In addition, he continues, "I have had the good fortune of having very talented composers [like Comisar and Christian] to work with."
Among the writers Lilly has been influenced by are Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg whose pairing of poetry and music was "one essential part of the Beat movement."
A few of the poems on both CDs mix words from different languages. Lilly, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Duke University and a master's degree in Russian language and literature and another one in comparative literature at San Francisco State University, sees this as his way of "conveying a musical sound." He "draws on my studies of Russian, French, and Italian, as well as other foreign words I've encountered in the multicultural world of San Francisco."
Lilly is the co-editor of Art Mugs the Reaper, a project he describes as "an artistic quilt." It celebrates the work and lives of gay men who have died of AIDS. He is also at work on an as-yet-unnamed novel about a Russian emigre writer. The book is an outgrowth of his social service work among Russian emigres in San Francisco.
Jeffrey Lilly can be reached at Jeffrey Lilly Presents by sending an e-mail to JL@jeffreylillypresents.com or by regular mail at P.O. Box 31324, San Francisco, CA 94131.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Three New York Musicians Record With Gay San Francisco Poet
"Jeff Lilly's poetry dances through music and delivers a lyrical punch that should be heard and acknowledged out there in the world of words and sound."--Neeli Cherkovski, poet and author of Ferlinghetti: A Biography.
Jeffrey Lilly is a San Francisco-based poet who has recorded two poetry with music CDs, "The Butterfly Flies," his most recent, and "Promised Land Poems." "A number of poems of my recordings," says Lilly, an openly gay man, "are an expression of eros or a defense of eros." Especially same-gender eros, which Lilly celebrates without fear or shame or equivocation and with artistic beauty. In "Come Christmas Day's Two to Oneing Morn" (from "The Butterfly Flies") the poem is set to music that quotes from the carol, "Noel," and explores a sexual relationship in the early morning hours of Christmas. Lilly explains the origin of the poem this way: "It originally began after the Christmas morning episode with a man I was in love with. We had known each other for some time. I finished it after a relationship with a second lover. There was also the memory of a two-day fling with a German tourist. This was before the days of AIDS. I was writing about the joy of safe sex. The first two encounters weren't brief encounters, but the original idea of flexibility and alternation came out of that early encounter with a German tourist." "African Beauty," another gay-oriented poem on "Butterfly," is a tribute to a male lover, " a man with whom I lived for some time."
"The Butterfly Flies" features three New York musicians: Jonathan Comisar (piano), a faculty member at Hebrew Union College, who studied under the Pulitzer-Prize winning composer David Del Tredici, also composes Jewish liturgical music; Mike Cohen (clarinet and flute), who has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and other venues; and Ivan Borenboim (clarinet), and artist-in-residence at Central Synagogue and a performer throughout the United States, Argentina, and Europe. Hans Christian, the German-born composer on "Promised Land Poems," is also a record producer and studio engineer.
Over the years, Lilly, a convert to Judaism in 1992, has read his poetry at his GLBT synagogue, Sha'ar Zahav, as well as other venues in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lilly believes his "reading style is more like poetic song that is well matched with the music which amplifies my words." He has been "told I have a good performance voice that goes well
with music." In addition, he continues, "I have had the good fortune of having very talented composers [Jonathan Comisar and Hans Christian] to work with."
Among the writers Lilly has been influenced by are Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg whose pairing of poetry and music was"one essential part of the Beat movement."
A few of the poems on both CDs mix words from different languages. Lilly, who earned a master's degree in Russian language and literature and another one in comparative literature, sees this as his way of "conveying a musical sound." He "draws on my studies of Russian, French, and Italian, as well as other foreign words I've encountered in the multicultural world of San Francisco."
Lilly is co-editor of Art Mugs the Reaper, a project he describes as "an artistic quilt." It celebrates the work and lives of gay men such as photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-playwright Assotto Saint, who have died from AIDS. He is also at work on an as-yet-unnamed novel about a Russian emigre writer. The book is an outgrowth of his social service work among Russian emigres in San Francisco.
For further information about the CDs, you can contact Jeffrey Lilly at JL@jeffreylillypresents.com.
Jeffrey Lilly is a San Francisco-based poet who has recorded two poetry with music CDs, "The Butterfly Flies," his most recent, and "Promised Land Poems." "A number of poems of my recordings," says Lilly, an openly gay man, "are an expression of eros or a defense of eros." Especially same-gender eros, which Lilly celebrates without fear or shame or equivocation and with artistic beauty. In "Come Christmas Day's Two to Oneing Morn" (from "The Butterfly Flies") the poem is set to music that quotes from the carol, "Noel," and explores a sexual relationship in the early morning hours of Christmas. Lilly explains the origin of the poem this way: "It originally began after the Christmas morning episode with a man I was in love with. We had known each other for some time. I finished it after a relationship with a second lover. There was also the memory of a two-day fling with a German tourist. This was before the days of AIDS. I was writing about the joy of safe sex. The first two encounters weren't brief encounters, but the original idea of flexibility and alternation came out of that early encounter with a German tourist." "African Beauty," another gay-oriented poem on "Butterfly," is a tribute to a male lover, " a man with whom I lived for some time."
"The Butterfly Flies" features three New York musicians: Jonathan Comisar (piano), a faculty member at Hebrew Union College, who studied under the Pulitzer-Prize winning composer David Del Tredici, also composes Jewish liturgical music; Mike Cohen (clarinet and flute), who has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and other venues; and Ivan Borenboim (clarinet), and artist-in-residence at Central Synagogue and a performer throughout the United States, Argentina, and Europe. Hans Christian, the German-born composer on "Promised Land Poems," is also a record producer and studio engineer.
Over the years, Lilly, a convert to Judaism in 1992, has read his poetry at his GLBT synagogue, Sha'ar Zahav, as well as other venues in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lilly believes his "reading style is more like poetic song that is well matched with the music which amplifies my words." He has been "told I have a good performance voice that goes well
with music." In addition, he continues, "I have had the good fortune of having very talented composers [Jonathan Comisar and Hans Christian] to work with."
Among the writers Lilly has been influenced by are Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg whose pairing of poetry and music was"one essential part of the Beat movement."
A few of the poems on both CDs mix words from different languages. Lilly, who earned a master's degree in Russian language and literature and another one in comparative literature, sees this as his way of "conveying a musical sound." He "draws on my studies of Russian, French, and Italian, as well as other foreign words I've encountered in the multicultural world of San Francisco."
Lilly is co-editor of Art Mugs the Reaper, a project he describes as "an artistic quilt." It celebrates the work and lives of gay men such as photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-playwright Assotto Saint, who have died from AIDS. He is also at work on an as-yet-unnamed novel about a Russian emigre writer. The book is an outgrowth of his social service work among Russian emigres in San Francisco.
For further information about the CDs, you can contact Jeffrey Lilly at JL@jeffreylillypresents.com.
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