More on Matthew Shepard at National Cathedral

On Thursday night I went to the National Cathedral to hear Yo-Yo Ma playing the Bach cello suites. I purposely arrived very early, and used up some time wandering around the crypt chapels. In the St. Joseph Chapel, just about under the middle of the Cathedral, I saw a notice on the wall, printed on a card made of some kind of white poster board (?), probably temporary:

      Matthew Wayne Shepard
              1976—1998
  is interred in the columbarium
           behind this chapel.
          Requiescat in pace.

In the corresponding position on the wall on the other side of the chapel was a bronze plaque saying that Helen Keller and "her lifelong companion Anne Sullivan Macy" were interred in the columbarium. Maybe there will eventually be such a plaque for Shepard. Anne Sullivan Macy, of course, was the "Miracle Worker" played by Anne Bancroft in the play and movie of that title..

"The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin"

Ken Jost was kind enough to report that Netflix is now offering a 2017 documentary about Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin: "The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin."  Ken and his partner James recommend it.

Here is a review from the New York Times; the Washington Post didn't review the film, but did run a profile of Maupin last fall which announced that he is serving as executive producer for a Netflix series of new films based on the six novels. No indication yet when those will be available, but hopefully soon!

The Japanese have a word for it: Tsundoku

I recently heard a contestant on “Jeopardy” tell Alex Trebek that she practices "Tsundoku."  It is not, as Alex surmised, a martial art, but a condition that I suspect applies to many Bookmen members!  Particularly yours truly.

Matthew Shepard: Celebration and Interment

Instead of braving the crowds at Washington National Cathedral this morning, I live-streamed the memorial service that preceded the placement of Matthew Shepard's ashes in the columbarium. Here is a link to the service leaflet if you want to follow along.

Allow me to assure those of you who are allergic to liturgy that while the format is the traditional Episcopal burial service, the musical portions of the two-hour service are quite substantial, but nearly all contemporary. The Washington Gay Men's Chorus performs a set of songs as the prelude.

Two highlights: You'll get to hear quite a bit of the oratorio I've been telling you about, "Considering Matthew Shepard," performed by Conspirare, the ensemble for which its composer, Craig Hella Johnson, composed it. Johnson pretty much leads the whole service from the piano, in fact, apart from the cathedral organist's playing of the hymns.

And if you've never heard Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop to be ordained by the Episcopal Church, preach, you're in for a treat!

"Waugh"

read or listen

Serendipity

When I scheduled The Laramie Project for discussion earlier this month, I of course had the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's murder in mind.  As it turns out, there is also a connection between that event and the book we'll be discussing at our Nov. 7 meeting, Insult and the Making of the Gay Self. Specifically, in Didier Erebon's Postscript to his Introduction, on p. 12, we find this:

At the moment that I am finishing this introduction, I read in the newspapers that a young gay man was murdered in a small town in Wyoming. He was tortured by his two attackers and left to die, tied to a barbed-wire fence. He was twenty-two. His name was Matthew Shepard. I know he is not the only gay man to have had such a tragic fate in the United States in the past few years, just as I know that numerous gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals are regularly and systematically victims of such violence. A report by Amnesty International recently provided a terrifying list—one that was, alas, far from complete.

But it is Matthew Shepard's photograph that I have in front of me today, along with the account of what he suffered. How can I not think of him as I prepare to publish this book? How can I not ask the reader to remember, in reading it, that there are more than just theoretical problems at stake?

How indeed?

The Two Harolds

"glimpses of what it was like to be
black and gay in America
when it was dangerous to be either"