Gay Theater, in Three Acts

"On the return of

  The Boys
in the Band

and why it
matters more
than ever."

When Bubbles Collide

1978 — on the Amtrak Colonial to Providence after two separately gay wild weekends in Manhattan: a 19 y.o. student pot-head and a 39 y.o. boozy actor … each with a past. No trigger warnings needed for this recent New Yorker story "Bronze" by Jeffrey Eugenides, whose sprawling Middlesex we read twelve years ago. Everyone comes out ahead in this tight little drama (though neither necessarily with the head they started in on). Eugene's little secret:

    He wanted to be beautiful. If that didn’t work, noticeable would do.

Who (or what) the heck is a Fupista?

The six of us present for last night's discussion of Luis Negron's Mundo Cruel all enjoyed the stories (to varying degrees, of course), and I warmly recommend the book.  Even if you don't "get" Negron's humor, there are also a couple of heartfelt selections, such as "The Garden," that pack a lot of emotion into a few pages.

Most of the stories don't require knowledge of Puerto Rican history or culture, but you will get more out of "La Edwin," in particular, if you at least skim Luis Orlando Gallardo Rivera's "Youth Sub-cultures of Puerto Rico, an Observation."  Here, for instance, is his explanation of what a Fupista is:

Fupistas – “Fupista” is a very uncommon term that I have only heard a few times, which literally translates into members of the FUPI, a pro-independence group that is quite popular within the public universities. The FUPI group has its own music tastes (ranging from reggae root to Latin American nueva trova) and its own clothing styles. Untrimmed beards and mustaches and at many times dread-locks or Che Guevara-style hair is common among males, while females usually will keep hair long and lose (sort of similar to the style commonly used by the last generation’s hippies) or in a bunion. Clothing might include camouflage or politically motivated shirts among males, long multi-colored dark-skirts for females, and leather-sandals for both sexes.

While this group is generally limited to the universities, they have a strong voice for they are the most active among Puerto Rican youth in political and social movements. Ideologies, both religious and political are generally more radical in this sect, ranging from communism to anarchy and Rastafarianism to atheism. Despite their social activeness and radical thought, this group tends to be the most non-violent (to other Puerto Ricans – it’s a different story with North Americans), healthiest, and even through many of their traits are imported, the most active in culture and the arts. Craft making, usually involving beads or hemp, is popular among females, who you can see during many sunny days sitting on colorful clothe sheets making bracelets and necklaces for sale. Incenses, Taino memorabilia, poetry and literature, protests (including plena music) and wide-scale reading are other common fupista pastimes.

Much at the Morgan

Two exhibitions just opened at the Morgan Library and Museum that should be of interest to any Bookman headed to the Big Apple in the next few months.

The first, Tennessee Williams: No Refuge but Writing (through May 13), is a natural follow-up to the John Lahr biography of the playwright we read back in 2016—Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh.

And the second, Peter Hujar: Speed of Life (through May 20), highlights a New York-based photographer whose name has come up in several books we’ve read—most recently, Philip Gefter’s Wagstaff (not to mention the cover photo for Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life).

Of course, you don’t have to leave town to see Hujar’s oeuvre. He figures prominently in a new show at the Hirshhorn, Brand-New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s (through May 13).

John Ashbery in The Economist

As we look forward to our March 7 discussion of John Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, I'm happy to report that the Library of America has just issued John Ashbery: Collected Poems, 1991-2000, the second such compilation of his poetry. (The first volume appeared in 2008, and contains his first 12 books of poetry, including the one we will be discussing. It also marked the first time the Library of America had ever published the work of a living poet.)

Reviewing this new anthology, which brings together Ashbury's last seven volumes of poetry, the Jan. 25 issue of The Economist pays glowing tribute: "His ideas are both inscrutable and sublime. ... Searching high and low through the English language, he appears to have lifted stone after stone until there was nothing left hidden."

Book Tar-Baby — Revisited

Unfortunately, in the event, not so "divergent" as I had hoped. So once again Daniel Mendelsohn's "A Striptease Among Pals" to give Yanagihara fans something to chew on. Also, what I've only recently come across, Elif Batuman's "Cultural Comment" which accurately characterizes A Little Life as "a mélange of misery and lifestyle porn" but finds it ultimately more successful than either I or DM did. (I have to pass on an eminent gay writer's opinion that A Little Life is best sped-read as a "gay Gothic novel" … perhaps a wise middle ground.)

Happy Birthday, Langston Hughes!

As Black History Month gets underway, it seems appropriate to note that Langston Hughes was born 116 years ago today.   With that in mind, I commend this Renee Watson commentary in the New York Times to you: "Remember Langston Hughes's Anger Alongside His Joy."

Although Ms. Watson does not address the poet's sexuality, she does offer this Hughes quote that should be highly relevant to LGBTQ Americans:

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.