Is Ben Vereen Gay? - Gus what all people say about

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* IS BEN VEREEN GAY

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BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/pete-lofficial">Pete L’Official</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2017-01-06T18:00:22-05:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">January 6, 2017</time></div></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ContentHearLeadAsset-hGbumP iWPCcH lead-asset ContentHearLeadAssetWrapper-hfXHEc fTrSlG lead-asset--width-smallle" data-ttid="ContentHearLeadAsset"><figure class="ContentHearLeadAssetContent-kOfYSG dRGWbI"><div class="ContentHearLeadAssetContentMedia-bLEIpi jjhWdS lead-asset__ntent__photo"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb khLUzS"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz gOkWog"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb khLUzS rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="For Ronald Reagans first gural Ben Vereen staged an immediately ntroversial performance blackface. The artist..." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></div></div></span><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn ContentHearLeadAssetCaptn-hPWmSN kuCzGS"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">For Ronald Reagan’s first gural, Ben Vereen staged an immediately ntroversial performance blackface. The artist Edgar Arcenex has renstcted the long-misunrstood moment a new work.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">PHOTOGRAPH BY PAULA COURT / COURESTY EDGAR ARCENEAUX</span></div></div></figure><div data-ttid="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor" class="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor-jYVcDc djtEof"></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV bookmark-button-in"><svg class="in in-bookmark" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Save this story</tle><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M20 23.9508L12.5 19.7312L5 23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kAEsuD viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU cjjxgx bookmark mobile"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV bookmark-button-in"><svg class="in in-bookmark" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Save this story</tle><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M20 23.9508L12.5 19.7312L5 23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ArticlePageChunksContent-etcMtP bwyLBj"><div data-ttid="ArticlePageChunks" class="ArticlePageChunks-fLyCVG Uozmo"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg">On January 19, 1981, a number of proment entertaers gathered at the Capal Centre, jt outsi of Washgton, D.C., for the All Star Ingural Gala, salutg the untry’s new Print, Ronald Reagan. Among them was the Tony Award-wng actor Ben Vereen, who, a few years before, had been nomated for an Emmy for his performance the enormoly popular miseri “Roots.” For his ntributn to the gala, Vereen staged an homage to the legendary black vvillian Bert Williams, one of the most popular entertaers of the early twentieth century. The tribute, which he performed wh Ronald and Nancy Reagan seated regally near the stage, nsisted of two parts. First, Vereen sang the popular show tune “Wag for the Robert E. Lee.” He did so drsed as Williams, wearg at and tails, and, as Williams would have—as was required of Ain-Amerin theatril performers of Williams’s era—wearg blackface, too.</p><p class="paywall">The tribute begs buoyantly. After the first song, lookg lighted by the rapturo applse of his dience, Vereen, still performg as Williams, mimics an teractn wh an imagary bartenr and offers to buy the largely Republin crowd a celebratory drk. Then he gently mak clear that this gture has been nied owg to the lor of his sk. Appearg flated, Vereen then sgs Williams’s signature song, the mordant and dirgelike “Nobody” (“I a’t never got noth’ om nobody, no time”), while starg to a makp mirror and wipg the black pat om his face.</p><p class="paywall">This fal five mut of Vereen’s performance is anguished yet fiant, evokg the pa and exploative power of blackface mstrelsy and the distortns of stereotype. It was tend to implite the predomantly whe dience. And almost nobody saw . The gala was televised on ABC, on tape lay, but the broadst omted this latter half of Vereen’s act. Vereen had been promised that the whole performance would be shown, and he felt betrayed by the work’s cisn to ed out the latter part. And so for weeks—for years—Vereen had to answer to Ain-Amerins who were both angry and mystified as to why the most proment black actor on Broadway would agree to shuffle his feet and sg, even tribute to a renowned black performer, for a party and a Print-elect that outwardly seemed to re so ltle for them.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">The artist Edgar Arcenex first saw footage of Vereen’s performance—the broadst versn—twenty years ago, he told me recently, over the phone, om his home Los Angel. It was featured a documentary on public televisn. Then, early 2014, Arcenex ran to Vereen at a child’s birthday party. They spoke for a while, and eventually Arcenex nfsed his preoccupatn wh that famo tribute—an admissn that did not immediately enar him to the actor, Arcenex said. Vereen’s reer suffered the wake of the gural gala, though revered over time, wh numero rol onstage, movi, and on televisn. A month or two after that birthday-party enunter, when Vereen felt assured regardg Arcenex’s good tentns, he ved the artist over to his home, and the two watched the plete performance together.</p><p class="paywall">That experience beme the basis for a live work—Arcenex’s first—which was staged at the Performa ftival, New York, November, 2015, where won the biennial’s Mallm McLaren award. In one of the play’s first scen, Arcenex himself watch Vereen, played by Frank Lawson, watch his younger self perform on a televisn, as the live dience looks on. Arcenex, who has also done work sculpture, drawg, photography, and vio, subsequently adapted the play as an stallatn, which is now on view, until January 8th, at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. Tled “Until, Until, Until . . . ,” the piece explor the batn of shock, unease, embarrassment, and anxiety that Vereen’s abbreviated performance spired.</p><p class="paywall">Arcenex’s play rtaged Vereen’s tribute to Williams, and he st the dience for his play two rol: as self, prent the theatre 2015, and as the origal dience om the 1981 gala, TV footage of which was projected agast the stage’s backdrop. Meanwhile, meramen filmed both the reënacted performance and the live dience’s reactns to . Arcenex then ved the dience to watch the send half om behd the stage curtas. In the fal act of the play, the footage om 1981 is tercut wh vio of both the live performance and the dience’s reactn to , and projected agast the scrims on the stage, a vertigo act of dience implitn.</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">At the List Center, film of the 2015 play is projected on large diaphano curtas that partly divi the room, allowg to see s imag om both sis. Here, too, we are also ved to step behd the curta, where we fd a makp table and a at stand—props om the play. In place of the makp table’s mirror, there is a televisn monor, which plays vio of Vereen’s lost performance, which be creasgly distorted as we watch.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Should Vereen have performed blackface for Ronald Reagan’s Inguratn, even wh a subversive agenda? Reasonable people n disagree—and Arcenex’s work mak productive e of this tensn. Watchg the origal footage of Vereen’s performance is a surreal experience: Vereen’s face, breakg up and spltg apart bee of vio distortn, is hntg. The image seems almost forced apart by the grotqueri of stereotype, technology llapsg unr the weight of history. Like Williams—and like Lawson—Vereen is a gifted mimic. His lhe and meticulo gtur, and his subtle, heartbreakg exprsns, nvey the ntug pa of racism. We’ll never know whether the origal televisn dience would have unrstood Vereen’s tentns had viewers seen the send half of his route. But Arcenex’s stallatn plet Vereen’s work. (The film of “Until, Until, Until . . .” will be shown Los Angel, at the <em class="small">LACMA</em> Bg Theatre, on the night of Donald Tmp’s Inguratn, Friday, January 20th.)</p><p class="paywall">Vvillian theatre, which blackface mstrelsy played a central role, was not merely an aspect of Amerin pop culture the neteenth and early twentieth centuri; for a time,  <em>was</em> mastream popular culture, more or ls. Generatns of dienc and performers, both whe and black, lighted and were horrified by what the scholar Eric Lott lls the “panic, anxiety, terror, and pleasure” of the mstrel stage. Lott famoly ed the phrase “love and theft” to scribe the peculiar ntenatn of fear, attractn, and intifitn that the black body held for whe performers blackface. Black performers like Williams navigated even more plex psychologil terra. Arcenex unrstands this impossibly plited history, and his work illumat the spectacle of performance whout losg sight of the psychic toll exacted upon those who portrayed such distorted ritur.</p><p class="paywall">Projected on the walls of the stallatn are phantasmal globul of red, green, and blue. For Arcenex, the unnny prenc are visual exprsns of the unrolved trmas we all rry wh —ee-floatg menac that lurk wh our histori, pable of rearg up at any moment. The lors are an attempt to make the visible visible.</p><p class="paywall">“Until, Until, Until . . .” is part of a larger exhibn lled “Wrten Smoke and Fire,” curated by Henriette Huldisch, along wh two other recent projects by Arcenex. All the works illtrate Arcenex’s tert the unsubtle and often unsettlg relatnship between history, memory, and trma. “The Library of Black Li” prents what looks like an outsir artist’s archive of assorted texts, pated to look burned or encsted wh sugar crystals and hoed wh an asymmetril, labyrthe wood b, nstcted wh the gallery. In “A Book and a Medal,” a redacted versn of the famo “suici letter” sent, anonymoly, to Mart Luther Kg, Jr., by the F.B.I.—which threatened to expose Kg’s extramaral liaisons and, s fal paragraphs, seemgly suggted that he m suici—is reproduced on mirrored glass. We see ourselv as we read the letter.</p><p class="paywall">Amerins, Arcenex said, like to envisn their history as “progrsive and triumphant.” Our experience tells that history unfolds differently, fs and starts—or zigs and zags, as Print Obama recently said—wh recurrg loops. This shape is harr to see, and fetfulns fills the erased and absent spac. The reflectns of Ameri on view Arcenex’s stallatn try to remd of what we’ve left out. They are an antidote for our amnia.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box ArticlePageSplAdRail-OyjwD jikppc"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailContent-jsltpq iZDmmY spl-ad-rail-ntent"><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailTop-jUrrVY jzzFg"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="ss4ofo"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div 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rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="How Larry Gagosian Rhaped the Art World" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Profil</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">How Larry Gagosian Rhaped the Art World</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="How Larry Gagosian Rhaped the Art World" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">The aler has been so succsful sellg art to masters of the universe that he has bee one of them.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Patrick Radn Keefe</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right 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320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Novelist Whose Inventns Went Too Far" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Life and Letters</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Novelist Whose Inventns Went Too Far</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" 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G. Carrillo died, his hband learned that almost everythg the wrer had shared about his life was ma up—cludg his Cuban inty.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>D. T. 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