The Blu and the Gay Communy: A Story om the Archiv – OXFORD BROOKES LIBRARY NEWS

Contents:

• THE BLU AND THE GAY COMMUNY: A STORY OM THE ARCHIV
• SISSY MAN BLU: STRAIGHT & GAY BLU
• GAY BLU: DEPRSN AND ANXIETY OM A LIFE FILLED WH PREJUDICE, DISCRIMATN, REJECTN, AND SRN N VASTATE HOMOSEXUALS, BUT THIS OFTEN CRIPPLG TRMA N BE OVERE. KDLE EDN

THE BLU AND THE GAY COMMUNY: A STORY OM THE ARCHIV

Her nfn is overstated, and maybe liberately ironic: Like her mil mentor Ma Raey, Smh had numero sexual relatnships wh both men and women, and was que faiar wh gay and lbian subcultur. Lyrilly she rarely flirted wh homoerotic material as did Ma Raey and Bsie Smh, and her only referenc to lbianism her tobgraphy are rogatory. Billy Strayhorn, pianist and wrer wh the De Ellgton orchtra, was openly gay.

Hugh' private life was also much ls public than Raey's—but most scholars believe he was gay, and he did wre sympathetilly about gay characters a number of his works. Gay performers, and sometim gay subtext, ntued to be a part of blu and jazz and their rivativ.

That history has often been obscured though, so that, for example, the mixture of gay and Ain-Amerin fluenc dis was seen at the time as somehow alien to, or outsi of, the blu/rock leage, rather than as a natural part of . But fact, the history of pop mic general, and of black pop mic particular, has always been gay history.

SISSY MAN BLU: STRAIGHT & GAY BLU

‘Prove It On Me’ was later reworked by another mician, Waymon ‘Sloppy’ Henry, who changed the song to foc on a gay male relatnship stead.

Another song referencg gay male relatnships, and one of my favour on this list, is ‘Sissy’ by Louis Powell.

GAY BLU: DEPRSN AND ANXIETY OM A LIFE FILLED WH PREJUDICE, DISCRIMATN, REJECTN, AND SRN N VASTATE HOMOSEXUALS, BUT THIS OFTEN CRIPPLG TRMA N BE OVERE. KDLE EDN

Contug on this theme, Gee Hannah’s ‘Freakish Man Blu’ and Kokomo Arnold’s ‘Sissy Man Blu’ both reunt tal of gay or bisexual men. Specifilly, Jelly Roll Morton — who often creded himself wh ventg jazz — nsired Jackson a mentor and close well as beg a preternaturally gifted mician who ma an immeasurable impact, Jackson was gay. In a world where intifyg as LGBTQ ntu to mean facg discrimatn and vlence, ’s certaly signifint that a black gay man was able to live wh some gree of eedom over a century ago — that, spe his work beg whewashed by mercial lyricists, he was able to exprs his affectns the vastns of pop culture.