A Queer Take on Jam Fran's 'Straight Jam / Gay Jam' - Lambda Lerary

straight james gay james book review

Straight Jam, gay Jam by Jam Fran, 2016, Hansen Publishg Group, LLC, Hansen Publishg Group edn, English

Contents:

A QUEER TAKE ON JAM FRAN’S ‘STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM’

Synopsis: Straight Jam / Gay Jam, actor Jam Fran’s new chapbook of poems, explor the facets of his public and private personas. Straight Jam / Gay Jam is a poetic bildungsroman—raw, ndid, and unhibed. Jam Fran wr about life as an actor, sexualy, qutns of inty, genr, fay, Gucci, Lana Del Rey, Jam Dean, and Hollywood. His poetic style vari om the imagistic to the prosaic. The chapbook also ntas an terview of “Gay Jam” nducted by “Straight Jam.” Y, Straight Jam asks the qutn: “Let’s get substantial: are you f*****g gay or what?” * straight james gay james book review *

And recent years, two groups of people particular have bee creasgly fed-up wh (and creasgly hostile to) the celebry provotr: poets and gay men. It should e as no surprise, then, that gay poets n get pecially riled about Fran’s play wh inty and “lerary manspreadg, ” to borrow a phrase om Purvi Shah’s piece for Vida on the Michael Derrick Hudson yellowface ntroversy. And yet Fran’s “queer public persona, ” as he scrib his latt poetry chapbook, Straight Jam / Gay Jam (Hansen Publishg Group), is meangfully distct om Hudson’s ce, as is om Rachel Dolezal’s, and om the cultural appropriatn of Katy Perry and Iggy Azaela—all of whom I’ve wnsed whe gay poets pare Fran to.

LLIE'S REVIEWS > STRAIGHT JAM/GAY JAM

Straight Jam/Gay Jam by Jam Fran My ratg: 3 of 5 stars This llective work falls le wh poetic performance art piec more than do a poetry chapbook as Jam Fran explor many aspects of persona. The poetics by self is passable but never sublime. However, the teasg and toyg of personal vers… * straight james gay james book review *

Do the succs of this public persona, then, of which his intifitn as a poet is most certaly a part (see: his affy for gay poets Frank Bidart, Allen Gsberg and Hart Crane), pend on the tails of Fran’s private life? From this poem on, which the speaker intifi himself as a “sister clown, / Wh a se pated / So thick / I looked mad-happy, always, ” Straight Jam / Gay Jam ncerns self primarily wh problems of persona.

STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM

What is Straight Jam/Gay Jam? It's supposedly a self examatn answerg the age-old qutn "Are you f-g gay or what?" I take the words om the poem, as I hardly re enough about him to e expletiv when posg the qutn. * straight james gay james book review *

Fran don’t want to fuck Lana Del Rey so much as to be her—not unlike the relatnship to women he characteriz “Hello Woman, ” and not, as happens, unlike many gay men’s relatnship to Del Rey. Intertgly, when Del Rey’s mic vio for “Summertime Sadns” told the story of a lbian affair spe the sger’s ostensible heterosexualy, no one acced her of gay-bag. In his tle poem, which tak the form of an terview between Straight Jam (SJ) and Gay Jam (GJ), and is one of the most engagg the llectn, Fran do fally rpond to the accatns he himself fac, settlg once and for all the qutn of whether he’s gay the most leral sense (not really).

KELLY'S REVIEWS > STRAIGHT JAM/GAY JAM

Fd helpful ctomer reviews and review ratgs for Straight Jam / Gay Jam at Read hont and unbiased product reviews om our ers. * straight james gay james book review *

Let’s get substantial: are you fuckg gay or what? GJ: Well, I like to thk I’m gay my art and straight my life. Although, I’m also gay my life up to the pot of terurse, and then you uld say I’m straight.

BOOK REVIEW: STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM

* straight james gay james book review *

So I gus pends on how you fe gay. Gay Jam go on to make the valid, if non-revelatory pot about how sex acts were not, historilly, unrstood as the basis of sexual inty, and Straight Jam later adms, “Sh, I’d love to fuck you, ” to his alter-ego, but the takeaway is clear: Fran is terted—scerely— the trappgs of gay inty, and not terted participatg gay sex.

(“I was not the one who pulled my public persona to the gay world; that was the straight gossip prs and the gay prs speculatg about me, ” Fran remds his self-terview.

POETRY REVIEW: STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM BY JAM FRAN

The rapid cultural sea-change on gay rights and the sudn (if limed) regnn of trans narrativ means that there has never before been so many queer mols accsible the mastream, even as the ins of mastream acceptance (marriage equaly, Calyn Jenner) paradoxilly ero queer difference.

RATGS & REVIEWS FORSTRAIGHT JAM/GAY JAM

This might be key to the problem that persists Fran’s claim to queerns, and what about that rankl so many gay men: a lack of perspective. What do you say to people who cricize you for appropriatg gay culture for your work? So do Jam Fran have anythg telligent to say about beg gay?

ALI'S REVIEWS > STRAIGHT JAM/GAY JAM

” And while Fran might not yet have mastered the difference, he’s a straight man  2016 whose entire project pends on the assumptn that beg gay would be ls borg. Llie’s review of Straight Jam/Gay Jam.

Llie's Reviews > Straight Jam/Gay Jam. Straight Jam/Gay Jam.

Gay Jam Fran terviews Straight Jam Fran.

BOOK REVIEW | STRAIGHT JAM/GAY JAM, BY JAM FRAN

Disver more books like Straight Jam / Gay Jam. One of his recently published works, Straight Jam/Gay Jam, is a small book of poetry and dialogue that touch on the personal, faiar, and the ner dialogu of Jam Fran's life.

Kelly’s review of Straight Jam/Gay Jam. Kelly's Reviews > Straight Jam/Gay Jam. While some crics dismiss Fran’s work as pretent ramblgs, others appld his openns and humoro sight siar to that of Holn Clfield The Catcher the recently “me out” wh a chapbook of his recent poems entled Straight Jam / Gay Jam.

The highlight of the llectn of poetry is the terview Straight Jam nducts on Jam Fran, askg “Let’s get substantial: are you gay or what? ” Fran teas the bombardment of qutns regardg his sexualy that arose om his equent rol of gay and sexually open characters. In Fran’s terview of Fran, Fran reveals that he is “gay only [his] art.

STRAIGHT JAM, GAY JAM

Straight Jam/Gay Jam by Jam Fran.

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