Project MUSE - <i>Straight Jam/Gay Jam</i> by Jam Fran (review)

straight james gay james excerpt

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…

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

Was he or wasn't he? I thk we'd all like to BELIEVE that Jam Dean was gay – or at least bisexual – and that if we were around at the time we'd have a shot wh him. Acrdg to HomoHistory: There are nflictg reports about Dean’s sexualy; there are a few who try to ny that * straight james gay james excerpt *

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.

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. 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.

JAM FRAN FALLY SETS THE RERD STRAIGHT ON HIS SEXUALY! SO, IS HE GAY OR WHAT?!

* straight james gay james excerpt *

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). Let’s get substantial: are you fuckg gay or what?

BOOK REVIEW: STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM

The multihyphenate gaybas his way through a book of poetry. * straight james gay james excerpt *

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. 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.

A LIST OF JAM DEAN’S (ALLEGED) GAY LOVERS

Browse Getty Imag' premium llectn of high-qualy, thentic Straight Jamgay Jam stock photos, royalty-ee imag, and pictur. Straight Jamgay Jam stock photos are available a variety of siz and formats to f your needs. * straight james gay james excerpt *

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. 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? ” 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. In the March issue of Four Two Ne magaze, The Interview star was nvced to grill himself on whether or not he was gay.

POETRY REVIEW: STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM BY JAM FRAN

Straight Jam: Let’s get substantial: are you f**kg gay or what? Gay Jam: Well, I like to thk that I’m gay my art and straight my life. In the twenti and thirti, they ed to fe homosexualy by how you acted and not by whom you slept wh.

Sailors would f**k guys all the time, but as long as they behaved mascule ways, they weren’t nsired gay. He’s gay-ish!

Hmm, we wouldn’t md gettg a one-on-one exclive wh Gay Jam though. 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.

STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM - POEMS

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?

STRAIGHT JAM / GAY JAM

” 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. You are here: Home / LBGTQ / History / A List of Jam Dean’s (Alleged) Gay Lovers.

"GAY" JAM FRAN'S LN: WHY "A LTLE GAY" DON'T GO A LONG WAY REAL LIFE

I thk we’d all like to BELIEVE that Jam Dean was gay – or at least bisexual – and that if we were around at the time we’d have a shot wh him. Acrdg to HomoHistory:.

41 STRAIGHT JAMGAY JAM STOCK PHOTOS & HIGH-R PICTUR

There are nflictg reports about Dean’s sexualy; there are a few who try to ny that he had any sexual affairs wh men, there are those who say that he was bisexual and some who say that he was exclively gay (those clu Rebel whout a Cse director Nicholas Ray and screenwrer Gav Lambert.

Jam Dean avoid the draft by registerg as a homosexual. Later, when qutned if he was homosexual he is reported to have said, “No, I am not a homosexual.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

At a time when was impossible for male leads to be openly gay, wasn’t at all unual for gay actors like Rock Hudson to enter to sham marriag.

Both the gay and straight muni want to claim Dean as one of their own, but I thk ’s safe to say that he was gay.

Most of the acunts om those who were his iends and associat show that he had “very close” relatnships wh several gay and bi-sexual men.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* STRAIGHT JAMES GAY JAMES EXCERPT

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

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