John Gay | Poetry Foundatn

Contents:

• PLAY ABOUT SILENCED 1920S GAY POET RIVETS MOSW THEATRE DIENC
• THE UNTOLD GAY HISTORY OF BRA’S FIRST WORLD WAR POETS REVEALED
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
• 20 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
• JOHN GAY

PLAY ABOUT SILENCED 1920S GAY POET RIVETS MOSW THEATRE DIENC

Bgraphers have ntually bated Whman’s sexual orientatn; his poetry, particularly Leav of Grass, which faced ser censorship after s publitn, ntas several homoerotic imag, however others argue that this was untentnal. He often nied that there was any homoerotic subtext his wrg, yet those who knew him claimed that their relatnships, he was rather ank about his sexualy.

THE UNTOLD GAY HISTORY OF BRA’S FIRST WORLD WAR POETS REVEALED

Osr Wil (who also appears on this list), after meetg Whman 1882, was adamant that Whman was gay, and even told the activist Gee Cecil Iv, “I have the kiss of Walt Whman still on my lips. Dorian Gray was origally published Lipptt’s Monthly Magaze, and drew such harsh cricism for s pictn of “immoraly, ” (one character the novel exprs a potentially romantic fatuatn for another male character) that when was later re-published as a book, Wil toned down the novel’s homoerotic subtext. Locke was gay, and acted as a mentor and role mol to several other gay members of the Harlem Renaissance, cludg Countee Cullen, who appears on this list.

García Lor was gay, and due to his cln of homoromantic them his work, he was heavily censored durg his lifetime—his work was generally banned Spa until 1953.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

In 1956, Baldw published Gvanni’s Room, a novel that drew tense attentn and cricism for s portrayal of homosexualy and bisexualy and is often ced as one of the most important queer novels ever wrten. Capote was openly gay, and while he was never much of an active participant the gay rights movement, the openns wh which he exprsed his inty njunctn wh his level of celebry was an important tone queer history. As a gay trans man, Sullivan was met wh obstacl to his transn, for at the time he was seekg medil attentn, heterosexualy was a crern for regnn of medil necsy for transn.

GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE

Known for his grim and often btal sense of humor, Sullivan once wrote, “I took a certa pleasure rmg the genr clic that even though their program told me I uld not live as a Gay man, looks like I’m gog to die like one.

His book Ceremoni: Prose and Poetry (1992) won the Natnal Library Associatn’s Gay, Lbian, and Bisexual New Author Award, and he also eded the anthology Brother to Brother: New Wrg by Black Gay Men (1991), which won the Lambda Lerary Award.

Ain Amerin lerary cric and profsor Henry Louis Gat once reflected that the Harlem Renaissance was “surely as gay as was Black, not that was exclively eher of the.

20 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE

From the start of his profsnal sgg reer at the Hot-Cha, Daniels built a voted followg of gay fans wh his sophistited rendns of jazz standards and showtun. A play about a largely fotten gay poet om early 1900s Rsia has emerged as the dark horse this year’s Goln Mask awards, the Osrs of the Rsian theatre Trout Breaks the Ice is based on the story of Mikhail Kuzm, who disappeared to the official obscury imposed by the Soviets on artists nsired viant or who were out of favour.

“Seeg him at that particular crazy time history – as a gay man St Petersburg the changeover om tsarist Rsia to Bolshevik Soviet Rsia – lay out this this for why his love is worth somethg … As a gay man myself, that was an amazg thg to read om the 1920s, ” said Od Biron, an Amerin actor who has lived Rsia sce 2005 and plays the young Kuzm on, part of a cycle of five plays focg on Silver Age poets cludg Boris Pasternak, was one of the last works to premiere at Mosw’s progrsive Gogol Centre before the arrt of Kirill Serebrennikov, the virtuoso director who helped transform the theatre om a backwater to a hotbed for experimentatn and Rsian film and televisn dtri are rigid and nservative, particularly when to them that make the Kreml unfortable, such as two men kissg on mera, but Rsian theatre has far greater creative eedom. His 1906 novel Wgs beme a sensatn for s ank exploratn of a gay relatnship, and his 1907 poetic cycle Alexandrian Songs tablished his reputatn among the generatn’s greatt poets. Love and War is out now on Ast, and all the plac podsts FROM FORBESWhy This Charmg Gay Fairytale Has Been Lost For 200 YearsBy Jamie WarehamMORE FROM FORBESHow To Be An Asexual Ally: Learn Why Some Asexual People Have Sex (And Accept That Most Don't)By Jamie Wareham.

JOHN GAY

By the mid-1920s, at the height of the Prohibn era, they were attractg as many as 7, 000 people of var rac and social class—gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and straight alike. The Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940. By the 1920s, gay men had tablished a prence Harlem and the bohemian mec of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Tim Square), and the cy’s first lbian enclav had appeared Harlem and the Village.

Each gay enclave, wrote Gee Chncey his book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputatn. Gay Life the Jazz AgeAs the Uned Stat entered an era of unprecented enomic growth and prospery the years after World War I, cultural mor loosened and a new spir of sexual eedom reigned.