Ross Gay '96 returns to help stunts · News · Lafayette College

Contents:

• ROSS GAY '96 RETURNS TO HELP STUNTS
• ROSS GAY ’96 EXPLOR FUNDAMENTAL CURSI OF JOY ‘THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS’
• WRERS ON WRG: ROSS GAY ’96
• ROSS GAY ’96 WS $100,000 TUFTS POETRY AWARD
• RECEPTN FOR ROSS GAY
• ROSS MATHEWS: GAY PEOPLE 'WANTED ME OFF TV'
• ROSS GAY
• GET TO KNOW EVERYBODY READS AUTHOR ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY
• AN INTERVIEW WH ROSS GAY
• POETRY MOMENT: ROSS GAY AND 'FOR A YOUNG EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR'

ROSS GAY '96 RETURNS TO HELP STUNTS

Five years after he graduated, Ross Gay '96 has returned to mp to share his experience and sights to art and poetry wh other stunts.

Gay says he was reced as a stunt to Lafayette for his football skills and me to mp not knowg what he wanted to study. His sophomore year he took an art urse wh Ed Kerns, Eugene Clapp Profsor of Art.

“I quickly realized this was fun and good, and thgs jt blossomed om there, ” Gay says.

ROSS GAY ’96 EXPLOR FUNDAMENTAL CURSI OF JOY ‘THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS’

Gay had a siar experience a poetry urse tght by Lee Upton, profsor of English and wrer--rince, and end up graduatg wh a double major English and art. “My poetry has a narrative thst to and pends on mic, ” Gay says scribg his work. Gay's next project is a llaboratn wh fellow alumni Tom DiGvanni '96, a mician an ensemble New York and a former football punter, and football fensive end Derek Mast '95, an animator Calif.

The three will llaborate on an animated film, g Gay's poetry, DiGvanni's mic, and Mast's animatn skills. “Derek was the reason I was backup fensive end my first years, ” says Gay lghgly.

“I loved playg football, ” adds Gay, who played unr Coach Bill Rso and was a member of the 1994 Patrt League champnship team. Gay eventually won the startg fensive end posn on the varsy football team and was award the 1996 Gee Wharton Pepper Prize as the senr who “most nearly reprents the Lafayette ial. Gay hop eventually to teach at the llege level.

WRERS ON WRG: ROSS GAY ’96

Gay has participated poetry readgs and has exhibed his work wh artists Melv Butler and Rorick Jordan at the David A.

Ross Gay ’96 works wh stunts his “Prcipl of Stud Art” class the Williams Visual Arts Buildg. Ross Gay disvered his love for wrg durg his sophomore year at the llege while takg an English urse.

Ross Gay’s ’96 “The Book of Delights” do not only pot out the small, lightful moments he experienced life for a year, also serv as a rerd of his thoughts on race, genr and class dispari, which he evably thks about most of his life. A crilly acclaimed wrer, Gay found his love for wrg durg his sophomore year at Lafayette while he took an English urse wh profsor David Johnson. In Johnson’s urse, Gay veloped terts wrers such as Sylvia Plath, Mark Strand, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka.

ROSS GAY ’96 WS $100,000 TUFTS POETRY AWARD

On Wednday night Gay read some of the says om “The Book of Delights, ” and was troduced by poet and English profsor Megan Fernans.

Gay is the thor of three books of poetry: “Agast Which, ” (2006), “Brgg the Shovel Down, ” (2011) and “Catalog of Unabashed Gratu” (2015), which was the wner of the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and the 2016 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award.

After graduatg Lafayette, Gay went on to get an MFA poetry om Sarah Lawrence College and a PhD Amerin Lerature om Temple Universy. As a stunt at the llege, Gay found himself beg “acutely aware” of e dispary, race, genr, jtice and power. Baraka’s poem provid Gay wh the “very plex language to this kd of rage that I was feelg, ” he said his terview wh The Lafayette.

RECEPTN FOR ROSS GAY

At that stage of his life, Gay “had not yet been a suatn where 18-year-old children would be drivg rs that st four tim as much as my father’s r, ” he said. All of Gay’s feelgs of rage and new sense of awarens of his environment veloped to his qutng of ways to get toward a eper, fundamental cursy about joy, he said.

When Gay was walkg up a hill Italy, he said he was such a state of reverie that he wanted to wre an say to pture that moment.

ROSS MATHEWS: GAY PEOPLE 'WANTED ME OFF TV'

Whenever was hard for Gay to fd somethg lightful that happened to him that day, there was a qutn of how to live “the midst of such btaly the moment and…that is, I thk, a reasonable qutn. Although Gay said he end up skippg days, cuttg some says out, and not beg happy wh some of his work, he ma an important project to pture every lightful moment for a full year, even when was hard to fd those moments.

Some of the thgs that lighted Gay durg the time of wrg was beg lled “baby” or “honey” by a wars, the smell of flowers, ltle exchang of love and re-takg gtur, mistakg a stranger for his uncle, helpg out people and fond memori, to name a few. After lookg and fdg thgs that lighted him, Gay said he felt himself noticg those ltle moments of joy more often. For people to wns moments of tenrns such as holdg the door for someone or helpg a stranger rry their thgs, allows for those actns to bee a norm our society, Gay said, addg that people are already cled to want to pot out the good thgs that happen and share those feelgs of light.

ROSS GAY

When difference of others be a norm, impos a kd of brokenns, Gay said. Although Gay’s wrg has been so vast, he said he is “still fdg” his poetic voice. Gay is schled to give an addnal readg and Q&A ssn at 11 a.

Lleg and universi, heteronormativy, homophobia, and transphobia belong to school history as cisively as aterni, football, and fal exams. In 1992, the popular Prceton Review named Lafayette the most "homophobic" stutn of higher tn the U. And (unsurprisgly) the school wh most "gays still the closet.

In velopg a groundbreakg, publicly available mol for reverg LGBTQ+ history and engagg wh related issu, the Queer Archiv Project monstrat that stutns n do more than simply acknowledge homophobic, transphobic pasts. Wner of the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and falist for the Natnal Book Award Poetry, Ross Gay ’96 spent several days on mp to vis var class, liver a keynote addrs, read om his llectns of poetry and says, and discs wrg and creativy a few qutn-and-answer ssns. Ross Gay ’96 has won the Claremont Graduate Universy’s $100, 000 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book, Catalog of Unabashed Gratu.

GET TO KNOW EVERYBODY READS AUTHOR ROSS GAY

Gay will receive his award at a ceremony on April 7 at Claremont. “Catalog of Unabashed Gratu” by Ross Gay ’96.

Gay is the thor of two prev llectns of poetry, Agast Which and Brgg the Shovel Down. An English and art graduate, Gay was the Gee Wharton Pepper Prize wner and a fensive end on Lafayette’s 1994 Patrt League Champnship football team. Personal: Son of John Charlene Gay…uncle, Nathan Gay, played football for Virgia Tech and Slippery Rock and had stts the NFL and Arena, William Gay, played football at Louisville and wh the Ptsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardals…born 1/28/00.

2020Sophomore. Jo for a receptn honor of Ross Gay ’96, thor of the 2019-2020 Communy Readg, The Book of Delights. Prented nnectn wh Gay’s keynote addrs on October 23.

ROSS GAY

When Ross Mathews started his reer as “Ross the Intern” on “The Tonight Show wh Jay Leno, ” there were only a small number of LGBTQ people on TV and gay men, Ross says, weren’t happy wh him reprentg them. Jefey Masters: I thk Jay Leno would be acced of gay bashg today. He was potg out the obv, but he also put me on his show for 13 years, so there was a method behd the madns, I Thkg about you on Chelsea Lately and your show, I’m shocked by how recent was bee still felt subversive to see an out gay man on TV, one that’s not tryg to butch I jt never gave a flyg fuck what people thought or thk.

I thk that me embracg what I am, which is this pl size, unapologetilly, openly gay person, woke some people How did you navigate beg visibly gay and not rg what people thought wh the fact that ’s not always safe to be perceived to be gay?

AN INTERVIEW WH ROSS GAY

Where even I, who was followg the North Star of beg gay, said, “Well, I gus I should try this bee that’s what I’m suppose to do.

” So, I did and wasn’t my cup of tea, but I tried When I’m out and I hear someone who sounds gay, I thk, “Oh, I’m safe here. When I first started on The Tonight Show, I got a lot of hate mail and the majory of the hate mail was om gay people, sayg, “You’re settg the movement back.

POETRY MOMENT: ROSS GAY AND 'FOR A YOUNG EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR'

I’m embarrassed to be gay bee you’re reprentg . They wanted me not to reprent them, gay people. Ross Gay ’96 “has bee one of our most wondro poets”.