11/23/2023 0 Comments Gay guerrilla![]() After moving to New York City, Julius’ name is closely tied to the New York Downtown Music scene of the 70s, but it’s rare that you’ll find his name in music history textbooks. What might look like a cheap move to get the attention of the class, it was actually the beginning of a wonderful lecture about Julius Eastman, a thoughtful experimental composer whose bravery was bigger than people’s prejudice.Įastman was born in Harlem in 1940 and grew up between Syracuse and Ithaca. He grabbed the marker and started to write down censored words like “Evil N***er,” “N***er F***ot, and “Dirty N***er”. He preferred to write them instead of naming them because it could have been uncomfortable for himself and the class. One day, my professor decided to write on the blackboard some of Julius Eastman’s most relevant composition titles. I first heard about Julius Eastman in my 20th century Music History class in college, only because I was lucky enough to have a professor who loved to introduce us to the work of composers whose names are not in the textbooks. In the moment I felt deeply connected to the music I was listening to. That night, on that cheap bus, it was like traveling back in time to a cold and dark winter night of some decades ago. I was traveling from New York City, where Eastman has spent many years composing and performing, to Upstate New York, close to where Eastman grew up and started his musical journey. It was getting darker outside, so I decided to listen to Eastman’s music on my phone. I was on a bus for Albany, NY where I was going to visit my family for the holidays. I remember it was the holiday season when I began to read this book, and page after page I started to connect more with Eastman’s music. When my eyes crossed the spine of Gay Guerrilla Julius Eastman and His Music, I knew that my research was over. I had finished one of the hundreds of biographies of Maurice Ravel, and I promised myself that I was going for a new and fresh reading, something that has been written recently. Several months ago I went book shopping in one of my favorite bookstores in Downtown Brooklyn.
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