A response to a random post on Facebook led me to reconnecting with an old friend, Allen Young. From Allen, I learned that Lavender Culture, the anthology of essays about gay culture that he and Karla Jay edited and published in 1978, is still in print from NYU Press. Allen commissioned an article from me about gay theater, and it marked my first appearance in a book. I’ll never forget the thrill of walking into the Brattle Street Bookstore in Harvard Square and seeing the book on the shelf. It was a mass-market paperback from Jove Press (a division of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) back then; the NYU Press edition is a trade paperback, with new introductions by the editors and by Cindy Patton.
I’m touched to re-read my author’s bio from the original edition: “Don Shewey, Cambridge, Mass. Twenty-four years old, formerly an actor and classics scholar, currently a freelance writer, theatre and music critic for the Boston Phoenix, and aspiring playwright. Intensely interested in theatre, literature and my lawyer-lover John. I would like to thank the previous generation of gay activists (whose struggles enabled me to grow up gay free of guilt, shame and despair) and the women’s movement, which changed my life.”
another eye opens 