-The Gay & Lesbian Review
My first piece for The G&LR appeared in 2006: an interview with Janis Ian about her then-new album Folk is the New Black. In the intervening decades, I returned to write about her autobiography, an audiobook of the lesbian classic Patience and Sarah that she recorded with Jean Smart, and her “swan song” album in 2022.
Other artists I had the pleasure of conversing with for The G&LR include cartoonist and author Alison Bechdel, upon the publication of Are You My Mother?; choreographer and director Bill T. Jones, on his thoughts about John Cage; composer and performer Meredith Monk, who was celebrating fifty years of artmaking; journalist and author John-Manuel Andriote, about his profiles of queer activists; and filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax, on trans embodiment.
I also had the opportunity to write about art renegades Peter Hujar, Dona Ann McAdams, Ron Athey, David Wojnarowicz, Tim Miller, and Catherine Opie, along with Jack Lowery’s It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful, a scholarly book on the AIDS arts collective Gran Fury, and Sarah Schulman’s first-person narrative about ACT UP, Let the Record Show. An interview with curator Jonathan D. Katz opened the May-June 2025 edition dedicated to his exhibition The First Homosexuals.
Biographies I’ve reviewed include Michael Nott’s perceptive insights on poet Thom Gunn, Brad Gooch’s compelling analysis of artist Keith Haring, and Will Hermes’ definitive treatise on punk icon Lou Reed, alongside memoirs by disability heroes Terry Galloway, Eli Clare, Raymond Luczak, and Kenny Fries. I also covered cultural historian Douglas Crimp’s Before Pictures, which presented a living archive of pre- and post-Stonewall Manhattan. Most recently, in the July-August 2026 issue, I reviewed Tillie Walden’s historical graphic novel Charity and Sylva.
One of my most satisfying assignments was writing about the resurgence of interest in Julius Eastman, an outrageous presence in the avant-garde performance scene in ’70s New York who died homeless and forgotten in 1990. It took decades, but finally the Black gay iconoclast was being celebrated for his musical genius and the sheer audacity of his compositions.
I was honored that my work was included in two special-edition books drawn from the annals of The G&LR that celebrated illustrations by Charles Hefling. Casual Outings included my discussion of John Cage’s letters and diaries, while Outer Appearances featured my synopsis of Keith Haring’s prodigious artistry.
It wasn’t all high art along the way, however. I did some serious diva-dishing on Cher’s albums, her Broadway musical, and her Las Vegas residencies. My blog posts recalled my early dancing days and lessons from the AIDS pandemic. And there were plenty of arts briefs and short reviews of works by Eileen Myles, Robert Glück, Jaime Cortez, and others.
In 2022 I wrote a piece for The Arts Fuse on the history of The G&LR that was republished in the magazine’s January-February 2023 edition. I marveled at the evolution from a black-and-white quarterly to the current glossy bimonthly magazine under visionary editor Richard Schneider. In this article I wrote: “Schneider is always open to ideas and he wields an appreciated editing scalpel that cuts for focus and clarity.”
I remain ever grateful for his belief and support over the past twenty years, and I look forward to contributing to future editions under the stewardship of the magazine’s new editor, Jeremy C. Fox.