TREBORHEALEY GAVIN GEOFFREY DILLARD began publishing gay poetry in the 1970s after studying poetry at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and then relocating to New York City where he befriended Allen Ginsberg, Harold Norse, Ian Young, and other gay icons of the day, before heading west to Hollywood, where he was dubbed “The Naked Poet” by TheLos Angeles Times for his in-the-buff poetry readings. He has gone on to publish ten collections of poetry (most notably The NakedPoet andYellow Snow), two anthologies (A Day for a Lay: A Century of Gay PoetryandBetween the Cracks: The Daedalus Anthology of Kinky Verse), and a provocative tellall memoir, IN THE FLESH(undressing for success), recounting his time in Hollywood. Dillard also wrote book and lyrics for the acclaimedBARK! The Musical, which has been staged from Anchorage to Sao Paulo to Edinburgh. He had a hit song, “The Rescue,” sung by Sam Harris and Janis Ian, and won a Frontiers Award as well as an Opera America Award for his opera When Adonis Calls, which premiered in 2015. Classical composers, starting with Jake Heggie, have set many of his poems to music. An avid and skilled photographer, Dillard has just re-issued his poetry collection, Notes from a Marriage, first published by Felice Picano’s SeaHorse Press in 1983— this time as a photo collection—and another volume, also with photos, the elegiac Dave (due June of this year). The latest volumes can all be found at GavinDillard.org. Trebor Healey: What poets of all stripes do you admire, and which gay poets in particular? Gavin Geoffrey Dillard: I don’t make that distinction, generally, though bards Ian Young and Harold Norse were both friends and influencers. Beyond that, the 9th-century Japanese poet, Ono no Komachi, is my fave-rave. And Izumi Shikibu from that same period. I love Rumi and Hafiz in spurts—Mirabai as well. In these poets I found sex and romance as spiritual metaphor—something deeper and richer than I was getting from Ginsberg and others of my cadre. Mostly I read the Taoists, the River-and-Mountain poets from ages past in China. I want to hear about the trees and the clouds, the mountains, waterfalls, and a simple bowl of rice for a starving belly. I think I might have been William Blake in a past life—but shhh, that’s a secret! I’ll also confess that Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks is my singular sacred text. TH: What is your view of the state of LGBT literature after plying this trade for fifty years? GGD: Ooh, I’m the last one to ask. A Day for a Lay, my centennial anthology and paean to queer culture, was a big push for me. I’ve read very little of the genre since. I took major issue with the way gay culture handled AIDS— all our magazines sold out to Big Pharma and we became no longer the radicals I envisioned myself, but merely an economic target group. I could go on, but I’ll piss people off. Anyway, I traipsed my radical ass to the hills. I almost exclusively read classics: Joyce, Wolfe, T.H. White, Tolkien, McCullers ... and recently blew through the entire Isherwood canon— Chris was a great friend and mentor. I re-read Austen interminably—it’s a thing. Lawrence Durrell was a brilliant writer, as was Castañeda. Gore Vidal was an L.A. chum, but I’ve passed on much of his work—too much political and intellectual over romantic and heartfelt—thoughMyra Breckenridge was a pivot in my pre-teen years. Of course, Gore hailed Christopher as the finest writer in the English language—I cannot disagree. Gavin Geoffrey Dillard’s Beat Goes On ARTIST’S PROFILE and museums. Whatever the medium or scale, Haring maintained the ethos of his early subway drawings: no preparation, no preliminary sketches, just sure-handed strokes in his inimitable style. Interviews with gallerists recall Haring sequestering himself in the exhibition space days before an opening, creating the entire showenmasse. Often, the paint was still drying as the public entered. Haring surrounded himself with kids. Young graffiti artists partied with him in his homes and studios. He collaborated with teenage tagger LA II (Angel Ortiz), embellishing readymade statues with hieroglyphic images. He worked with 1,000 students on an enormous mural celebrating the Statue of Liberty (1986). In Gooch’s biography, we also learn more about Haring’s loving relationship with multiple godchildren around the world. Sex and drugs were also a big part of Haring’s life, as deliciously detailed in Gooch’s account. He met his first significant lover, Juan Dubose, at the St. Mark’s Baths. Every weekend the pair went to the Paradise Garage—a club primarily for Black and Latino gay men. No alcohol was served, though many of the partygoers used hallucinogenic enhancements as they danced through the night. Madonna previewed two unreleased songs at the artist’s 26th birthday party (1984) at this venue, only to be upstaged by Diana Ross serenading Haring with “Happy Birthday.” Trying to maintain accessibility to his work as prices for his art soared, Haring opened his Pop Shop in 1986, in Manhattan, where he sold pins, T-shirts, calendars, watches, magnets, and prints. Critics slammed him for doing this, calling him “a discodecorator.” While it was never a money-maker, the Pop Shop remained open until 2005. (A Pop Shop in Tokyo was less successful; it closed after a year.) Even as his fame grew, Haring remained dedicated to grass-roots activism, designing posters for anti-nuke rallies, anti-apartheid protests, safe sex promotions, and a myriad of LGBT-related causes. While working in Tokyo in 1988, Haring noticed purple 32 TheG&LR Gavin Geoffrey Dillard in 2018. Andrew Wayne photo.
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