Author: evanbrechtel

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#QueerHeroes Day 22 – Angel Haze

#QueerHeroes Day 22.
Angel Haze

Angel Haze is an agender pan Brooklyn rapper. As a child, they used writing as a form of therapy, with their first poem published at thirteen. They began freestyle rapping at 18 and quickly gained popularity through free streaming of their original songs on sites like SoundCloud.

Their tracks are motivational in their anger and emotional transparency, addressing blackness, misogyny, organized religion, and sexuality with a complexity that’s nothing short of mesmerizing. Before releasing their first full album Dirty Gold, Roes released a version of “Same Love” with all new verses that strike to the heart of what it is to be queer.

“We are boxed in and labeled
Before we’re ever able to speak who we believe we are
Or who we dream we’ll become
Like drum beats forever changing their rhythm
I am living today as someone I had not yet become yesterday
And tonight I’ll only borrow pieces of who I am today
To carry with me to tomorrow
No, I’m not gay
No, I’m not straight
And I sure as hell am not bisexual
Damn it I am whoever I am when I am it
Loving whoever you are when the stars shine
And whoever you’ll be when the sun rises
So here’s to being able
Here’s to love
Here’s to loving just because
Here’s to acceptance
Here’s to never fearing the fear of rejection
Here’s to love and never neglecting who you feel you are
Here’s to bullies because beatings cannot last forever
Here’s to the moment you realize things do get better
Here’s to the parents who will get it when its too late
Here’s to second chances
Here’s to new fate
Here’s to every single moment you’ve ever had to hide you
Here’s to the single star shining bright inside you, asking you to guide you
Here’s to who you’ll be when you figure it all out
Here’s to momentary doubt
Here’s to feeling, because we all feel it the same
Here’s to the moment that things will change
Because we all feel love, we all feel it the same
Here’s to love, here’s to change”

“I’m really fucked up right now too, because I’ve learned that I don’t even write my own music. I stopped doing every drug known to man, I didn’t drink before. I’ve been completely sober since last March. I’ve been living my life every day inside of my body, working on this kind of awareness — understanding that every area of your life is calling out to you in some way. It’s not about the Bible. It’s not about going to church. It’s not about anything other than that we are all energies connected with a force that’s greater than us. It’s an energy that’s omniscient, it covers the whole world and everybody here is created for a reason. Mine happens to be to make the music and inspire the people who are stuck in dark places.”

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#QueerHeroes Day 21  – Aubrey Beardsley

#QueerHeroes Day 21
Aubrey Beardsley.

Beardsley is regarded by most as asexual, but his art teemed with eroticism from the content to the curves and complements of every stroke.

He was popular with the eccentrics of London. He was great friends with Oscar Wilde and even illustrated a published edition of Wilde’s controversial play Salomé. He also illustrated an NSFW edition of Trojan Women as well as a variety of magazine covers.

Shortly after Wilde’s infamous gross indecency trial, Beardsley converted to catholicism and began an effort to have his sexual drawings removed from circulation. It only made them more popular.

Beardsley changed the course of design and is considered one of the founders of the Art Noveau movement. In her essay Notes on Camp, Susan Sontag describes Beardsley’s decadence and style as pure camp, but like all great camp, there’s a beautiful earnestness and sensitivity underlying it.