Brontez Purnell: April 7, 2021

Brontez Purnell, from his home in Oakland — and after remarking "Just so you know, I am a Cancer, double Sagitarrius" — reads several pieces, stories and poems, from his book 100 Boyfriends.

TreVaughan Roach-Carter, emcee, opens with a question regarding how Brontez Purnell pursues an idea across multiple media. Purnell points to the DIY ethos he's adopted, because "basically I was always poor" and didn't have the luxury, for instance, to say, "I'm a photographer." He points to how in the Bay Area different arts communities are in touch with each other.

Asked from the audience by Nancy Fishman about his literary ancestors, Purnell tells of early in his life reading Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People"; Sylvia Plath, "the poem 'Mushrooms' in particular," and The Bell Jar ("I don't know why someone would give that to a 12-year old"); "there was a lot of Langston Hughes. My mom made me read Native Son in 6th grade... but the Langston Hughes poetry...my mom always had that out"; and he names Dorothy Parker and Edna St. Vincent Millay as a "slight" presence. "So, basically, Langston Hughes and a bunch of fucking alcoholic white women, that's my ancestors."

Cisco Guzman from the audience asks about Purnell's aversion to anything like "a journey" and where he's at. "I'm in my bedroom, on my bed, reading to people.... I feel like I've waited my whole life to read my stories to people in bed." Brandon Foley from the audience asks how the "100 Boyfriends" get organized, and Purnell points to "a lot of writing.... Good writing is like a fever dream." Another audience member asks for advice to writers to "develop a strong voice": "No, I can't tell you how to do that." Then he points to how, for him, it's due to "coming from theater" and the practice of reciting from memory.

Asked about his "poetry tradition" and if it feeds his other work, he points to the sense of narrative and feels "words need to be pretty." The remainder of the conversation is devoted, among other subjects, to The Dances of Ed Mock, a film he recently directed, and his own study to be a dancer; the differences between songwriting ("you can be as cheesy as you fucking want") and poetry ("there's no Weird Al Yankovich of poetry"); his living "a highly improvisational artistic life"; and, viz writer's block: "The only thing that's ever blocked my art is capitalism!"