»blood & cause«

Seth Parker Woods, Violoncello
Ensemble Resonanz

Julius Eastman’s »Gay Guerilla« is a work of hypnotic force—a musical manifesto, a call to resistance, to visibility, to unstoppable revolution. His music never stands still. It grows, overwhelms, demands—just as relentless as his life as a Black, queer composer in a world marked by exclusion. His work lies at the heart of a program that brings diverse voices into dialogue: Pauline Oliveros, pioneer of Deep Listening, opens a space for deep auditory exploration. Chinary Ung bridges Western art music with Southeast Asian traditions, summoning the past. Pēteris Vasks reflects on the passage of time. With Jessie Montgomery, memory pushes into the present, searching for a way forward and for unity. Edward Elgar bids farewell. But Eastman remains. Unstoppable. Without history, there is no future. Without struggle, there is no voice. Without blood, there is no cause.

»Now the reason I use Gay Guerrilla — G U E R R I L L A, that one — is because these names — let me put a little subsystem here — these names: either I glorify them or they glorify me. And in the case of guerrilla: that glorifies gay — that is to say, there aren’t many gay guerrillas. I don’t feel that ›gaydom‹ has — does have — that strength, so therefore, I use that word in the hopes that they will. You see, I feel that — at this point, I don’t feel that gay guerrillas can really match with ›Afghani‹ guerrillas or ›PLO‹ guerrillas, but let us hope in the future that they might, you see. That’s why I use that word guerrilla: it means a guerrilla is someone who is, in any case, sacrificing his life for a point of view. And, you know, if there is a cause — and if it is a great cause — those who belong to that cause will sacrifice their blood, because, without blood, there is no cause. So, therefore, that is the reason that I use gay guerrilla, in hopes that I might be one, if called upon to be one.«

From Julius Eastman’s remarks to the audience before the premieres of Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla in January 1980 during his composer-residency at Northwestern University.