Wikipedia

Sean DeLear

Sean DeLear (1965–2017) was a member of the “Silver Lake scene” of postpunk and powerpop artists and musicians living in Los Angeles's in the 1980s and 1990s.[1][2][3] They were the lead singer of the band Glue.[4]

Work edit

DeLear was a collaborator with performance-based artists such as Vaginal Davis, Brian Grillo, and Kembra Pfahler.[5] Later, DeLear was in the art collective Gelitin and performed as a solo cabaret artist in Sean DeLear on the Rocks.[6][7]

They were a cultural boundary breaker and transcended sexuality, race, age, genres, and scenes.[8][9]

In 2022, Semiotext(e) published, I Could Not Believe It, The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear by By Sean DeLear.[10][11][12] The book chronicles the early years of his burgeoning queerness and punk community in California, notably becoming a pioneer members of the “Silver Lake scene” of post-punk and power pop and one of the few black artist in the scene during that time. The book includes an introduction by writer and artist Brontez Purnell and was co-edited by writer and editor Michael Bullock and Cesar Padilla.[13][14] Purnell wrote for the The Paris Review, "I met Sean DeLear when I was twenty-four, in this house across from the Eagle in Los Angeles—I remember Sean talking about the LA scene, me asking him if he had a Germs burn (I don’t remember the answer), but also being very struck by the fact that up until that point I had probably met only a couple dozen Black punks but never anyone of Sean De’s age and with their poise. Even in Stripped Bare House at 2 A.M. and being festive she just commanded this kind of magic and glamour—it was definitely something to reach for and to aspire to. We don’t always clock these things when we are younger, but the mere presence of her let me be hip to the fact that I could be beautiful, Black, and punk forever—and in fact, it would be the best possible path to take."[15]

A reading for the book was held at the Poetry Project Fall of 2023 and featured readers like Xander Aviance, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Anne Hanavan, K8 Hardy, Juliana Huxtable, Kembra Pfahler, and Journey Streams.[16] The latter writer shared more on Delear for Document Journal, " This sublime portrait sits petulantly in the growing canon of the Black queer bildungsroman. In the ripples that emanate from Samuel R. Delany’s seminal autobiography The Motion of Light in Water, there are glimmers of recognition, sparkling in the tile of the bowling alley tea room, and seat belts left unfastened in the cars of friendly strangers. These moments of clarity (post-nut or otherwise) are the progeny of Delany’s “heart-thudding astonishment,” witnessing gay sex en masse at the St. Mark’s Baths—a feeling “very close to fear."[17]

Publications edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Sean DeLear". MIT Press. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  2. ^ Weekly, L. A. (September 8, 2017). "R.I.P. Sean DeLear, the Fabulous Glue Front(wo)man Who Made L.A. Shine Brighter". LA Weekly. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  3. ^ Stegall, Tim (August 3, 2021). "Kid Congo Powers on his new EP and the LGBTQIA+ roots of punk". Alternative Press Magazine. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  4. ^ "I Could Not Believe It". blackwells.co.uk. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  5. ^ Blanks, Tim (December 15, 2022). "Rick Owens and Ron Athey were born from the sociosexual underworlds of Los Angeles". Document Journal. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  6. ^ "Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds: Swing From the Sean DeLear". PopMatters. April 15, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  7. ^ Trembley, Nicolas (March 4, 2008). "Nicolas Trembley on Gelitin at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris". www.artforum.com. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  8. ^ Morrison, Rachael (May 16, 2014). "Sean DeLear | PARIS LA". Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  9. ^ "The Artist's Round Table: Legendary Figures On Generating Queer Counterculture". www.out.com. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  10. ^ "I Could Not Believe It". MIT Press. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  11. ^ Purnell, Sean DeLear and Brontez (March 27, 2023). "I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear". The Paris Review. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  12. ^ "Book Launch for I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear". The Poetry Project. September 29, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  13. ^ "Queer Punk Icon Sean DeLear's 1979 Diary Becomes a Memoir". W Magazine. May 25, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  14. ^ "Dale Corvino with Cesar Padilla — 'Bonds & Boundaries' and 'I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear' | Third Place Books". www.thirdplacebooks.com. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  15. ^ Purnell, Sean DeLear and Brontez (March 27, 2023). "I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear". The Paris Review. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  16. ^ "Book Launch for I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear". The Poetry Project. September 29, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  17. ^ Streams, Journey (June 5, 2023). "Reading Sean DeLear: A vicarious, astral convergence of past and future lives". Document Journal. Retrieved May 30, 2024.


 

This article about a United States rock singer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sean_DeLear&oldid=1226358592"