Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies
2 total works
If I continue to tour for another twenty years, as I have for the last twenty-one, I will end up sleeping in at least 1000 hotel beds in my lifetime. For maximum poetic oomph, let's say 1001 beds...They symbolize a life and art dedicated to reaching out toward folks from Bozeman to Tampa. A life and art that has traveled widely and, I believe, reached a couple hundred thousand people with my stories of queer life and love. For a quarter century, Tim Miller has worked at the intersection of performance, politics, and identity, using his personal experiences to create entertaining but pointed explorations of life as a gay American man - from the perils and joys of sex and relationships to the struggles of political disenfranchisement and artistic censorship. This intimate autobiographical collage of Miller's professional and personal life reveals one of the celebrated creators of a crucial contemporary art form and a tireless advocate for the American dream of political equality for all citizens. Here we have the most complete Miller yet - a raucous collection of his performance scripts, essays, interviews, journal entries, and photographs, as well as his most recent stage piece ""Us"". This volume brings together the personal, communal, and national political strands that interweave through his work from its beginnings and ultimately define Miller's place as a contemporary artist, activist, and gay man.
Performance artist Tim Miller has performed infront of audiences all over the world. This volume gathers six of his best-known performances that chart the sexual, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man: ""Some Golden States"", ""Stretch Marks"", ""My Queer Body"", ""Naked Breath"", ""Fruit Cocktail"" and ""Glory Box"". Each performance script is illustrated with photographs and accompanied by Miller's notes and comments. The book explores the tangible body blows - taken and given - of Miller's life and times as explored in his performance: the queer-basher's blow, the sweet blowing breath of a lover, the below-the-belt blow of AIDS/HIV, the psychic blows from a society that disrespects the humanity of lesbian and gay relationships. Miller's performance are full of the put-up-your-dukes and stand-your-ground of such day-to-day blows that make up being gay in America.