Interview Magazine Talks to the Makers of The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions

Ernest Macias writes for Interview Magazine about Larry Mitchell's 1970s cult classic, The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, which has just been reissued, thanks to Nightboat Books. "The Faggots is loosely inspired by his experience living in the Lavender Hill commune in Ithaca, New York, which he helped form along with [illustrator Ned] Asta," writes Macias, who spoke with Asta, artist Tourmaline (who wrote a new preface), and performance artist Morgan Bassichis, who has adapted the book into a musical. They discussed "the book’s mystical (and horny) nature, the resurgence of radical queer politics, and Asta's Lavender Hill nickname, 'Loose Tomato.'" 

From their conversation:

MACIAS: Morgan, how would you describe the book?

BASSICHIS: The words that I always use are part fable, part manifesto. I love how the book is about wanting everything, wanting all of our liberation in all of its dimensions, and all the pleasures in the here and now. It’s about demanding or inhabiting that freedom now in so many different iterations. It’s also about all these groups of people and different sets of chosen family inhabiting freedom in different ways. In some ways, Lavender Hill is part of that fable. It’s part of that folk tale. The book goes back and forth between these big statements almost like posters, things you’d read on a poster at a protest. I always say since my roommate Bobby gave [the book] to me when I was 20-years-old, 15 years ago, which is that it almost feels like new pages appear all the time. I’ve read it many times but it almost feels like I haven’t quite finished it. 

ASTA: I still do that.

BASSICHIS: Sometimes I’ll describe it as a spell book. It’s about shedding certain genre definitions too.

ASTA: Everything you explained sounds like Larry’s philosophy, especially when you said “wanting it now, our time is now.”  He always said, “Let’s not mess around. It’s now. We come out now, we do things now. It’s our time. We’re gay.”

MACIAS: What was the intent of the book back then, and does it serve a different purpose today?

ASTA: I was just thinking that way back then, when he was putting all the ideology, philosophies, and definitely anarchy into the book, even the colors being red and black, it had to be anarchistic. I’d been giving the old book out where I worked to 21 and 20 year olds. They’re so interested in it, whether they’re gay or not. It blows me away, because they’ll say, “Is this about Trump? Is this about what’s happening now?” And I think, “Oh my God, that was ’77 and we’re still fighting the same fight.” ...

Read on at Interview.