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Submit your thoughts on BILLY STRAYHORN: LUSH LIFE.
We invite you to respond to the questions below or add your comments. Selected submissions will be posted on our Talkback page, so check back regularly and join the discussion.
- For years, Billy Strayhorn composed music in the background, shadowed by Duke Ellington’s fame. Yet, as the film posits, “It served his interests, allowing him to work alongside Ellington, out of the spotlight.” Do you agree or disagree?
- During Strayhorn’s lifetime, his genius remained unknown to those outside of his immediate circle. But recently, historians and scholars have uncovered the extent of his talent. What other examples can you think of in which history has been righted and the truth has emerged over time?
- As author George Chauncey explains about New York City’s gay scene in the 1940s, “A very rich, supportive gay world developed in the context of all this repression…. Billy Strayhorn had a very large community of people, like-minded people who loved him for who he was, and knew exactly who he was.” Can you think of other communities of support that have risen up in the context of repression?
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