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Brontez Purnell, at 38 years old, is already something of a Bay Area legend.
You might have watched his art-house soft-core porn film100 Boyfriends Mixtapeor seen him perform contemporary dance.
I literally represent the 0.0001 percent, says the artist, who grew up in Alabama.
Did you at least have fun?
I never really felt that there was a hope or a life or a context for me down South.
It really was a breath of fresh air just to set foot on the soil.
My mother never really let me out of the house because I was too Black and punk and queer.
She was afraid somebody was going to fucking kill me.
So when I got here, I really had to just grow up in a really intense way.
I had guides, but I didnt have any parents.
I really had to rely on myself as a moral compass.
It was really fucking intense, but I wouldnt trade that shit for nothing in the world.
Id just be like, Bitch, its going to be really fun and really hard.
There were so many wild, public displays of hedonism back then.
If you did that shit these days, these kids would call you out on the internet so fast.
But I wanted to be in that scene.
We did these things because we were punk.
Because we were crazy, radical queers.
We were trying to escape it and we let our trauma ricochet off of each other.
But also, deep within it, there was a sense of love.
Its about dealing with the residual effects of entanglement.
Maybe its all about the physical space a bedroom where you see every single squiggle mark on the ceiling.
Whenever youve broken up with someone, what do you remember from that day?
Do you remember if it was sunny?
Do you remember cologne, perfume, or a smell, or a meal you ate?
Or maybe you just strictly orient from an emotion you felt.
There are lots of insertion points for memory.
you’ve got the option to be as sacred or as secular as you want.
I think the older I have got, I dont approach relationships at all.
I just exist and things happen.
If you call that a fucking very earned weariness, then sure, you could say Ive changed.
That gusto, that do-or-die love I have to be with this person.
But then, you know,100 Boyfriendsis definitely more for, you know, old jaded whores.
Its about the time after that first feeling has passed.
On Going Legit
Ive never had this much parental intervention.
When youre in the cut of DIY art for years, youre like, No ones supporting this.
I got to do all this myself.
I gotta confirm all this shit is doing it.
How do you mean this?
Maybe we can say it this way.
Blah, blah, blah.
And Im like, Oh shit, this is what it means to professionalize now.
Almost wasnt ready for that shit.
But I think you should be able to approach any language and find where you vibe with it.
Plus, who knows about ever getting this chance again?
So, you know, I stuck with it.
I like zines and I like something episodic and periodical, which is why I still doFag School.
Its a pop-punk band, but its too Black and too queer.
Its something that I do as a labor of love.
I would have to say the Younger Lovers is more of a global scene.
Ive gotten more congratulatory remarks from people way outside the bubble than I ever did inside the bubble.
My problem with Oakland is just that it really can be a slacking-ass, beer-drinking town.
But it wasnt up to me.
God was like, No, your fat Black ass going to keep working forever and ever.
