The Right Side of History. 100 Years of LGBTQI Activism. Author: Adrian Brooks.

This book is a collection of historical writings about the LGBTQIA Movement. What is unique about it is that all of the writers are activists who have worked within that movement. No academic historians participated. This approach contains strengths and weaknesses. Its most favorable strength is that activists know strategies for creating and organizing movements which uninvolved historians generally do not. A historian who has not worked for social change, will usually focus upon a nation’s political office holders; examining their legislation and speeches. While that element is part of history, it is merely the end product and most visible mark of progress, thence the easiest road to travel in writing a history. Unfortunately, it creates the false impression that an altruistic notion just popped into the head of a self-interested politician; whose only real job, even in the best of democracies, is to get herself re-elected and do the bidding of those who paid for that re-election. Activists, on the other hand, know what goes into creating change. As a result, the activities of grassroots activism and behind-the-scenes organizing are ferreted-out by these writers. Published in 2015, four months before lesbians and gay men won marriage equality, The Right Side of History reveals how the movement evolved from the late-1800s to the present. The views of the activists who wrote chapters make it both a history and a primer on how to advance political rights.

Adrian Brooks, who edited this project, arranged the 31 contributions chronologically. The first 12 examine activist endeavors prior to the Stonewall Rebellion. Here the reader will begin to see some of the drawbacks of having histories written by activists unfamiliar with the process of primary evidence-gathering. Telling the whole truth is sometimes not as important as promoting the movement. Among the several chapters discussing Stonewall, none mention that the Stonewall Inn was owned by the New York Mafia. Though there are two flattering portraits of Bayard Rustin, neither mentions his later, neoconservative activism (see https://portside.org/2016-03-17/rebel-who-came-cold-tainted-career-bayard-rustin ). Such omissions, calculated to make the movement appear uncontaminated, do not advance the goal of preserving historical knowledge.

What is omitted is important. But so is what is included. There are rare histories of forgotten activists and early organizations, which the reading public would never know about without this volume. In addition, the contributors excel with later chapters involving political action in which they personally participated. Here, important events are preserved in oral histories that would otherwise have disappeared from the record. The full story of a social movement cannot be contained within one document. This iconoclastic book is an important contribution to the history of LGBTQIA success in attaining civil rights.

Brooks, Adrian. The Right Side of History. 100 Years of LGBTQI Activism. New York: Cleis Press, 2015.

West Side Story as Cinema. Author: Ernesto R. Acevedo-Munoz.

A note for those who have not seen the movie “West Side Story:” The book being reviewed was written for an audience who had already seen the 1961 film. There will be spoilers by both the reviewer and the author; as well as confusion for the reader regarding plot, characters and elements discussed. If one has not seen this version, one should consider stopping here and watching it first.

“West Side Story” (WSS) was an important musical for a number of artistic and political reasons. Artistically, it was the first US musical to defy the convention that problems or tensions in the story are resolvable through song-and-dance. Here musical numbers, when not romantic, are used to illuminate conflicts or make matters worse. Importantly, musical numbers from the second half of the play which were lighter or comic, were shifted to the first half of the movie. In this way, WSS becomes a show whose lightness, humor and humanity drop away, until despair is all that is left.

Ernesto R. Acevedo-Munoz is an associate professor and Director of Film Studies at the University of Colorado. So his book is largely a film study course enclosed by covers. His chapters are an introduction to special effects, film staging, selection of actors, transitions, and other decisions made by producers and directors. He takes the reader inside the creation of this movie. Directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, Composer Leonard Bernstein, as well as producers Harold and Marvin Mirisch, are examined. One is taken behind the scenes to see the conflicts and choices they faced with each other and the material.

Politically, WSS was the first musical to feature Puerto Rican characters as protagonists. Since it was written in the 1950s there is the inherent racism of its period. Puerto Rican commentators have been divided on their view of this seminal portrayal of their people in a successful musical. The vast majority of Puerto Rican characters, including the lead male and female roles, were acted by white people in brown-face make-up. Even Rita Moreno, the only Puerto Rican in the play, was darkened with cosmetics. This is too similar to minstrel shows, exclusionary of Puerto Rican actors, and stereotyped. We only see Puerto Rican persona who are gang members or “gang girls.” Latin American viewers, who see the show as positive, point-out that the Sharks are all people with families and jobs. Both film and stage have Puerto Rican cultural elements which are presented positively. This community only establishes a gang in defense against racist violence. Bernardo and the Jets confirm twice in the film that he was “jumped” on his first day in the US. In contrast, the Jets are unemployed juvenile delinquents, whose families are broken and whose racism is blatant. The author argues that, between the two gangs, the Sharks are both more sympathetic and more culturally represented, as well as being articulate about oppression. There is a lot more written on racism that cannot be covered here. However, if one is seeking an author who can successfully moderate the two sides of the Puerto Rican conflict over WSS, one must look elsewhere. In his introduction, Acevedo-Munoz says, as a child in Puerto Rico, he “was overwhelmed and giddily proud to see ‘Puerto Ricans’ represented onscreen, however inaccurate or stylized the portrayal…West Side Story is the reason why I study films” (Acevedo-Munoz, pp. 5-6). As a result, the chapter specifically devoted to racism is weighted in favor of WSS.

But racism is not the only area where the author discusses politics and culture. Borrowing from Rick Altman and Matthew Tinkcom, Acevedo-Munoz discusses gay male expression in WSS. Altman is quoted as saying that musicals are “associated with camp, gay, utopian, ‘drag,’ and marginal sensibilities…created by gay talent because it offers a ‘place’ where sexual repression (especially in classical Hollywood) can be channeled…redress[ing] heterosexuality itself as a camp fantasy.” Tinkcom adds that “‘camp excess, masquerade and performance’ hide a gay sensibility that ultimately serves to self-consciously mock the realism of heterosexual coupling narratives” (Acevedo-Munoz, p. 154). This observation may be entirely apt since all four contributors to the creation of WSS were gay men (Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents). Professor Acevedo-Munoz also mentions that all four were Jewish, but does not explore how a Jewish sensibility might have influenced the show (Acevedo-Munoz, p. 154).

West Side Story as Cinema is a delightful and instructive book. Acevedo-Munoz is an enthusiastic Film Studies teacher. It is enlightening to have the perspective of a politically aware professor, who has much to say regarding content related to his people. If one has enjoyed the movie, this book will reveal features not previously evident, and make one want to see it again with new perspective.

Acevedo-Munoz, Ernesto R. West Side Story as Cinema. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2013.