Malcolm Boyd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malcolm Boyd is an American minister, activist, spoken-word artist, and author, born June 8, 1923.
Boyd became known as “The Espresso Priest” for his religiously-themed poetry-reading sessions at the “hungry i” nightclub in San Francisco. Boyd went on to become a prominent white clergyman in the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1977 he came out of the closet becoming the most prominent Gay clergy person to come out. He is the author of 30 books.
He lives in Los Angeles, California with his long-time partner, the gay activist and author Mark Thompson.
Boyd serves on the Advisory Board of White Crane Journal a magazine of gay culture and wisdom.
[edit] Spoken-word work
Some of Boyd’s poetry was recorded. One example is “Prayers to swing with the times, featuring Malcolm Boyd.”
This album contains twenty-six tracks on two sides, each track one minute long and individually grooved so that you have to manually lift the needle between tracks — this was intentional: the tracks were meant to be played in place of commercials and public service announcements on the radio. (From the liner notes: “Suggestions which may be obvious to you after you’ve listened to this record: program five of these spots together in a kind of Malcolm Boyd happening. Think about it.”)
Each track on side one starts out with an instrumental, somewhat muzakesque version of a (once) popular song, perhaps by The Beatles or The Monkees or The Tijuana Brass. This quickly fades to the background and the announcement “This is Malcolm Boyd” warns the listener what is ahead.
Next comes a prayer that is read as though it were a prose poem — in a way combining the styles of Susan Polis Schutz and Robert Schuller. Much of the poems deal with on the general theme of “oh Lord, why is life so hard, why is love fleeting, why does winter inevitably follow spring, must I get out of bed in the morning, why can't we all just get along?”
As the liner notes put it: “It is a language that belongs to our young people today about the things young people think and worry about and concern themselves with.”
The poem ends and another voice announces that “this has been a public service of this station and the Episcopal Church.” Then the music comes back to the forefront for a second or two before the track fades out.
[edit] Books
Boyd is the author or editor of 30 books. His latest work is a collection of essays entitled, In Times Like These: How We Pray, which includes commentary about prayer by a wide variety of contributors.
