20 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | A&E
Qsaltlake.com |
ISSUE 354 |
December, 2023
live!
Danielle Brooks and Corey Hawkins in “The Color Purple” (2023). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The gay man who spearheaded the 1963 March on Washington, Celie and Shug’s romance fully revealed BY BLAIR HOWELL
BIG-TO-LITTLE SCREEN The 1963 March on Washington — revered for Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” — likely wouldn’t have hap-
pened without the work of a master strategist: Bayard Rustin, a gay Black socialist and pacifist-activist. I left the theater in tears after watching “Rustin” before it began streaming,
at The Broadway, Salt Lake’s paramount home of independent film, and a home for we who disfavor formulaic corporate-created catastrophes. Always unapologetic and confident in his identity, Rustin proclaims, “On the day that I was born Black, I was also born a homosexual.” The film also explores romantic attachments, including an affair with a married preacher and a relationship with a younger activist Rustin is reluctant to embrace fully. “Rustin” is one of the most important and illuminating movies of the year, a thrilling film celebrating an ignored gay civil rights activist. On Netflix now. BIG SCREEN Is there a more universally embraced gay-inclusive book-to-movie than “The Color Purple”? What appears to be a lovely film adaption of the musical stage version has been produced. With the song “What About Love?” the eventual flowering of Celie and Shug’s relationship won’t be nearly obscured
