HomoAmerican The Secret Society

HomoAmerican The Secret Society

Michael Dane
$24.95
Publication Date: June 1st, 2019
Publisher:
HomoAmerican
ISBN:
9780578463285
Pages:
500

Description

HomoAmerican - The Secret Society

is not merely the story of a gay man growing up in America, but an unflinching, often disturbing and hilarious portrait of those turbulent and confusing times told through the eyes of a firsthand witness. Over the years and through his extensive travels, he adopted many means of expression and sometimes avenues of escape. He confronted the confines of society and pursued the promise and myths of liberation. As a result of his conspicuous rebellion, that of simply being himself, of not living in disguise, he began to discover another society -- a Secret Society -- of people who grew up in this world, where lies of omission shaped their destiny and kept them apart.

Free of the confines of convention they wandered along dangerous paths in search their own. In ordinary circles Michael’s personal life was a minefield. He lived as an openly gay man in Iran, was witness to the lavish extravagances and social horror of apartheid South Africa, and was arrested on suspicion of murder in Paris and for prostitution in New York.

While his stories recount the path that brought him here, mostly they tell the story of the man that he was becoming, pieced together, bit-by-bit, out of shadows, reinvented and reborn, in silence. Still, a recurring theme plays itself out in each episode of his life; the cost of acceptance is always denial, so he is at odds with the world, or so it seems and as he grew older, he realized that in ghettos and in stereotypes there is an underlying thread of a war, not with society, but with ourselves. His stories are images of different selves developing in that dangerous void and a message to all people who live in disguise and have no reflection, to people who grow up in isolation and create lives out of their own imagination.

About the Author

Michael Dane was born in San Francisco in 1954 and raised amid the tangle that was the racial tension of the late 1950's and 1960's. Trained in the classic Russian Ballet by Dimitri Romanoff, he moved to New York on a prestigious scholarship with the School of American Ballet at the Julliard School and later, American Ballet Theatre. Michael was recruited to the Iranian National Ballet in 1976, but in the wake of the frightful events leading up to the toppling of the Shah of Iran, he fled Tehran over the Turkish mountains, a fugitive of the state.

After returning home he searched for a more personal means of expression. He danced with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carloen travesti, and created an infamous persona of a beautiful and talented lesbian dancer named Peg, a very real personality. He performed in the avant-garde theater of the East and West Villages in a time when mind-altering drugs forged a unique bond between audience, writer and performer. A chance elevator encounter brought him back to Paris with a recording contract where he met a young, unknown, Madonna Ciccone. Madonna and Michael made a little movie together called A Certain Sacrifice.

In Europe Michael found his voice and over three years, wrote and recorded music, released three albums ...music of truly dangerous proportion. In later years he turned to acting, the long list of his credits is easily accessed on IMDB. Michael studied with Uta Hagen while she was writing her bestselling book, A Challenge for the Actor. After it's completion, Uta presented him with a copy ... inscribed simply, "To Michael, Bravo! - Love, Uta.”

Michael Dane has always kept a journal of the extraordinary events of his life and was so often asked to recount one or more stories from his past. In the retelling of those events he had to tailor those stories to fit the dinner or audience at hand ...never a lie but never the whole truth either, so he finally chose to write his autobiography and tell the whole truth.

Praise for HomoAmerican The Secret Society

“Exceptionally well written, impressively informative, notably thoughtful and thought-provoking, HomoAmerican - The Secret Society is a deftly crafted history that is both intensely personal and at the same time universal in scope and subject. While unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library LGBTQ collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.



From Midwest Book Review (December 2019, Volume 18, Number 12)

“Michael Dane has had anything but a quiet, ordinary life ... he has lived every moment with energy, vigor, and verve. He tells his story with the same life and energy, and an almost poetic way with words that brings the reader directly and vividly into every moment, every experience. The enthusiasm and drive that he put into his career and his relationships romantic, familial, and platonic, is also the enthusiasm that went into writing this book, and it shows. He is particularly adept at descriptive language-characters and places leap from the page, immersing the reader in a vibrant and engaging world full of interesting people and exciting events. strong>HomoAmerican is a vividly-written biography that throws the reader directly into the emotional, intellectual, and physical life of a gay man growing up in homophobic times, told with vigor, charm, and heart." From IndieReader (January 22, 2020)