RIP Brother Blue

November 6, 2009 7:34 PM

From the middle of the middle of me, to the middle of the middle of you, RIP Brother Blue, master storyteller, deep soul extraordinaire.

Video:
Brother Blue does King Lear. (5 minutes)

Super BeLive! featuring Brother Blue, from Cambridge Community Access Television. (25 minutes)

posted by alms (20 comments total)

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Brother Blue. A fixture of Harvard Square. We'll miss you!
posted by ericb at 7:50 PM on November 6, 2009

Brother Blue was going to play King Lear in Peter Sellars' production at the Loeb Theater in 1979.
Due to sudden illness, Blue cancelled and Sellars played Lear. Many mourned Blue's absence, but that production was most memorable even without him. I'm sorry the world is forever without him now. Storytelling lives, I hope.
posted by emhutchinson at 8:00 PM on November 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh no! Childhood in Boston in the 1970s = Brother Blue.

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[pours a poem out on curb]
posted by tristeza at 8:13 PM on November 6, 2009

I remember him very fondly from my Boston years, 1977 to 1984. Living to age 88 ain't shabby, that's a good long life, but his passing is saddening, nonetheless... for me, it's another signal of the passing of time.

Rest in peace, Brother Blue.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:32 PM on November 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

He was 85 in the King Lear video linked above. Not shabby at all.
posted by alms at 8:38 PM on November 6, 2009

If you’ve spent time in Harvard Square in the past three decades or so

Rules ME out.
posted by HTuttle at 9:15 PM on November 6, 2009

You're a butterfly now, Brother.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 9:42 PM on November 6, 2009

Also, it occurs to me that I never heard you say a bad word about any other person. It strikes me now what a fucking rarity that was in that town. You even gave the crappiest of poets some benefit for their work.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 9:49 PM on November 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Story time in Heaven! I knew Blue in those same 1980s... as fine a performer and teacher as any I've met. Forward, Blue!
posted by zaelic at 9:58 PM on November 6, 2009

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I miss my home town.
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:00 PM on November 6, 2009

:(

I shall watch Knightriders tonite in his honor.

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posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:04 PM on November 6, 2009

I videotaped him around 1980, about an hour show on public access in Cambridge. The thing I remember most vividly was the utterly sweet relationship he had with his wife Ruth. I mean, here's this totally wild, flamboyant, sensitive storyteller, and she seemed the embodiment of well-organized, modest middle class sensibility, and they were so clearly in love and perfect for each other.
posted by msalt at 11:51 PM on November 6, 2009

He came to tell stories to my students and the other classes in our school just a few years ago. I'm glad I got to see him, and glad my students got to see him, as well.

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posted by Chanther at 4:19 AM on November 7, 2009

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posted by Smart Dalek at 4:28 AM on November 7, 2009

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posted by AwkwardPause at 6:22 AM on November 7, 2009

I rarely nostalge (like my new verb?) over my days on the mean streets of Harvard Square, but ok, Brother Blue, just this once.

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posted by fourcheesemac at 7:00 AM on November 7, 2009

Oh no!!!

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posted by mykescipark at 7:30 AM on November 7, 2009

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posted by sammyo at 7:32 PM on November 7, 2009

Bye bye Brother Blue. I didn't know you but oh do I miss you.
posted by chance at 6:21 PM on November 8, 2009

Boston Globe: Brother Blue’s story lives on for many -- "Mourners honor famed storyteller."
posted by ericb at 9:55 PM on November 9, 2009