Brontez Purnell

Brontez Purnell is a writer, musician, dancer, filmmaker, and performance artist. He is the author of a graphic novel, a novella, a children’s book, the novel Since I Laid My Burden Down (2017), and 100 Boyfriends (2021), a collection of stories. The recipient of a 2018 Whiting Award in fiction, he was named one of the 32 Black Male Writers of Our Time by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018. Purnell is also the front man for the band the Younger Lovers, a co-founder of the experimental dance group the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, the creator of the renowned cult zine Fag School, and the director of several short films, music videos, and the documentary Unstoppable Feat: The Dances of Ed Mock (2018). Born in Triana, Alabama, he has lived in Oakland, California, for more than two decades.